Differential options

[reubj]

I want to improve my MJ traction. Presently I have a Dana 30 with disconnect in the front and Dana 35 in the rear. Most of my driving is on the pavement. I go off-road during hunting season; snow and mud. No hard core wheeling. I’m not interested in axle swapping. I’d like you suggestions as to how to improve traction. Limited slip or locker, front, rear, both? Which brands?

Thanks in advance

[Incommando]

Cheapest/easiest: rear locker. Probably best for your app: trueTrac rear diff

[Eagle]

Cheapest/easiest: rear locker. Probably best for your app: trueTrac rear diff

True Trac is best, but it's about 50% more expensive than a Dana Trac-Lok, which is what the factory used for limited slips.

 

Since most of your driving is on pavement, a lunchbox locker is not the optimal solution. If you can afford the True Trac, go for it. I have one and it's excellent. I also have Trac-Loks in three XJs and an MJ and it gets the job done, too.

[Pete M]

as easy as it is to swap in a lunchbox locker, I'd swap it in in the fall and remove it come springtime if it really gets annoying.  :D  not optimal, but probably the cheapest.  could do the same for the front for max traction! :yes:

[Crash]

For snow, some kind of LSD in the front is your best bet. Unless you go with something like an ECTED, which is LSD until you flip a switch, then it's locked. 

Driving properly with a lunchbox locker in the rear is just fine on road. Pick up a lokka locker or some kind of insert locker. No point in spending TONS of money on a D35, honestly. 

[Incommando]

It may not be for everybody but I have daily driven locked rear axle vehicles year round on dry pavement, rain, ice, & snow from flurries to feet, and it never has been an issue. Locked vs LSD is no bigger jump in characteristics then open vs LSD IMHO. I put over 100,000 miles on a 6-speed KJ with an Aussie while my buddies wife drove an auto KJ with a No-Slip for 10 years and 160k as a dd and she never commented on it being there. And she is the classic housewife type and not adventurous at all. I am a big Aussie fan that is made in the US of US steel over the Chinese-made Lokka.