Locking Differential

[merle&louise]

Well I really did something stupid today. I parked my coach on the grass to work on cleaning out the sewer valve assembly. It has been raining for the last month almost everyday, and guess what? The coach sank down in the soft ground about 4 inches.

I tried using the locking differential, but all that did was to dig 2 holes under the drive axle. As I tried rocking the coach back and forth by putting it in F and then in R, I dug a very nice rut in the soft ground. Coming to the realization that I was getting nowhere fast, I stopped and thought about the situation. I needed traction, and that is difficult to accomplish on slippery mud. So I waited 3 days and luckily no rain fell and the ground dried out.

I engaged the locking differential button, backed up a little, then drove forward and walked it right on out of the dried up bog!

Question: How does the locking differential work?