Help, I accidentally drove 125 miles with inter axel and diff locked!!

You should be at a stop to engage although I think the truck is labeled 5 mph and not spinning. as far as disengaged it does not matter

 

You can lock em any time, but never when spinning.

 

Ive unfortunately made that mistake a few times and drove longer than that with no harmful affects done to the truck might kill your MPG a little

 

You could lock those diffs in while moving (no wheels spinning or skidding) if you wanted and never hurt a thing (unless you're a cheapskate who only puts on 1 or 2 new tires at a time).

All the diff lock does is slide a dog clutch, that is splined to one of the axle shafts, into engagement with the diff carrier. If there is no speed variance between the left and right, nothing's going to break.

 

For a new driver, the best thing for them to do is stop, then engage, for a experienced driver maybe not.

 

What could possibly go wrong when you overheat differentials like that for a long periods of time..

 

It has happened to me like twice. The problem in my case is that my Qualcomm/Omnitracs device was covering the red light that was showing my inter axle was on. I now have my Omnitracs device raised higher to be able to see all my three red lights while driving. The lights are for the inter axle, the 5th wheel slide lock, and the airbag deflation.

 

Agreed. (But I can't speak to the wear & tear caused by 125 miles of lock.)

I've done it doing 30 on dry pavement anticipating a snowy yard I'm getting ready to plow into. No problems.

But I know a guy who locked them in a spin. Dropped a bunch of hardware and twisted an axle. Strike One.
He then overtightened his oil filters on a different occasion. (I don't know why. He wasn't leaking) Broke the gaskets. Pissed oil everywhere - made a pond.
Strike Two. He was canned, summarily, for being an idiot.

 

As long as ur wheels aren't spinning out or slipping then it won't do any damage, I turn my on when I hit a off ramp with ice and snow at highway speeds