Our Friends Take Their New Jeep, Great White for its First Ride

We join some friends for their first ride in their new to them 2016 JKL, Great White. They had an opportunity to experience some mud, off camber and ride along as we dropped into the big dip on Trail 14 in Citrus WMA. They learned a lot while having fun. We did experience one minor mishap with a fender, but it was easily repaired.

Brake Lock Differential (BLD)
BLD is a system that comes standard on all levels of JK and JL Jeep Wranglers. It is not traction control in that it does not cut engine power to prevent spin, which is what most traction control systems do. It just applies brakes to the spinning wheel and routes the engine power to the other wheel without cutting engine power. The BLD feature is an automatic process and is active when in 4H or 4L modes. It is part of the Electronic Stability Control (ESC)/Traction Control systems.

To effectively use the BLD system the driver should slowly and gradually apply more throttle when they enter a situation where a wheel is slipping. This will allow the sensors to determine the need to apply the brake to the slipping wheels while at the same time generating the necessary power and torque to send to the wheels with traction. BLD does not replace locking differentials, it does 90% of what limited slip or lockers do. Lockers are the way to go if you do a lot of serious off road, but for the occasional off-road ride with a handful of rough obstacles, the BLD is perfect.