DVLDAT, are you serious that mini spools are heaps less harsh on your axels? i thought it just did exactly the same as a welded one but with no chance of splatter getting onto unwanted areas.
yes i have the 28 spline one......please explain more about this minispool not being so harsh on the axels cos i dont wanna break my custom axels there to expensive. haha

Elliott

if u have custom axels they should hold the power easy


mini spool's i was told give unlike the MIG locker, pending on what make as they have pinions in side which alow play forwards and backwards so when u turn it doesnt chew your tyre out,
correct me if i am wrong i was told that.

By custom axels i mean shortened, not billet steel or anything too fancy.

Can someone please verify this cos if true i'm 100% on the mini-spool.
thanks

mini spool is exactly like a welded centre.
It is a solid piece of metal that replaces the small gears in the diff. The axles go straight into it and are forced to turn at the same time. If a mini spool has play in it, the pin that holds it in place is very worn and will eventually fail.
For the price of a minispool, you might aswell weld the centre and be done with it. A mini spool is only really good for people like 1200rc that cant weld properly

id prefer open on the road, locked is awesome for drag/drift, extra traction and holding huge angles was easy

but for driving to work everyday and down the shops, welded is just plain annoying

all the usual comments are true
horrible noises
skipping/bouncing round corners
hard to reverse
its actually really hard to push the car too, specially around any sorta corner

never noticed any worse understeer though

Here is a quick description from the web on Spools and Minispools..

Spools & Mini Spools:
For racing, serious off-road, or crazy hot-rodders, a spool is the ultimate traction differential. Actually, it can hardly be called a differential because it does not differentiate. Spools have several purposes. First, they lock both left and right axles solid together so that there can be no loss of power due one wheel spinning faster than the other. Second, they usually support the ring gear much better than most other differentials. Last, they can be lighter than a differential, which saves rotating mass as well as un-sprung weight that the suspension has to contain.

The main shortcoming of spools is the fact that the outside wheel has to turn faster when negotiating a turn if both wheels are to maintain traction. If the axles are locked together, one or both wheels have to slip in order for the outside wheel to travel farther than the inside wheel. This can cause the rear of the vehicle to spin out, fish-tale, or can cause a lot of noise that sounds like positraction clutch chatter as the axles twist and release. Sometimes these effects are not all that bad, and they are less severe when 35-spline or larger axles are used. For those people on a budget, there are mini-spools available for many rearend designs. A mini-spool fits inside the standard open carrier, replacing the spider gears, and locking the left and right axle shafts together just like a spool does. A mini spool drives exactly like a full spool does, but they are not as strong as a full spool and do not add any extra support to the ring gear like a spool does.


Full article on description of different types of differentials can be found here.

cheers

Benny

1200rc r u serious there not that bad mate i dont no bout u but id rather put up with those tiny little things which realy dont bother me one bit then put up with a car that spins 1st to 4th with 1 wheel.

I found the open wheeler in my utes very dangerous as it would be spinning 1 wheel then hit third and all of a sudden cut 2 wheels and turn toward the cutter.

personal choice thats how i felt, i like my car to be nice, i hated the welded centre from the first time i reversed it outta the shed

but loved drifting with it, at the end of the day it was my road car though

im with NIS15L at least u can predict whats gona happen with locker open sux with boost,

also benifits of spool is that if u break a axel u only have 2 change one axel not both and centre as if u welded it all up all would have 2 be changed.
so will work out cheaper in long run

Quote:
Why would you need to replace both axles if only one was broken,surely its the same no matter what diff set up you have.