Jeep Patriot anyone?

[D. Hayes]

Did you notice his front left tire spinning towards the end of the video? It didn't look like the braking differential was doing it's job at all. Maybe there's a switch to "lock" it?

OK I watched a few more videos on youtube and he didn't have it locked from what I can tell. Really it don't look like too bad of a truck once you put on some descent tires. It could be a bit taller for ground and larger tire clearance though.

 

[Dennis Sherrod]

Skip,
If you want, take a look at this site and review from Consumer Guide. I did not read it, but they do some pretty good reviews of vehicles.
http://consumerguideauto.howstuffworks.com/2009-jeep-patriot.htm

 

[Joshua Nall]

Did you notice his front left tire spinning towards the end of the video? It didn't look like the braking differential was doing it's job at all. Maybe there's a switch to "lock" it?

OK I watched a few more videos on youtube and he didn't have it locked from what I can tell. Really it don't look like too bad of a truck once you put on some descent tires. It could be a bit taller for ground and larger tire clearance though.

It's not really a lock and the name brake lock differential is a bit misleading. As Skip pointed out, the vehicle automatically applies brake to the spinning wheel so the wheel with traction will get some of the torque from the drivetrain. If I understand it right, the wheel with the least traction, or in this case no traction cause it was in the air, is gong to still spin a bit as the automatic braking is applied to that wheel.

At one point two tires had almost no weight on them and the vehicle was kinda balanced on the other two tires. This is the point at which a standard 4wd system would have made no further progress with out really gassing it or hitting it at speed with some momentum.