Has anyone heard of a differential like this?

Mint500Racer

New Member
Has anyone ever seen a differential that allows you to apply power to the wheel you choose, only one wheel if desired, and allows the other wheel to spin freely?
 

cruiseroutfit

Cruizah!
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Sandy, Ut
Ditto Milfners reply... sounds just like a true differential with some sort of manually operated cutting breaks, be it hydraulic, cable or electric.
 

Mint500Racer

New Member
Hi Milner. Yeah.. that's what I was thinking of.. just like a cutting brake but inside the differential. I heard cutting brakes can damage your axle and driveline components.

I was wondering if anyone has heard of something that allows you to do that internally.. like with clutches in the differential.

Are differential clutches very strong? Or do they only apply a small amount of torque before they give?
 

Mint500Racer

New Member
I was thinking a slectable thing where you could choose one side or the other or both - locked.

Say with a push button or lever system.
 

Kiel

Formerly WJ ZUK
I was thinking a slectable thing where you could choose one side or the other or both - locked.

Say with a push button or lever system.

I'm not sure you could do it through the carrier/diff with how a traditional differential is set up
 

Milner

formerly "rckcrlr"
There are electronic traction controls. Basically computer controlled cutting brakes....
Biggest problems I see is that the spider gears will be transfer 100% of the torque, which they are not designed for....

Could something be built? Sure, but to make the parts strong enough and able to act independently on each side, it would become very bulky. At that point, independent hydro or electric mores may be a better option.
 

Mint500Racer

New Member
Thanks Milner. Probably more of a hassle than it's worth. I was mainly just curious of anything like that existed that I wasn't aware of. I tried to find info on the Snocats but can't find much info online. Thanks for everyone's responses!
 

cruiseroutfit

Cruizah!
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Location
Sandy, Ut
The ATRAC system used by Toyota on their newer 4x4 platforms (ie 4Runner, FJ Cruiser, LC). The computer basically handles it all, but I suppose one could hack the system to make it manual. When the wheel sensors (think ABS sensors) detect uneven wheel spin, they can apply the brakes to the faster wheel, thus differentiating the power to the opposite side. Again in the Toyota case this is 100% automatically done.
 

Mint500Racer

New Member
That sounds really cool, CruiserOutfit. I love those FJ's. I've been meaning to reasearch those.

If they use that system on factory setups it must be reliable. Probably just have to set it up to give before it damages the driveline components.
 

Tacoma

Et incurventur ante non
Location
far enough away
Dana makes axles with internal brakes for various bits of offroad equipment, like trenchers, loaders, that kind of thing. There are a few threads about it on Pirate.
 

Mint500Racer

New Member
Cool Tacoma.. Thanks very much. Do those work the same way as CruiserOutfit was explaining? They lockup one side sending all the power to the other side?

I wonder if they make them with clutches, too?
 

Milner

formerly "rckcrlr"
The ATRAC system used by Toyota on their newer 4x4 platforms (ie 4Runner, FJ Cruiser, LC). The computer basically handles it all, but I suppose one could hack the system to make it manual. When the wheel sensors (think ABS sensors) detect uneven wheel spin, they can apply the brakes to the faster wheel, thus differentiating the power to the opposite side. Again in the Toyota case this is 100% automatically done.

Jeep's ESP on the Comanders and Libby's is similar....
 

JoeT

Well-Known Member
Location
Herriman
foster_rebuilt_OC12_07sep18_800.jpg

From: http://wallace-id.com/foster.html
Machinist specializing in Snow Cat (over snow vehicle) and Thiokol LMC DMC parts and rebuilding
based in historic Wallace, Idaho.
(208)556-0153
spryteimp@gmail.com
 

Mint500Racer

New Member
Wallace Idaho.. how funny! My mom was born and raised in Wallace Idaho.. funny coincidence.

You are the Google master JoeT. Thanks so much. This one uses internal brakes, too, it appears.

To protect the axles it looks like it applies the pressure on some massive drums. Pretty crazy!
 
Last edited:

1993yj

.
Location
Salt Lake
The weight of that axle looks like you would definitely lower your center of gravity, if you could actually figure out some way to fit it in a vehicle.

Wonder what something like that costs?
 
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