Differential self-locking makes available new roads

From the very beginning of the history of the car to its developers, there was one difficult task - how to ensure its uniform movement in a corner or on a rough road. The fact is that when you turn the car, the inner and outer wheels move along a circle of different radii, go through different paths and have different speeds. To eliminate this in the design of the car was introduced such a device as a differential. However, he had his own shortcomings, and that's why they had to eliminate the differential self-locking.

To understand the problem that arises, one has to turn to the differential device. Without going into its subtleties, we can simply state that this mechanism makes it possible for the wheels of the car located on one axis to rotate at different speeds. The result of such a technical solution was a reduction in the load on the wheels, the transmission, improved handling of the car and increased reliability and safety of the vehicle.

However, as always happens in such cases, a new problem has appeared. The ability of the wheels to move at different speeds turned to the other extreme. When one wheel hits a slippery place (mud, ice, rolling), the torque from the engine comes to that wheel, and it starts to rotate at an increased speed, while the other wheel on this axis remains stationary. The car will skid, it only has one spinning wheel, but due to lack of grip on the road, it can not move the car from its place. The other wheel is still. To overcome this situation, we developed a self-locking differential.

Its distinctive feature is the locking of the possibility of wheels located on one axis, rotating at different speeds. In practice, this means that when the lock is turned on, the wheel speed is the same, and if one of them starts to slip, the torque continues to flow to the other wheel, and the car can easily overcome a difficult stretch of the road. Such a lock can be performed in different ways - manually or automatically, which realizes the differential self-locking.

Such a lock has a positive effect on the car, its patency Increases on heavy and slippery roads, in mud and snow. This is especially true for cars, whose engine develops a small torque. So, the installed self-locking differential on the Niva significantly improves its patency. Of course, if there is a normal "mud" rubber. Installed a similar differential can be on any axis of the car, including all at once. However, it should be noted that when it is installed on the front axle, the handling improves slightly, and it is better for the experienced driver to drive the car.

They usually build such a differential in the construction of the existing one, most often the rear one. However, if the engine is capable of developing a significant torque, it is possible to damage the axles. A self-locking differential UAZ can cause just such a damage. This requires the driver to have a certain skill in driving, but his application gives tangible advantages when driving on bad roads. Most military vehicles are equipped with similar devices.

The self-locking differential gives an excellent opportunity to increase the car's ability to overcome difficult driving conditions while at the same time not requiring the introduction of serious design changes in the design of the car, and is also affordable. The effectiveness of such devices is well known, and it is not without reason that most army vehicles are equipped with them by default.