I have to admit I am ignorant when it comes to cars. I currently have a 2WD Tacoma and I am hoping to upgrade to a 4WD Tacoma soon. I need the 4WD to tow my boat. Looking at the new Tacomas, I noticed that the SR5 and the Sport has the Limited slip differential and the TRD has the locking rear differential. I tried reading up on both but it just confuses me more so I am hoping someone here can help. Which rear differential should I get? The truck will primary be my daily commuter and used only for towing about 2-3 times a month. Most of the boat launches I go to are paved but I would like to also launch at a few unpaved launches. Thanks in advance.
You do NOT want a locking diff for towing. Any LSD will be an improvement, I'm partial to gear-driven LSD units like the Detroit Truetrac because they are stronger than clutch driven LSDs and do not 'fade' (clutch plates wear out). You will have a lot of weight on the rear axle with a load- you need one wheel to spin faster than the other if you are making a tight turn. If you have the locker ON at the same time, you'd be putting a lot of stress on your differential and axle shafts. LSD would allow for some slippage to compensate on a tight turn while being helpful traction-wise.
I disagree, you want the locker over the LSD. I believe that the Tacomas have an "electric locker". There is a switch on the instrument panel that allows you to engage or disengage when you want to. I seem to remember that from the factory they have it wired so that you need to be in 4LO and under something like 5MPH to engage. On the older ones (I am not that familiar with the new Tacomas) you could rewire it slightly such that it is controlled directly from the switch without 4LO or speed interlocks.
Having said all of that, I have the LSD in my Tundra. I tow a 4000ish pound boat and have never needed 4wd to get my boat out. I use concrete ramps, but they are usually slippery with mud, gravel, etc.
Let's say he's backing in on a tight turn and he's got a locking differential (and it's on). Both axle shafts will only move at the same rate. He's got several thousand pounds sitting on the axle now, too. If the tire does not want to give a little as he's moving (one side wants to move faster than the other- he's turning in an arc), that stress is going to be transfered somewhere else. Without any load, the tire would just hop a little, but now he's got tons of weight from the trailer and it might be too much traction to allow for any of the hop to compensate.
When it comes to towing, you would much rather have a wheel spin than have a drivetrain part break. When off-road, I always turn OFF my front locker when making tight turns to avoid the stress a locker adds and only run the rear when I know I need it.
Lockers are really made for when you get ZERO traction on one wheel. Whether it's because you're perched on a rock and the tire is in the air or you're in a deep mud hole, that's when you want a fully locked differential.
Do you see towing packages from any manufacturer come with locking differentials? Nope. They all offer LSD, if anything.
Thanks for all the help so far but I have more questions. On the TRD, can one manually turn off the locker or its it controlled by a computer? If one can turn it off, does it then perform like the LSD?
In my experience LSD's are close to worthless for extra traction. I had a '95 Tacoma with an open diff, and a '00 Xterra with an LSD in the past. I could not tell the difference between the two when off road or any other time.
My '04 Tacoma had the TRD electric locker and it made a huge difference (obviously). You will hardly ever need to use the locker anyway. I'm not sure why anyone would back a boat into the water with a locker engaged. If at some point 4wd is not enough to get your boat out, and you needed the locker I believe that you would be fine to use it. You should be able to pull the boat straight out of the water at most boat ramps without making any turns with the truck. If you need to make turn simply disengage the locker. As mentioned above stress is put on a locked axle when turning, not so much when driving in a straight line.
Before I purchased my '06 Tundra I did some research on the 2nd gen Tacoma’s. There was some talk on TTORA regarding '05 and newer Tacos having some rear diff failures, and I think all the failures happened to be the TRD locker equipped versions. You may want to do some searching on that forum before you buy.
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2007 Chevy LT1 2500HD Duramax Classic 4wd Crew 6ft Bed
2006 Tundra TRD AC Silver - Traded In
Thanks for all the help so far but I have more questions. On the TRD, can one manually turn off the locker or its it controlled by a computer? If one can turn it off, does it then perform like the LSD?
The locker on both generation Tacoma's are controlled by you via a switch on the dash. I can't remember for sure but I think that the TRD lockers are open diffs when not locked. If you look on Toyota's website you should be able to find out, or search this site or TTORA.
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2007 Chevy LT1 2500HD Duramax Classic 4wd Crew 6ft Bed
2006 Tundra TRD AC Silver - Traded In
Do you see towing packages from any manufacturer come with locking differentials? Nope. They all offer LSD, if anything.
I know GM/Chevrolet offer an automatic locker, made by Eaton. I saw a segment on Motorweek TV about this system. It's quite impressive.
Like I said I have the factory LSD, and don't have anything negative to say about it. In fact I find that I use 4wd a whole lot less with this truck than with previous open-diff equipped 4wd Toyotas. I would rather have the locker if it was available. The LSD clutches will eventually wear out and require a rebuild. Also, the LSD will produce very scary handling on ice if you're not really paying attention, trust me I know. The locker is only engaged when you engage it. It's no different than 4wd, you shouldn't be using it when trying to manouver on high traction surfaces. In your example of backing in a tight turn, the LSD should be OFF! The way you would use this is, pull your boat up the ramp in 2wd, locker off. If you encounter excessive wheel spin, select 4HI until you get moving then go back to 2WD. If you need even more traction use the locker, again only until you get moving. Splashwerks doesn't say what transmission he was considering, I always used to extract my boat using 4lo, when I had manual transmission. This way you can let the truck crawl up the ramp very slowly, without riding the clutch and you have lots of traction. I would shift back to 2wd (Hi range obviously) once moving and before having to turn.
You guys are great! I learned a lot from reading your replies. It sounds like going from a 2wd to a 4wd itself will give me all the benefits that I'll need. I like the options that comes with the TRD package so that will probably be what I select.
I do however have another question. It'll probably be overkill for how I plan to use the truck, but what is your opinion on the Vehicle Stability Control w/DAC?
which differential for towing? Please help.
Linear Mode
