My take on LSD vs non-LSD on ice.
Without LSD you don't move. With LSD, you move, and it will likely be sideways. But the 360 other days of the year, LSD is a no-brainer. Get it. It doesn't hurt. The issue isn't with LSD, its with ice. Ice just sucks.
A related story. My Impala SS had a wasted Auburn-style factory LSD so it acted like an open diff. I had to call AAA to tow me one foot one night. The back right tire was on ice and the back left tire was on dry pavement. Couldn't move a single inch on my summer-only Pirellis. I tried sand and even tried jamming some old windshield wiper refills under them. The truck hooked up a cable and pulled me one foot and I was good.
With LSD I never would have even known there was ice. Without it, I had to call for a tow at midnight.
Get the LSD. The more tires that see traction will always be better on slippery conditions. If it is so icy that you are having trouble with LSD, a non-LSD won't help. The proper solution there is to just stay off the roads.
My current F150 4x4 has an LSD rear. I think I've had it in 4wd 10 times in three years, and 4 of those were off-roading.
In reply to Curtis :
Same issue. our truck came with an open diff. One icy night the wife got the truck stuck in the middle of the road in front of our house. one wheel broke loose, made an ice divit and was stuck.
SkinnyG
SuperDork
3/14/18 10:22 a.m.
I put a Detroit TrueTrac in my daily driver 2wd pickup, because we get more of an ice issue where I am in Canada rather than snow (I felt the helical diff would be most forgiving on ice). Having done three winters with it now, I absolutely LOVE it, and would put one in every daily driver, no question.
In reply to frenchyd :
this year has been light on the snow, but the cold just won't go the hell away. I don't do 4wd trucks, so maybe that is the difference we're seeing? No idea. But there's no way I'd go back to an open diff again.
The emergency/parking brake will sometimes work with one wheel spin.
4 door, 4wd nissan frontier.
In reply to Bob the REAL oil guy. :
OK. Fair enough. I agree traction on two wheels is much better than traction on one. Plus in snow conditions with two wheel drive. You are likely going slow enough that the hunting of a limited slip/ positraction rear end isn’t detectable under the conditions I’m talking about.
I can tell you the locker on the 78 makes it useless in snow/ice. It was stuck in the yard on 3" of snow. Good thing that one will never drive in the stuff if I have any say so.
In reply to SkinnyG :
OK to clarify why I was talking about with Bob was first a layer of Ice covered with snow driving a 4X4 on the freeway.
At normal freeway speed limits a limited slip/positraction rear differential will hunt which wheel to provide traction to causing it to fishtail and leading to either the driver slowing down or spinning out.
A 4x4 with an open differential will not hunt and thus allowing a faster rate of travel ( speed)
On a frozen lake with a snowfall on top of it it’s easy to experience the difference
I realize that intuitively seems wrong. But stop to think about it. If you had an AWD car would you want a limited slip differential in both sets of axles? OK maybe on a race track where there is plenty of traction but in icy conditions? Remember in a corner the front wheels have to turn at a different speed.
Our Grand Vitara was an LSD front axle and an open rear. Even with it's super short wheel base (made awesome stomach chirning donuts!) it was never sketchy feeling.
My issue here, why are you going normal freeway speeds on snow covered ice? Sure, you can go but you still can't stop. Maybe that's why I love 2wd in winter, it's areminder that you can go as fast as you want, but you still can't stop and you just adjust for the conditions.
If it is a pickup you need then may I suggest th EMG 57/66 set. Granted, it is actually two pickups, but golly are they good.
In reply to frenchyd :
I can dig the highway argument with LSD. Stab the throttle with LSD on an icy highway and it's time to meet the guardrail. Stab it with an open diff and you likely stay straight but spin one wheel.
Now I want some LSD.
You guys are like drug pushers. TOO MUCH PEER PRESSURE
In reply to Curtis :
Interesting enough, if its slick enough, the open diff will still send you looking for the guardrail. Been there, done that, have the skid marks in ths shorts to prove it. 6 years ago picking up a TV for a friend on our way home in the middle of an ice storm, getting onto I-65 at Lafayette. Onramp merges on top of an overpass. easing up to speed and about 40mph the ass end starts coming around. Luckily, at almost 20' long it's a slow motion and stupid easy to catch, but 4 people in the cab needed new shorts. That was long before the Yukon LSD.
In reply to Bob the REAL oil guy. :
Bob. I live in West Michigan. Snow/Ice doesn't change the highway speed too much. That's pretty much the norm. I will drive in the snow covered lane over the more traveled packed down/ice lane.
Snow tires do wonders in snow, not ice.
I drove across Wisconsin one day after a snow. As a Canadian, all I can say is you guys suck as winter drivers, LSD or not. I've never seen so many vehicles upside down, or stuffed into a bush on the side of the highway on my life. It was amazing.
And Frenchy, your story of how LSD works helps explain why.
In reply to Streetwiseguy :
If it snows up here in the Northern Tundra. Those aren’t drivers from Minnesota or Wisconsin. They fly in drivers from Hawaii special. And not just any drivers either.
Oh no! We get the retirees, short ones. The kind who can’t see over the steering wheel but have to look through it! The ones on their way to Bingo because their social security check doesn’t arrive until next Thursday.
ps I think a good number of them may have fortified themselves with the cooking sherry before venturing out.
Ian F
MegaDork
3/15/18 7:46 a.m.
barefootskater said:
If it is a pickup you need then may I suggest th EMG 57/66 set. Granted, it is actually two pickups, but golly are they good.
Nah... 81/60 combo. 
It's amazing how people turn into moron drivers (more so than normal) when a bit of snow and ice cover the roads.
"I don't understand how I crashed - my car has AWD??"
"Well... because AWD doesn't allow you to break the laws of physics..."
(blank stare...)
Bob the REAL oil guy. said:
Our Grand Vitara was an LSD front axle and an open rear. Even with it's super short wheel base (made awesome stomach chirning donuts!) it was never sketchy feeling.
My issue here, why are you going normal freeway speeds on snow covered ice? Sure, you can go but you still can't stop. Maybe that's why I love 2wd in winter, it's areminder that you can go as fast as you want, but you still can't stop and you just adjust for the conditions.
You’d think that going the speed limit would be inclined to produce accidents? Well not true. It’s been more than 4 decades since my last accident which happened in July when the lady slammed on her brakes a moment after taking off like a rocket at the green light.
Yes you can stop on snow / ice and rather quickly too if you know what you are doing. You need to keep your head up and look ahead plenty. What you can’t do is tailgate or put yourself in a no-win situation.
Come up and watch some ice racing, you’ll see what I mean!!!
A ridge line. You want a ridgeline.
What yall should be recommending is moving. Who the berkeley wants to live with such weather!?
Back to the topic... 
Any of the above suggestions will do well for you as a truck. 4x4, LSD, paint color, price... that's up to you.
Fords are great. Chevys are 95% as good. Dodges suck in my opinion, unless you like rust, terrible ride quality, and rattles and buzzes.
Toyota and Nissan make very fine full size trucks. The Nissan has a few more foibles, but it is one heck of a nice truck to ride in. The Honda Ridgeline is not on MY radar but it might be on yours. It is a unibody truck and that (to me) is like Jumbo Shrimp. Admittedly, I own a truck because I need a beefy tow rig with some payload capacity and others may not, but the Ridgeline epitomizes the poser truck market; people who want a truck to haul a couch once every 6 years, but also want an Accord. Not that it doesn't have its place... maybe you are that exact market segment.
The thing about the imports (not quite as much the Ridgeline) is that they hold their value. I had narrowed down my search to F150 and Tundra. For the $4500 I spent on my F150 with 98,000 miles, I would have had to settle for a Tundra with twice the mileage. So if you're buying closer to new, the Imports will have less depreciation. If you're buying a few years used, the Americans will be 90% as much truck for about 60% the price since they already took the depreciation hit.
The ridglelines weren't really on my radar, but I might have to take another look.
It would be interesting to see what the new gen models are going for at auction.
In reply to Curtis :
Depreciation only effects you if you want to sell your truck with some life still in it.
Some of us recognize that we will have transportation needs the rest of our lives. So we buy something really good that perfectly fits or will adapt to our current and future needs.
If you ever worked at a car dealership you’d understand that they buy the trade in as cheap as possible and resell it for as much as possible.
New on the other hand they have an unlimited supply of. Those they are willing to sell for only a little over cost. Heck in some cases we sold below costs. ( honestly)! The factory offers incentives to do so. For example if the dealership sells 30 of a certain model in a month they will get special car like a supercharged Corvette or Mustang. Dealers know they can sell those to other dealers for over list price!
The bazaar thing is it’s possible to buy a new truck cheaper than a used truck! Plus a new truck can have the safety features that provide extremely deep insurance discounts. My new Ford pickup had only some of them but it was actually cheaper to insure than my 20 year old pickup.
When you add in the much lower interest rate (or Free) your payments on a New pickup will be less than a 2-3 or even 4 year old one!
Sharp buyers who trade every couple of years and know how to negotiate well will spend less on payments than most will on repairs and maintenance
