Offroad Feature Request: Front Dig

[Chavannigans]

One of the coolest features of double transfer case setups found in more rock crawling focused vehicles is the ability to engage the front differential and disengage the rear axle.

The use case is when you are climbing a shelf or ledge and start shifting off to the side, or need to "pull" yourself to one side of the ledge if there are ruts that are causing you to bottom out.

Front Dig allows you to pivot to one side of the ledge and reposition before engaging the rear and completing the obstacle in 4x4.

In an Emergency it could also get you out of places if you snap a rear axle shaft and dont want to engage the rear motor.

This would be pretty easy to implement since EV drivetrains are naturally divorced so you wouldnt need any additional hardware.

Front Dig also sounds a lot cooler than front wheel drive, because thats basically all it is lol.

 

[Hedrock]

Sounds similar, but less hard on the rear end, as Ford’s trail turn - which locks the inside rear tire and applies power to the rest.

Super fun but only supposed to be used on soft/very loose surfaces.

 

[Chavannigans]

Sounds similar, but less hard on the rear end, as Ford’s trail turn - which locks the inside rear tire and applies power to the rest.

Super fun but only supposed to be used on soft/very loose surfaces.

I definitely want Trail Turn Assist as well, but this is a different feature where the rear tires aren’t really turning at all.

 

[TreeKiller]

Yep, I've got an Atlas in my Wrangler and can do front digs. Very handy to be able to do on the trail, although really only with a locked front diff. I have no experience trying to do a front dig with an LSD or torque vectoring front end. I have tried to do front dig while open and it was not effective at all. Not an issue with an EV obviously, but ability to engage front only has also gotten me home several times when I've snapped my rear driveshaft or blown out a ujoint and not had any spares. It's always that rear most rear ujoint! Just zip tie the non-spinning broken rear shaft to the frame and drive home ha.

 

[Chavannigans]

Yep, I've got an Atlas in my Wrangler and can do front digs. Very handy to be able to do on the trail, although really only with a locked front diff. I have no experience trying to do a front dig with an LSD or torque vectoring front end. I have tried to do front dig while open and it was not effective at all. Not an issue with an EV obviously, but ability to engage front only has also gotten me home several times when I've snapped my rear driveshaft or blown out a ujoint and not had any spares. It's always that rear most rear ujoint! Just zip tie the non-spinning broken rear shaft to the frame and drive home ha.

Yep i have only used it with front locked vehicles as well.

So I guess the feature could be an added "perk" of paying extra for the front locker option.

 

[SpaceEVDriver]

The first part would require the ability to put the axle into a free-wheeling configuration. Available free axles would also help the people who want to flat tow. However, free-wheeling with an electric motor requires adding a clutch or some other disengagement mechanism. That reduces reliability and increases maintenance requirements. I believe Rivian has a mechanism for this for when the driver wants to engage conserve mode.

I think availability of something like this will depend on what are the capabilities of the axles that Scout has already sourced (assuming they have already sourced them).

A hack to make this work without the disengagement mechanism is to push just the right amount of power into the rear motor so that it behaves essentially as if it were freewheeling. This isn’t energy-free. It is a lot cheaper than fully powering the wheel, though.

Note: if you break a CV axle/joint, the dual motor configuration already takes care of the ability to continue driving (assuming there’s a software interface that allows bypassing the million error codes that will likely be thrown). There’s nothing extra needed for that.

 

[TreeKiller]

Lockout hubs at all four corners.

mic drop.....

(copied from my flat tow post)

 

[SpaceEVDriver]

Lockout hubs at all four corners.

mic drop.....

(copied from my flat tow post)

This seems like it’s begging for an aftermarket solution that Scout could support by contacting companies like Spyntec with specifications that are as close to final as possible. Spyntec (and others) could offer shortened CV axles and the lockout hubs as bolt-in replacements for the factory CV axles and hubs on the Scout. Win, win, win.

 

[TreeKiller]

This seems like it’s begging for an aftermarket solution that Scout could support by contacting companies like Spyntec with specifications that are as close to final as possible. Spyntec (and others) could offer shortened CV axles and the lockout hubs as bolt-in replacements for the factory CV axles and hubs on the Scout. Win, win, win.

Yes indeed. I believe that Scout will be a brand that eventually has robust aftermarket support, maybe sooner rather than later. I'd love to see venerable Warn hubs on a Scout.

 

[SpaceEVDriver]

Yes indeed. I believe that Scout will be a brand that eventually has robust aftermarket support, maybe sooner rather than later. I'd love to see venerable Warn hubs on a Scout.

One of the reasons I hope they choose to stick to some standard specifications for things like CV axles and joints and hubs. If they just manufacture their hubs to be interchangeable with F250s, for example, that entire aftermarket becomes available immediately. There's so little to be gained by doing them differently.

 

[TreeKiller]

One of the reasons I hope they choose to stick to some standard specifications for things like CV axles and joints and hubs. If they just manufacture their hubs to be interchangeable with F250s, for example, that entire aftermarket becomes available immediately. There's so little to be gained by doing them differently.

Agree 100%