Posi-traction
Printed From: Unofficial Allis
Category: Other Topics
Forum Name: Shops, Barns, Varmints, and Trucks
Forum Description: anything you want to talk about except politics
URL: https://www.allischalmers.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=157615
Printed Date: 04 Jun 2025 at 11:21am
Software Version: Web Wiz Forums 11.10 - http://www.webwizforums.com
Topic: Posi-traction
Posted By: Hubert (Ga)engine7
Subject: Posi-traction
Date Posted: 26 Jan 2019 at 9:17pm
|
Did the 89 2wd F250's come with a positive traction or limited slip differential? Mine only drives one wheel and will get stuck on wet grass. My 87 F150 drives both rear wheels and gets far better traction. Guess I need to look up the VIN and see what it is supposed to have. And NO, Shameless, I don't need a Chebby. ------------- Just an old country boy saved by the grace of God. |
Replies:
Posted By: LeonR2013
Date Posted: 26 Jan 2019 at 9:43pm
| Hubert, you could get it both ways. A limited slip is a two edged sword. While working good in mud, wet grass and the like, they're very dangerous on ice. They'll get you making dough nuts before you can spit, and the stiffer the suspension the worse the are. so how much ice driving do most of us do? Probably not a whole lot if we can avoid it. Mud, yes. |
Posted By: steve(ill)
Date Posted: 26 Jan 2019 at 9:47pm
|
there should be a sticker on the drivers door... there are several "codes" listed on the sticker... there is one called AXLE that has two digits or a letter and a digit.. that will tell you the axle ratio and if it is conventional or LS unit. I had a 89 F250 and it had a LS unit with a 4.11 gear ratio.
------------- Like them all, but love the "B"s. |
Posted By: thendrix
Date Posted: 26 Jan 2019 at 10:49pm
|
Hey Hubert, if you need an 86 F250 with the diesel let me know. I know a fella that has one. I see him every morning when I look in the mirror ------------- "Farming is a business that makes a Las Vegas craps table look like a regular paycheck" Ronald Reagan |
Posted By: shameless dude
Date Posted: 26 Jan 2019 at 11:21pm
| a buddy had one, he would gits stuck on a slight incline in dry gravel. he always had me come to pull his wagon loads of grain to what ever town he needed to go. one time I used a Malibu station wagon to pull his 300 bu wagon, he couldn't pull it with his ferd truck! took him years of embarrasement, but he don't buy ferds no more! |
Posted By: klinemar
Date Posted: 27 Jan 2019 at 4:44am
| My 95 F350 had a limited slip differential and would spin on wet grass until you put it in 4 wheel drive. I believe the suspension and brakes and the weight forward on F series trucks made them work that way on slippery surfaces. |
Posted By: steve(ill)
Date Posted: 27 Jan 2019 at 8:34am
|
any Truck with Limit Slip will not have the traction of a 4 x 4.. Don't matter who built the truck. Trucks by nature are light in the back end.. They are made to haul heavy loads. Put a ton of fire wood or gravel in the bed and you see a big difference... That being said, my 1989 F250 with LS rear end went a LOT of places a Conventional Rear Axle would not go... But not nearly as much as my 2013 F150 4 x 4. ------------- Like them all, but love the "B"s. |
Posted By: Thad in AR.
Date Posted: 27 Jan 2019 at 8:40am
| My 83 Ferd has Ls and leaves the driveway no problem and so does Jenn’s Jeep. My GMC won’t cross a wet cow turd without getting put in 4x4 and it’s hit or miss if the chatty 4x4 buttons will work or not. Oh and by the way google will lead you to hundreds of thousands of the GM trucks with the same problems as mine. |
Posted By: thendrix
Date Posted: 27 Jan 2019 at 8:48am
|
Those push button 4wd trucks are finicky. I had one and mine would go sometimes and not others. Wound up changing the servo motor in the transfer case and it worked right up until I traded. Pricey fix ------------- "Farming is a business that makes a Las Vegas craps table look like a regular paycheck" Ronald Reagan |
Posted By: Thad in AR.
Date Posted: 27 Jan 2019 at 9:06am
The last switch I bought from Napa. I can’t remember the name but it’s been a good’en and same with the Fuel pump. |
thendrix wrote:Posted By: DiyDave
Date Posted: 27 Jan 2019 at 9:16am
As noted, posi don't mean much if yer empty. just get you 20' stucker...
|
Posted By: Gordy
Date Posted: 27 Jan 2019 at 9:26am
|
My 01 silverado had that 4wd switch problem pulled it apart looked at the circuit bd with magnifier had cracked solder around pins resoldered no more trouble.
------------- “If you can't explain it simply, you don't understand it well enough” |
Posted By: Stan IL&TN
Date Posted: 27 Jan 2019 at 10:01am
|
I have one of those Chevys that will get stuck on wet grass. Only had to be pulled up a gravel driveway one time so I guess that's not bad for past 25 years. ------------- 1957 WD45 dad's first AC 1968 one-seventy 1956 F40 Ferguson |
Posted By: jaybmiller
Date Posted: 27 Jan 2019 at 10:15am
|
REAL men don't need fancy 4WD or LS.......  I used to drive my 67 stang FB all winter long and never got stuck...------------- 3 D-14s,A-C forklift, B-112 Kubota BX23S lil' TOOT( The Other Orange Tractor) Never burn your bridges, unless you can walk on water |
Posted By: Hubert (Ga)engine7
Date Posted: 27 Jan 2019 at 12:26pm
Tyler, thanks for the offer but I think I will stay with the '89. BIL gave it to me shortly before he passed so I don't have much invested in it. It stays at the farm and doesn't get used very much, but is nice to have around when I need to pull a trailer. I might check some junkyards and see if I can run across a used limited slip rear end cheap if I ever get caught up on my other projects. So far I have kept it out of places where I would get stuck. ------------- Just an old country boy saved by the grace of God. |
Posted By: steve(ill)
Date Posted: 27 Jan 2019 at 4:05pm
|
My 1989 F250 had the 351 and wide ratio ZF 5 speed manual... 2 wheel drive with LS unit.. You put 5-6000 pounds in the back end and drop it in LOW gear ( 6:1) with a 4:10 rear end and that thing would climb a tree...... Sure like the newer 4 x 4, but miss that old F250.
------------- Like them all, but love the "B"s. |
Posted By: Walker
Date Posted: 27 Jan 2019 at 4:57pm
| 4 wheel drive gets you 2 times stucker which only makes it 2 times harder to get unstuck because of all that extra stuckiness. |
Posted By: DMiller
Date Posted: 27 Jan 2019 at 5:02pm
| My 99 SD F250 FWD has a 7.3 auto in it, boat anchor dead weight in front end drives it into mud snow or sand like a nail. Tried wider tires just eats them up faster then the back end floats out, is as if needs duals on the Front!! |
Posted By: Walker
Date Posted: 27 Jan 2019 at 5:19pm
| Thinking back to my old rear engine VW beetle days with skinny tires that would go anywhere I'd question if you shouldn't have tried narrower tires. Not as much profit for tire companies but who cares. |
Posted By: jaybmiller
Date Posted: 27 Jan 2019 at 6:38pm
|
yes, tall ,skinny tires are far better than short, fat tires. I also had 300# steel in the back to offset the plow. Had 16" tall,skinnies on my CJ-5 and ,yup, could plow snow all day long, friend with same Jeep has fat( wide) 15" tires... got stuck a lot...the deal was a beer a pullout... I drank for free 1st winter.... ! ------------- 3 D-14s,A-C forklift, B-112 Kubota BX23S lil' TOOT( The Other Orange Tractor) Never burn your bridges, unless you can walk on water |
Posted By: cabinhollow
Date Posted: 27 Jan 2019 at 7:55pm
I had the same truck, but with a 460. Unless you had 2000+ lbs in the back, you did not need to put it in low. And not to far away, there is a steep/straight/1 1/2 mile long hill. 4000 lbs in the back, 55 at the bottom,5th gear and you could top it at 75-80. gears 1- are we moving 2- I can walk faster than this 3- finely at 30 mph 4- 55-65mph 5- just passed a vet and red line on the rpm's is still along way off. I would do that every chance I got. Open 4-lane, that fast car would come up beside my old beatup truck and I would pull just a few feet ahead and stay there. I would have to backoff around 90mph as the steering would start to get lose. My 2001 F250, 7.3, 6 speed, is a baby, to that truck. Even empty, you have to hit the bottom of that hill, at 65, to make the top at 55. |
Posted By: Ted J
Date Posted: 27 Jan 2019 at 8:02pm
|
WHY do they make a 1 wheel drive? My new (to me) Chevy Silverado doesn't have any LS either. In Wisconsin, that's not a good thing.... Dumbest thing I've ever seen. I too will be looking for a LS rearend. ------------- "Allis-Express" 19?? WC / 1941 C / 1952 CA / 1956 WD45 / 1957 WD45 / 1958 D-17 |
Posted By: Dusty MI
Date Posted: 27 Jan 2019 at 9:09pm
|
In about '76 or '77 I worked for a local heating contractor serving mostly home furnaces, most were oil fired. I was provided with a new Dodge van, slant six engine with a 3 speed stick transmission and snow tires. We had a lot of snow that winter. I've never driven a 2 wheel rear axel vehicle go in snow like that one did. Dusty ------------- 917 H, '48 G, '65 D-10 series III "Allis Express" |
Posted By: Tbone95
Date Posted: 28 Jan 2019 at 8:51am
| 1991, owned a 1990 Ford Probe GT, fat sport tires. Sweet car. Was on a job sight. Slight grassy grade down to the equipment. Lots of stuff to carry, so I drove down to it. Worked all morning, lunch time came and I drove off to lunch, no worries. Boss says dang son, if you're working on that mess down there, take the company Suburban to carry all the crap. OK. Damn thing wouldn't go up that grassy grade no matter what I tried! Sorry Shameless, back to even territory and then some! |
Posted By: klinemar
Date Posted: 28 Jan 2019 at 9:23am
| 1978 GMC 1ton 4x4 with 350 engine limited slip 4.56 axle . Could pull anything with 2 ends. Go anywhere but by a gas Station ! Probably the best truck I ever owned and cost $6,000 new! |
Posted By: CTuckerNWIL
Date Posted: 28 Jan 2019 at 11:54am
|
I bought my brothers old 2001 Ferd Ranger about 4 years ago. He got a good used maybe 2008 F150 4x4. He gets stuck in 10 inches of snow in a corn field and the Ranger will go about anywhere but around a corner in 4 wheel drive. He's not very happy about it. I used to ride to work with a fellow that bought a new 1978 F150 4x4 with a 300-6 and limited slip front diff and a traction lock rear. He ordered it that way. Not many pay any mind to what diff a truck has when they buy em, it seems. That thing didn't like turning in 4 wheel drive either, but would go thru some deep crap when needed. ------------- http://www.ae-ta.com" rel="nofollow - http://www.ae-ta.com Lena 1935 WC12xxx, Willie 1951 CA6xx Dad bought new, 1954WD45 PS, 1960 D17 NF |
Posted By: shameless dude
Date Posted: 28 Jan 2019 at 12:20pm
| the biggest thing now a days is that most people won't buy mud/snow tires. they think they can do both with the advertised "all season" tires. all they are...are street tread with the tread just a wee bit spaced, not enough. |
Posted By: Walker
Date Posted: 28 Jan 2019 at 12:45pm
| Gotta hand it to the Amish, don't pay no road tx then braze crushed carbide to the front of their horses shoes and go do more damage to a road than a fleet of cars. |
Posted By: chaskaduo
Date Posted: 28 Jan 2019 at 1:06pm
|
That's religious freedom. ------------- 1938 B, 79 Dynamark 11/36 6spd, 95 Weed-Eater 16hp, 2010 Bolens 14hp |
Posted By: Brian Jasper co. Ia
Date Posted: 28 Jan 2019 at 3:21pm
You can add a locking differential fairly easily to the existing axle. There's a type sometimes called a 'lunch box locker' made by Auburn Gear called the Max Lock. It installs inside the original carrier, you just pull the side and pinion gears out. There's no setup or special tools required. It's a bunch easier to do than replacing a complete axle assy that probably needs new clutch plates as well. It behaves like a Detroit Locker so sometimes it will clunk on turns.
------------- "Any man who thinks he can be happy and prosperous by letting the government take care of him better take a closer look at the American Indian." Henry Ford |
Posted By: HudCo
Date Posted: 28 Jan 2019 at 7:59pm
| lock rite is another good one will keep you locked up when going straight and ratchet when turning, very easy to install |
Posted By: Hubert (Ga)engine7
Date Posted: 28 Jan 2019 at 8:29pm
|
Brian, Thanks for the info, the Max Lock sounds like the way to go. The truck has less than 120K and a known good rear end and that package is less expensive that a used unknown quality rear end. ------------- Just an old country boy saved by the grace of God. |
Posted By: Tbone95
Date Posted: 29 Jan 2019 at 7:09am
To go back to chebbie bashing for just a minute Dad's 2009 2500 Sierra 4wd. Beast on pavement, don't even know 31ft trailer with slider is back there. Can't pull an empty gravity box in a field. Dang "chebbie's" fault!
|
Posted By: shameless dude
Date Posted: 29 Jan 2019 at 7:18am
| been pulling loaded grain wagons 150-350 bu ones loaded for over 30 years out of the fields with the following GM vehicles...1980 Chevy Malibu station wagon, 1978 Buick hearse, (only hearse I know of with a trailer hitch), 1954 Chevy 1/2 2-wd pickup, 1986 Chevy 1/2 4x4, 1987 Chev 1/2 ton 4x4 Suburban, 1997 GMC 1 ton 4x4 pickup, and a 1998 Chevy 3/4 ton 4x4 pickup. I still have all of those vehicles except the station wagon and the 1954 pickup, and they still run and drive. |
Posted By: Tbone95
Date Posted: 29 Jan 2019 at 7:21am
So? Pretty sure dad's Sierra has Cadillac tires on it.....like you mentioned.
|
Posted By: Tbone95
Date Posted: 29 Jan 2019 at 7:23am
|
I can pull a loaded grain wagon out of the field with the '92 F150 that WE still have. The same one where the GMC will spin out trying to turn the corner with it empty. So?
It means nothing.... |
Posted By: klinemar
Date Posted: 29 Jan 2019 at 10:35am
| One bad winter years ago a friend of mine who was Plant Manager at a local manufacturing business was going to work with his Cadillac Eldorado. He came upon a 4x4 pickup high centered on a snow drift. Keith ran his powered window down and asked the guy if he wanted a pull? The guy responded with your Caddy? Keith said yes and popped the trunk open got out and pulled a tug em strap from the trunk. He said here is your end hook it somewhere good. Keith had a Reese hitch on his Caddy and hooked the strap on there and proceeded to yank the 4x4 out of the drift! He also delivered a half ton of Hummer parts to Mishawaka Indiana where they built Hummers in that same Eldorado. It was a rush order and they could not get a truck so keith deliverd in the Caddy. He said he pulled up to the gate and asked the guard where to dropp the parts . the guard did not believe him until he popped the trunk and showed him it was full of parts ! |
Posted By: chaskaduo
Date Posted: 29 Jan 2019 at 11:37am
|
Shammers savin this for somethin special?  Maybe upgrade newer  Naw the old one is tried an tru.
 ------------- 1938 B, 79 Dynamark 11/36 6spd, 95 Weed-Eater 16hp, 2010 Bolens 14hp |
Posted By: Walker
Date Posted: 29 Jan 2019 at 1:04pm
| I think it was around mid 70's Chevy had a commercial that had a 4 wheel drive pickup pulling a 4 or 5 bottom plow. Don't know how truthful it was but it was always good for a laugh. |
Posted By: chaskaduo
Date Posted: 29 Jan 2019 at 3:11pm
|
Do you mean this one?  [TUBE]tnNSFzxgZys[/TUBE] Don't Forget [TUBE]EByMcmA9lGo[/TUBE] ------------- 1938 B, 79 Dynamark 11/36 6spd, 95 Weed-Eater 16hp, 2010 Bolens 14hp |
Posted By: steve(ill)
Date Posted: 29 Jan 2019 at 4:28pm
|
1 TON Dodge pulling a 2 bottom plow............ YEP... and a WD will do that ! LOL ------------- Like them all, but love the "B"s. |
Posted By: Walker
Date Posted: 29 Jan 2019 at 6:03pm
|
Posted By: klinemar
Date Posted: 29 Jan 2019 at 6:18pm
| I remember my dad telling after WW2 a friend of his bought a surplus Jeep and claimed it could do anything a tractor could do ! So dad invited him and his Jeep to come out and pull the 3 section drag for him. The Jeep pulled it 1 round of the field and then left as it got hot and was blowing blue smoke out the exhaust ! |
Posted By: Walker
Date Posted: 29 Jan 2019 at 6:45pm
| We used to pull a disk with an old Willis pick up. If the dust didn't kill ya bouncing off the roof would. |
Posted By: Tbone95
Date Posted: 30 Jan 2019 at 7:34am
|
That second field looks pretty pathetic! Neighbors just rake hay with their pickup.
|
Posted By: shameless dude
Date Posted: 30 Jan 2019 at 7:52am
| when I was in HS, I bought an old 2 bottom rope trip plow on steel at an auction. I was tired of the other farm kids telling how tough their trucks were. so I invited them to prove it! hooked each one up one at a time and put one guy in the back end to pull the rope. all of them except one fell dead in their tracks as soon as the plow went in the ground. out of all the different makes of trucks out there, an old ratty Dodge pulled it the farthest. I think that old plow is still around here. was only used for that. |
Posted By: CTuckerNWIL
Date Posted: 30 Jan 2019 at 9:23am
My brother had hay down that was ready to bale and the neighbor was ready to come bale it, but his only tractor was broke down. He said there were several rubber neckers that nearly ran off the road, trying to watch him rake hay with the old Chevy 4x4. ------------- http://www.ae-ta.com" rel="nofollow - http://www.ae-ta.com Lena 1935 WC12xxx, Willie 1951 CA6xx Dad bought new, 1954WD45 PS, 1960 D17 NF |
Posted By: Tbone95
Date Posted: 30 Jan 2019 at 9:40am
People like to pick apart the Nebraska tractor tests......because it's on pavement and isn't real world. The trouble with that line of thinking, is that once you go into "real world", there are countless variables. Somebody always has harder dirt, looser dirt, slipperier dirt, steeper hill, denser sod balls, greasy clay.......always something to be contended. Obviously it's virtually impossible to control every variable, somebody thinks they're a genius if they identify one, as if someone didn't already think of and account for it. That's the whole point of the NTTL tests, to control as much as possible and document the rest. Make your decisions from there. It isn't going to change your mind on what tractor to buy.....it provides information as to what you can expect pulling a certain load at what speeds and how much fuel you'll be burning when you do so. If you can live with that combination for the tractor you're looking at, go for it. Point is, once it comes down to Physics, the Physics don't have any idea what badge is hanging on the metal or what color it was painted. For pulling, it comes down to the weight applied over the traction area and the coefficient of that tractive/friction force for the materials in contact. Where the rubber meets the road as they say. Just saying, what pulls one thing for somebody somewhere sometime, can sometime not do worth a crap for somebody in some other case, and be out shined by something that sucked in the first scenario. |
Posted By: Tbone95
Date Posted: 30 Jan 2019 at 9:45am
| Was selling standing corn to a nearby town for October decorations one time. Guy in a huge chebbie 4x4 was spinning, getting stuck, couldn't back out of it....Woman in a Ford Explorer backed up to him, hooked on, pulled him on out. THAT was funny!!! |
Posted By: steve(ill)
Date Posted: 30 Jan 2019 at 3:35pm
|
what most trucks need is 1000 pounds in the back of the bed.... then they will pull. Like Tbone said, its getting the traction to the ground..... kind of like a tractor with a loader on it... you need WEIGHT in the BACK end. ------------- Like them all, but love the "B"s. |
Posted By: chaskaduo
Date Posted: 30 Jan 2019 at 4:31pm
For Desertjoe https://www.chevytalk.org/fusionbb/showtopic.php?tid/320194/" rel="nofollow - https://www.chevytalk.org/fusionbb/showtopic.php?tid/320194/ Info on 57 with plow. For Shammers No info  ------------- 1938 B, 79 Dynamark 11/36 6spd, 95 Weed-Eater 16hp, 2010 Bolens 14hp |
Posted By: LouSWPA
Date Posted: 30 Jan 2019 at 6:44pm
|
Hubert, see what you started! LOL ------------- I am still confident of this; I will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. Wait for the Lord; be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord. Ps 27 |
Posted By: Hubert (Ga)engine7
Date Posted: 30 Jan 2019 at 8:30pm
|
Wife says I’m good at stirring the pot. LOL ------------- Just an old country boy saved by the grace of God. |
Posted By: shameless dude
Date Posted: 30 Jan 2019 at 11:29pm
| one local business had a 2 wh drive pickup that they used to plow snow off their lot every year, they just loaded the back end with a lot of snow for weight, it worked just like the others with the 4x4's. I had a snow blade on the front of one of my conversion vans one year, got a lot of looks, but it didn't work for chit! |
Posted By: chaskaduo
Date Posted: 31 Jan 2019 at 12:10am
|
Shoulda filled the inside up with snow. ------------- 1938 B, 79 Dynamark 11/36 6spd, 95 Weed-Eater 16hp, 2010 Bolens 14hp |
Posted By: Tbone95
Date Posted: 31 Jan 2019 at 7:33am
When a buddy of mine was in college, they strapped a beer pong table to the front of a Ford Focus, and ran a rope back into each window so they could angle the blade either side. Cleaned out the driveway to their house with it. Where there's a will there's a way! A truck with weight in the back and good tires will do a LOT. Don't use suitcase weights though.....when you slam on the brakes to avoid a deer, bad things happen. Ask me how I know. A worse situation and the flying weights could have been very dangerous. I switched to sandbags after that. The neighbor is a veterinarian. He did his "residency" in Montana in the late 70's. He said they used to build up a few inches of ice in the back of the trucks, then put the vet service unit in on top of that. 2 wd truck would go a lot of places with that rig.
|
Posted By: shameless dude
Date Posted: 31 Jan 2019 at 12:12pm
| I was raking hay on day with the 180, then saw steam blasting outta the breather tube, shut it down right away, the baler man was coming in a couple hours and I didn't have another tractor handy, soooooo….I finished the field pulling the rake with the hearse. the baler man came early and saw what I was doing...he just stopped and starred, when I got done and met up with him...he didn't say a word! he just started in baling! LOL (it worked o-k, was inside with air conditioning and my but on leather seats, and the stereo was cranking out!) |
Posted By: Tbone95
Date Posted: 31 Jan 2019 at 12:27pm
|
Now that's a sight! If only you could combine with that hearse. You would literally be the Grim Reaper!
|
Posted By: chaskaduo
Date Posted: 31 Jan 2019 at 1:26pm
|
------------- 1938 B, 79 Dynamark 11/36 6spd, 95 Weed-Eater 16hp, 2010 Bolens 14hp |
Posted By: Ted J
Date Posted: 02 Feb 2019 at 12:35am
 ------------- "Allis-Express" 19?? WC / 1941 C / 1952 CA / 1956 WD45 / 1957 WD45 / 1958 D-17 |