[tanshi]

there is a guy with a rover up here in QLD that has self built traction control.
it can be done, but its more a case of because he could, than because he needed it.

[Fatzook]

I'm finding this discussion to be slightly misleading. Having independant control over individual brakes, and a "diff lock", are two VERY different things.

Cutting brakes enhance manuverability. They are not a traction aid. ( well, not in the same sence as a diff lock is. ) A diff lock assures transverse drive to wheels. Cutting brakes do the opposite, by locking out drive to a particular wheel.

I fail to see how cutting brakes would be more desirable than a diff lock. And I say this because most places that may require the use of cutting brakes, would need a diff lock to get you there first.

[royce]

droverdave wrote:

Meh ignore the pesimists. Give it a go eh.

Even if it costs you a bit, the academic excercise in getting it to work would be pretty enjoyable i would think.

I like the look of that dual level dual piston arrangement above. Would you ever want to lock both wheels at same time?

As what about if you got 2 master cylindres, mounted them facing each other, and used 1 lever to control both of them? push it one way and it locks the left wheel, push it the other way and it locks the other way. might have to think up somethign tricky so that you dont pull them too far in the wrong direction (ie pulling the piston out of the bore)

If you are running rear disc brakes, you could attach another caliper to each rear disc purely for this contraption. they do this kind of thing all the time on the drift cars for their hydraulic handbrakes, so they are seperate from the normal brakes.

We arent pesimists dude, we are people have been doing this shit for years and years and have seen it tried before and know how it all ends up.

Its been a trick for a million years that when you are having single wheel traction problems to pulse the brakes or handbrake at the same time to push a bit of drive over to the wheel with traction, it works once in several attempts.

Likewise a sneaky open diff class comp trick is to pull the handbrake on a bit to stop one wheel getting away.

Seriously youll gain more distance doing it how its been done for years and years and years, good line, careful throttle contrlol and a bit of track building where needed, A good driver in an open diffed 4wd will always get further than one with all the gizmos and no experience.

/End broken record

[tanshi]

Left foot braking for the win.
Worked alot for us in comps, but caused havok with diff centres and axles.

[SierraDan]

tanshi wrote:

Left foot braking for the win.
Worked alot for us in comps, but caused havok with diff centres and axles.

x2 When I had gears and no lockers, left foot braking got me further than I would have expected.
But, the zook didn't appreciate it too much.. As good as it was, there's nothing like a 100% locked diff of any variant.

[droverdave]

royce wrote:

We arent pesimists dude, .......

I know what you are saying and i tend to agree. In all problems there is the "best" solution, and there are always those alternative methods that histroy sais arent as good. But you gotta be careful that just becuase there is the best solution, that you dont try other solutions. As how else do you come up with new solutions?

I dunno perhaps its my engineering mind, but i just like giving things a go to see how they are for myself. Perhaps they can be improved in a way that knowone thought of, or may lead to a new idea that noone ever thought of. If you get half way thorugh, and the idea sucks, then well you probably learnt something along the way trying, and you can use that knowledge on your next idea.

Though i will concede, that having 2 additional levers to attempt to operate would be quite difficult......and if you have the cash, just get a fancy diff.

[sideways]

When I said it's useful on old tractors....

You're sitting in between 2 ginormous wheels that are moving very slowly, it's very easy to see a difference in wheel speed and correct it before it gets worse. It's very easy to be a human form of traction control when you've got such great input. Obviously, you don't lift back wheels on a tractor so getting cross axled ect is irrelevant. Tractors have them for added maneuverability anyway.

I'm all for having every offroad mod you can, cutting brakes, digs, 2wd low ect are all useful, but only useful for very specific things. They aren't big capability adders. To say that cutting brakes could be as good as lockers is laughable.

On my LJ81 the front passengers brake works much better than the others (well, it works...). I tried to use it like a cutting brake, by holding my left foot on the brake but I never really got anything out of it, it was to hard to time right and the midget motor doesn't have enough torque to pull off sustained big sudden changes in load. You'd need lot of skill and to know the feel of your vehicle inside out to get any real beneficent out of them IMO. I found pumping the brakes like you normally would worked 23908x better, but it's also pretty good for finding weak points in your driveline.

Left foot braking is the ticket on unlocked vechicles, it's certainly saved my arse before!

Diff locks are the best mod I've ever done. For $250 and an arvo of work to fit they're by far the best value for money mod you can get. You can't see diff locks, hence most people leaving them as the last mod. Lets face it, everyone wants to look fully sik.

[royce]

droverdave wrote:

royce wrote:

We arent pesimists dude, .......

I know what you are saying and i tend to agree. In all problems there is the "best" solution, and there are always those alternative methods that histroy sais arent as good. But you gotta be careful that just becuase there is the best solution, that you dont try other solutions. As how else do you come up with new solutions?

I dunno perhaps its my engineering mind, but i just like giving things a go to see how they are for myself. Perhaps they can be improved in a way that knowone thought of, or may lead to a new idea that noone ever thought of. If you get half way thorugh, and the idea sucks, then well you probably learnt something along the way trying, and you can use that knowledge on your next idea.

Though i will concede, that having 2 additional levers to attempt to operate would be quite difficult......

Or, as is the whole point of a forum, ask about an idea, listen to the people saying nah dont reinvent the wheel and go on to think up another idea, less waste of time, more chance of advancing everybodies knowledge and abilities

[steve]

I have cutting brakes in the sierra, worked pretty well when you want to do techincal kind of stuff like front dig turns etc, but after a while you can't be bothered.

It proved to be more fun at speed down a dirt track and locking one wheel and turn suddenly and everyone would laugh

[dougies_tx5turbo]

Here you go it been done and it look like a good right up hope this helps
http://translate.googleusercontent.com/ ... 76azQ_seLA

[DarkHorse]

^^^except that he's locked the levers together, which pretty much defeats the purpose, doesn't it?

[dougies_tx5turbo]

DarkHorse wrote:

^^^except that he's locked the levers together, which pretty much defeats the purpose, doesn't it?

I'm not to sure why he's done that, I think he's done it for daily driving.
But even then you really don't need to lock the leavers together to do a hill start or to use a handbrake,
One wheel is efficient to hold the car for a couple of seconds.

[DarkHorse]

Just took the time to read and understand some of the Google Spanglish - the pairing adaptor is for road, removable when offroad.

As you were.

[kenn]

Heard of left foot braking?