Ashcrofts ATB

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Originally Posted by Red90

Maybe I’m missing something about this silly I forgot to lock the diff thing. Who cares. If you forgot them a wheel spins and you then stop and lock it. The point of the the ATB Center diff other than strength is for situations that you don’t want to be locked. On the road on snow or high speed driving on dirt.

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Isn't the core problem not so much the spinning wheel, but the transmission damage from the sudden stop as it gets traction?
With the ATBs (I have them front and rear on both D2 and RRC and love them), I get the enhanced centreing that I lurv, and the luxury of all 4 wheels working (as long as I have remembered to engage CDL on the D2). With a centre ATB, even that is then attended to.
The RRC still has the BW VC for the time being.

For the front especially, so much better than a true locker for steering etc.

The center diffs fail from oil starvation while providing differential power. The way it is designed it loses lubrication when spun quickly and the pinion gears seize when they try and spin at speed. Spinning a wheel while I locked is when it happens.

It is not really a strength issue.

There is a racer in the states that ran with various setups (stock, ATB, HD one piece cross) and killed them all while running 100 mph unlocked. Once he added forced lubrication there were no more failures.

For normal people the ATB prevents any serious differential spin so they don’t have the issue.

heres a comparison video I did,

It may be of some help to the discussion. No centre diff here . I already fitted a TrueTrac (exactly same as ATB in design & function) in the rear diff .

The before & after is comparing the front diff, open diff vs truetrac .

You can see in the 'before clip' both rear wheels spin equally and the front wheel with least traction spins when Im up against the end of the log. In the 'after clip' the front wheel with most traction drives up the log , because no front wheel is allowed to break traction, the rear wheels are prevented from spinning due to the front & rear drive shafts being locked together .

The exact same thing happens with ATB installed in transfer case. if it senses the rear axle starting to slip it sends more torque to the front.

https://youtu.be/5A19n2aSoe8