Again, depending on the engineering how relevant to Ineos but Ian Ashcroft's (a well respected transmission builder in Landrover circles) advise on the topic:
I use them in the rear and center in both Defenders. In the center not for the Torsen as such but more to get rid of another maintenance task. This and a stiffer shaft jack did it for the LT230.
If I am going over a mountain pass with heavy snow on the paved road, then does locking the center diff makes sense? There is no pavement to be seen just snow and speed is around 35mph. Also, are we able to lock the center diff on the fly in high?
Yes but if they used an air locker they would have exactly the same functions
You have to be in neutral to lock the centre diff
Assuming your comment is not talking about front and rear lockers, then surely that's not right? Most (or should I say all) vehicles can lock the centre diff in high on the fly up to about 100km/hr. That's a huge downside in my view, particularly in sand.
I agree - this is rather unusual, and not quite on par with the competition. Locking the center diff is equivalent to shifting from 2-hi to 4-hi, and all modern 4x4s allow this on the fly up to roughly 50 or 60 mph (depending on vehicle manufacturer). In older 4x4s, you had to come to a stop, get out and manually lock the front hubs, and then shift the transfer case lever from 2-hi to 4-hi; if your hubs were locked in advance, you still had to come to a stop to shift the transfer case.
They state it many times you have to be in neutral to lock the centre diff
I think the disadvantage is under a circumstance he described: you are driving on a snowy road and all seems fine driving with the center diff unlocked (in the Grenadier, you are essentially in all-wheel drive in this mode, which should be good enough for most low-traction on-road situations), but then conditions begin to deteriorate, and you want to lock the center diff to get into true 4-wheel drive, but you don't want to come to a stop first. In my older 4x4s I faced a similar problem quite regularly, and you had to find a safe place to pull over to get into 4-wheel drive - not always safe or easy during a snow storm with limited visibility or on a highway with no shoulder or exits close by. And even if there is a shoulder to pull onto, there is a big concern that you will get rear-ended if you stop on the shoulder (poor visibility during a snow storm, and a driver just sees your tail lights, and thinks you are in the forward moving lane in front of them; they think they are following your lights, but they plow into your stopped vehicle at full speed).
Have you ever driven a constant 4wd in sand Dave. The only time the centre diff is locked is when it starts to get a lot soft, otherwise it's just like driving on the road in a constant 4wd (like the IG). For example on a week long trip to Fraser Island traveling the entire island I reckon I'll have the cruiser centre diff locked for about half an hour tops - across the cuttings and across Ngkala Rocks. Maybe longer on some of the inland tracks. Even most cuttings are done without the CD locked, but there are times when it's a good idea to engage it if it's looking a bit soft up ahead or the inland tracks get a bit gnarly. If you have to stop to do that I can imagine there are times when that could get messy.
Hmmmm, welcome to the 1970’s.
In theory, I could be going 35, switch to neutral, lock the diff, and put it back in drive.
