UPDATE: If you want to upgrade your Visco-Lok differential to a true, on-demand locking front diff, SuperATV now offers a Pin Locker Differential Upgrade. It gives you the ability to lock your front diff at the push of a button and installs easily into your existing Visco-Lok housing.
Can-Am unveiled their new Smart-Lok X3 front differential a few days ago. It’s designed to give you better traction control with an automatic locking mechanism. That should mean better cornering and better control of your vehicle in general across a variety of riding surfaces. But what’s going on here, and what makes it better than their previous differential?
The primary difference between the Smart-Lok differential and Can-Am’s previous differential, the Visco-Lok differential, is the way in which it engages. With the Visco-Lok differential, the wheel has to slip for the differential lock to engage. The spinning axle engages a hydraulic pump in the differential which, in turn, engages the clutch pack and locks the differential. The slipping wheel must make several rotations for the differential to lock. This can take several seconds depending on your speed.
With Can-Am’s new Smart-Lok differential, the clutch pack is engaged by an electronic actuator. That means it can engage instantly regardless of speed. It knows when to engage based on a set of sensors throughout the machine, but the exact way it locks can be tweaked using the dash mounted selector switch. Set it to “trail” and it will only partially engage on corners so you stay in control. Cornering is a no-go with a fully locked front diff after all. If you have it set to “rock,” it will engage fully and instantaneously with only minor slips at low speed. Basically, it knows when a little slippage is good and when it’s not. If you don’t want to mess around with those high-tech features, you can also lock it on demand with another switch.
With these features, it should give you better traction and better control. Quicker engagement and smarter engagement should make your ride a lot easier. It’s similar to what you see in modern AWD automobiles today.
It’s interesting to see Can-Am and Polaris thinking on the same wavelength for their 2018 machines. In case you forgot, Polaris said they were done with the horsepower game and were focusing on a smarter machine with their 2018 RZR Turbo Dynamix. Dynamix brings a smarter shock to the table by taking hundreds of readings a second and adjusting shock stiffness on the fly.
And now Can-Am has a true 4WD limited slip differential like Polaris. Will the extra nuance of terrain settings make it stand above the Polaris front diff? I sure hope so. The more these guys force each other to make big moves, the better.
Either way, both Smart-Lok and Dynamix are really good ideas and will hopefully make riding better no matter which side of the competition you land on.
We’ll see how these two different approaches to building a “smarter” machine pan out when we finally get behind the wheel. Depending on your chosen poison, you’ll just want to make sure not to break a shock or crack a diff. Replacement parts are going to get even more expensive.
4 Comments
Great explanation was familiar with the quarto set up in the group B cars years back love the feeling in trail active
Thanks Chris! We’re glad you enjoyed the read.
I have the early 2018 x3 xrs .. what would I need to get ,in addition to the smart lok ? Such as axles,,wiring harness,,etc .. trying to put a package together.. not sure of everything thing I need to get.. please,, any help will be greatly appreciated..
Hey John, thanks for reading! As for the Smart-Lok diff, we can’t really help you on that much. I believe you would have to get different axles at the least. However, if you are interested in our pin-locker differential, then you wouldn’t need anything extra. It works with stock axles and comes with a wiring harness.