My G80 Locker Saved my Butt Last Night

Imcrazy · March 31, 2019

We had an unexpected snow storm in NE Ohio last night that had to be the absolute worst road conditions I’ve ever encountered in almost 20 years of driving. We we're visiting some friends who live about 20 minutes away (in good weather) and didn't really expect this kinda snow... It had rained all day and turned to snow so the roads were straight up ice covered in 5" of snow and had not been touched by a plow or salt... We took off and I was barely able to hold the road at 35 mph in 4 high, the closer we got to home the worse it got (we live in a hilly area of Medina County) I was behind a late 90's Ram 4x4 who clearly didn't have a locking rear end when we started up a roughly 5% grade it became clear he wasn't going to make it up as his rear end started to go sideways and he came to a stop, I pulled around him and worried about the steeper grades I knew I had in the next couple of miles to get home... My 2016 has the G80 Eaton locker and I'm running Cooper ATP A/T M/S ties with about 20k miles on them and the truck barely skipped a beat, we passed two cars in the ditch on a really icy stretch and I got just a tiny bit of rear end stepping out at 20mph but, T/C kicked in and I downs shifted and we made the rest of the 1/2 mile ride home from there at 10 mph... In conclusion I was pretty pleased but, I may consider dedicated winter tires next year.... The G80 is what saved my butt though, I am sure we would have got stuck with ole Ram on the icy hill without it...

Edited March 31, 2019 by Imcrazy

diyer2 · March 31, 2019

Some of the bashing this rear end gets I don't get.

The road to our place has some step grades and an inch of snow means 4 Hi to get in or out.

I don't have any weight in the bed so that hurts.

I have Cooper Starfire tires, more of a highway tire but no problems.

Imcrazy · March 31, 2019

12 minutes ago, diyer2 said:

Some of the bashing this rear end gets I don't get.

The road to our place has some step grades and an inch of snow means 4 Hi to get in or out.

I don't have any weight in the bed so that hurts.

I have Cooper Starfire tires, more of a highway tire but no problems.

Between the truck I have now that has 66k miles on the ODO and the 2014 I had before that which I put 32k miles on I've run nearly 100k on a G80 rear end and I've never been disappointed in the G80 in either truck... I ran highway tires on my 2014 General Grabbers...

Edited March 31, 2019 by Imcrazy

diyer2 · March 31, 2019

I forgot my Starfires are M&S rated.

j-ten-ner · March 31, 2019

I think that the G80 is a great feature.

It's there when needed and I don't have to push buttons. It's simply doing its job.

I'm going to lean out of the window a little and say that most of the bashing is coming from guys who love burnouts and full throttle get ups on dry pavement.

so long

j-ten-ner

Edited March 31, 2019 by j-ten-ner

Imcrazy · March 31, 2019

Just now, j-ten-ner said:

I think that the G80 is a great feature.

It's there when needed and I don't have to push buttons. It's simply doing its job.

I'm going to lean out of the window a little and say that most of the bashing is coming from guys who love burnouts and full throttle get ups on dry pavement.

so long

j-ten-ner

I agree... I don't baby my truck but, I understand that the G80 is not a rear end designed to be driven like an LSD in a Camaro..

SierraHD17 · March 31, 2019

Unless you dropped below the 20 mph mark the G80 would have never engaged and it was your tires and T/C saving you butt. Anything above that it can't and will not engage... For slow speeds it locks and that's it. Could even be why your truck sidestepped at around 20 mph or slower as it would have finally been able to engage and lock both tires. I prefer my Detroit Lockers.... not fragile and is always ready for slippery stuff.

Good thing you made it though!

Edited March 31, 2019 by SierraHD17

Imcrazy · March 31, 2019

3 hours ago, SierraHD17 said:

Unless you dropped below the 20 mph mark the G80 would have never engaged and it was your tires and T/C saving you butt. Anything above that it can't and will not engage... For slow speeds it locks and that's it. Could even be why your truck sidestepped at around 20 mph or slower as it would have finally been able to engage and lock both tires. I prefer my Detroit Lockers.... not fragile and is always ready for slippery stuff.

Good thing you made it though!

I had to stop and start quite a few times but, yeah the TC and 4x4 deserve quite a bit of credit too..