Ball diffs: why not in the front?

[El Mexican]

Ive read numerous threads in the TC forums of people recomending a ball diff for added speed and smoothness in the rear tranny of 4wd cars. Why not in the front?

Is there no substancial gain of the two caracteristics mentioned above by installing ball diffs in both front and rear gearboxes?

Thanks in advance for you responses.

[DJTheo]

4WDs suffer usually from chronical understeer [], so by putting a ball diff which is usually more "locked" than a normal one gives a bit more locking in the rear and you know that without a diff an axle tends to do a bigger turning radius, so in the rear it will make the car less understeer, more oversteer. Also biggest traction for acceleration out of a curve is on the rear axle and with a more locked diff you can transmit power also to the outside tire, you are not limited to the partially or fully unloaded inside tire.

You can also put a ball diff on the front, this will make the car again more understeering like withouth any, but will have better traction.

Cheers

[WillyChang]

Egress runs ball diffs at both ends.

Loosen the front one for more steering.

Tighten the front for a little loss in steering, but much better if you find your front inner wheel unloading in corners.

Front ball diffs are one thing, front one-ways are another. []

[El Mexican]

Thank you both for the great info! Cheers.

[retro]

Ball diffs are mechanically superior to gear diffs, at least in the world of radio controlled cars. There is no technical reason that I can think of why you would choose to run a gear diff in the front instead of a ball diff. You should bear in mind that ball diffs need more setting up and maintenance than gear diffs.

The reason why you often hear about just putting ball diffs in the rear of a car is because that is where they are most effective. As ball diffs are more expensive than gear diffs, just putting one in the rear means that you can have 70% of the benefit, but you only have to buy one.

In other words, if money is no object, fit ball diffs front and rear. If you are like the rest of us, just put one in the rear, it's almost as good.