Locking Differential - Applications

Applications

• Race cars often use locking differentials in order to maintain traction during high speed maneuvers or when accelerating at extreme rates.
• Some utility vehicles such as tow trucks, forklifts, tractors, and heavy equipment use locking differentials to maintain traction, especially when driving on soft, muddy, or uneven surfaces. Lockers are common in agricultural equipment and military trucks. On some farm tractors, there is a pedal that can be stepped on with the operator's heel to lock the differential as needed.
• Differential locking can also be used in the sport of drifting as an alternative to a limited slip differential.
• Four-wheel drive vehicles that drive off-road often use a locking differential to keep from getting stuck when driving on loose, muddy, or rocky terrain. Locking differentials are considered essential equipment for serious off-road driving. Many such vehicles have a locking differential on the central differential (between the front and rear axles), rear differential and front differential; or any combination of any of the three. Differential locks are also used on some "non-utility" four-wheel-drive vehicles (such as the Mitsubishi Shogun) to compensate for a relative lack of axle articulation (vertical wheel movement). High amounts of articulation are desirable for off-road driving, to allow the wheels to maintain ground contact over uneven surfaces, but this can lead to excessive body-roll at high speeds on the road, as well as vague steering. Such 4x4s often have suspension systems designed as a compromise between articulation and handling. If articulation is limited, one wheel on an axle may be lifted off the ground by rough terrain, thus losing all traction to all wheels (all power goes to the lifted wheel, which spins freely). A rear locking differential is often supplied to make up for this compromise – if a wheel is lifted off the ground, the locking differential can be brought into play, driving the wheel that remains on the ground.