How a Differential Works and Types of Differentials 

i think i have learnt more in 4:44 than i have in my life :) thanks , really good vid

A big thank you to whoever created this video. The visualization makes all the difference. I've read so many forums and articles that just repeat the same words over and over without adding to any actual understanding.

This video really grinds my gears

Incredible, I turned 345 last Wednesday and even at my age I understood this video easily.

You have really done some hard work, thank you, its informative.

Nice! also helped to answer my question about the difference between a truck and a sports car

You did this on a budget. Proof that expense doesn't necessarily equal quality. Great video!

awesome video ! thank you

Just watched all your vids and I must say pretty interesting. Nicely done

awesome job guys! great video even though i knew how a diff works this video makes it easier for me to explain what i know to others

Never heard of the Auto LSD till this video. But I just thought about in my head it right before I saw it. Nice job Toyota. Practical simplicity.

Great knowledge share. Thank you

This was amazing. I learned about differentials

Really cool video. Easy to understand and follow. Well done!

thanks for the vid. basically summed up half of my course and simplified the components.

Awesome Video! Had a small understanding, now I completely understand! Thanks! :D

This video gave me a great help to update my knowledge thank you.

Very informative video! I knew about slip differential because of my truck but I never knew whats really going on in the rear end.

easy to understand, this was great learning tool.. thanks for the good video

Great work. Thanks for sharing info.

That's a pretty cool unit!

@89Silhouette Again, the brakes are pulsed via an ABS type system to not stop the wheel from turning but to create some drag to transfer power to the opposite axle. That type of system is a low-speed only system. There seems to be a misunderstanding that the brake "holds" the wheel from turning but it's rapidly pulsed only to the extent needed to transfer power. It has to be manually engaged via a button also.

Excelent vid. Animtation is pretty clear, don't need enough.

Sweet page! Love it

Awsome ! After many failed attempts consisting of sites , forums and hours of googling, I finally find in a 5 min package and understand everybit of it :D :D !!!

Voice Over artist. Someone who professionally does voice recording work.

I was workin on a Lego model truck with deferential,this vedio helped me to figure out few tricks to modifie it!thanks for such a great video

very interesting, thanks for uploading

Have had my tundra for 10 years, had no idea what Auto LSD does. Ty!!!

such a superb video

excellent, very concise and informative. thank you.

Very informative! Sales people at off-road stores can’t even explain it like this. Using Laymen’s term is the secret!

Great video - I am 52 and never understood the differential fully. It's hard for most people to understand how things were BEFORE the differential came along - try one of those off-road vehicles or go-karts without this device - it judders on a bend and of course, has better grip on the straight for acceleration. It's fair to say, it was probably made to improve the comfort of some posh bloke in a big limousine - should look it up I guess! This is the perfect animation, I sat and 'paused' the action, and thought through how it works - so now I know that in normal operation, driving straight ahead on a good road with no tyre slip, the 'twiddly bits' in the core of the action sort of act as 'locked up'. Then come a bend or tyre slip on one wheel say, that situation changes. Such a straightforward vid to view and think about how it works. Good work. Also, for further thought people out there could figure how to limit the slip for extra traction on snow etc? Obvs, lots have tried it and there are umpteen variations both involving the differential itself, freewheel-type devices on each axle (like bicycle, one way it's turned it provides drive, not the other, think about it!), aand the old standby now, using ABS system to jam the wheel that's spinning free, to 'force' the wheel with grip to turn a bit. Yes, food for thought, great vid.

Great vid. Easy to follow

Great video!!

It just clicked! Hell yeah. I've been curious forever about this topic.

Great explanation!

Spot on with your description. So many people misunderstand ABS Traction Control. I have a Volvo XC90 with this kind of traction control, and I'm amazed at how many Volvo owners are confused about this. (They also confuse Spin Control with Traction Control--two different things completely. Volvo recommends turning off Spin Control when in low traction situations.) I don't have a button for Traction Control though--it's all automatic.

nice.. thanks

There are a number of different but related software packages that control wheel slip via use of the brakes but they are actually technically independent. VSC (skid control), TRAC (traction control) ALSD (auto LSD), ABS (anti-lock-brakes), and Brake Assist (BA) all utilize wheel slip/brake control to accomplish a task but they are independent and were not always included as a full set of installed software. Some of the systems reduce engine power, some change brake pressure etc.

@Jesus45U I wrote the script and it was for training sales consultants not for marketing. The primary disadvantage is that it's designed for low speed situations where the vehicle is likely to get stuck. It's not designed for all driving situations like, say, a mechanical LSD.

God bless you man. 5 stars for the video. LOCKING DIFF. are widely used in Tractors.

very good video ....continue .

Locking differential at 3:28...Do both axles actually receive equal power (P)? Since they are locking the angular velocities (w) are equal, and the torque (T) on the side with more traction should be greater? P=T*w so T=P/w. If P is equal on both axles and so is w then T would be as well which is not the case correct?

awesome video, helps alot!

I wish I could do some more extensive videos like this. I had put this on the web for a single conversation on a forum with 6 people viewing it and next thing I knew it had all these hits. If I ever get the opportunity though, I'd make a more wide-ranging video. For instance, I was focused on low-speed differential characteristics because this was trucks. It would be good to do high-speed where LSDs and other mechanical diffs are superior to brake-diffs (which don't work at speed).

Loved this vid..thanks a lot.

Might not be supposed to be a high budget movie.. never the less, it looks very professionally done. And is well done and pretty illustrated. Ty for clearing my thoughts on how a LSD works.

Good Explanation...I got it atlast...Thank u

nicely done

hi guys i needed this

Great video! :d

VerY HELPFUL

helpful educational videos. I am very happy.

That's a tough question to answer. Remember it's the tires adhesion that ultimately determines if the car moves or the tires just sit there spinning (or skidding if the car is moving). The ability to control wheel slip and distribute power to any of the 4 wheels is very helpful in situations where one or more wheels are slipping but one or more have traction. However, if all 4 tires are on ice and there's no adhesion for any tire, no drive system will get the car moving.

Very well described!

Ingenious !!!

I have used all 3 type of Diff's and like the clutch pack lsd the best because Locking diff's come on suddenly and blow the entire truck sideways and can be downright scary when side hilling above rivers ect, the electronic ones dont work when rallying at speed and wait to kick in when you have already lost all speed. The clutch system is a constent manageble mesh that works great in the situations I drive.

1:35 A false claim is made; the power will remain the same! It is the torque and speed that will very. Of course assuming all frictional losses are comparable between the different gear ratios.

Complicated question. There's the creative director (in this case me) who wrote and storyboarded it then a 3D animator, then a VO artist, then a video editor and this was part of a project that had a producer and other people so it's a big number even though in the scale of this type of project it was "low budget."

I did a little research, a humming noise is often caused by an incorrectly installed ring and gear pinion, which needs to be adjusted, the incorrect installation of ring and pinion gear prevents proper tooth contact and can cause rapid tooth wear and can cause gear failure. This humming noise converts into growling noise when the wear increases. Humming noise can also be caused due to worn out bearings, which needs to be replaced.

fab explanation

bery good job!!

i just discovered differentials today, and this stuff is very, very interesting. is there anywhere i can learn more about stuff like this?

thanks for your video

I don't see why not though the key to this is not just holding that brake but pulsing it so that wheel does still have some ability to turn. To do it "elegantly", the ABS sensor and electronic system works it but what you are describing would be like modulating the brake on that wheel as a driver would have done aggressively braking in the pre ABS times.

Excellent!

the powertrax no-slip is the best auto locker ever made and best set up for on or off-road.

@thebluecommet The video states that ALSD(aka brake based traction control) does a better job of trasfering torque then other differentials. And it does. Mechanical LSDs can't really change the torque distrabution, they just limit how much of the torque can go to the wheel with the least amout of traction. Brake based traction control can make the wheel with the least amount of resistance the wheel with the most amout of resistance. This why many modern cars use it.

thanks. super helpful

Help me a lot, thanks

That's a good question. Normally in racing situations, of course, you'd want a limited slip diff. I would think with drifting that you'd still want some differential action but you'd want to really limit it so the amount of "slip" is low so that you can ensure lighting up both rear tires. If the car isn't actually drifted but is driven on curves, a locked differential would not only produce really bad handling but would also potentially damage the diff when turning so my guess is adjustable LSD.

@PayDroification DRE (driveshaft rotation effect) also means that if you attempt to back up quickly, you may spin the left rear wheel more than the right. It's not that only "one wheel drives", it's that your "go traction" is limited by the wheel with the least traction. One of the advantages of independent rear suspensions on rear driven wheels is the elimination of DRE.

awesome!

@PayDroification I'm not a Mustang expert but I know there was a friction-disc LSD on some Mustang rear ends and open diffs on others. If you find out you had an LSD on your particular model of Mustang, it's possible that the friction discs are worn out and it's not providing a limited-slip effect. If you have an open diff, the power tends to always go to the same axle so you would find "1-wheel drive" on the same wheel would be normal.

Very helpful!

great video prefecft to use in my rtv safety training

Nice! :) Very usefull! tx!

wonderful work thankssssss very much

awesome guys

Yes it would but the acceleration would suffer (check out Bonneville speed cars that have to be push started because they have such tall gears) because there would be no mechanical advantage from the differential. But you're correct, the axle ratio is a large component in both acceleration and top speed. However, in order to really make the car that much faster, it would need an exponential increase in horsepower because aerodynamic drag is the biggest issue at high speeds.

Limited slip using braking very clever, thank you.

@mastersduhgree It doesn't "drag" the brake, auto LSD can pulse the brake a fraction of a second or several times per second and stops as soon as the other size gets traction. Trying to do this with the parking brake has a similar effect but is nothing like as sophisticated as the high-speed brake pulsing. It's also the basis of the CRAWL system which allows vehicles like the Lexus 460 to decline incredibly steep hills with both feet on the floor.

nice video

muy bueno el video

"Posi" is a term for a limited-slip differential. There are a variety of technologies used in limited-slip differentials but Posi refers to "Posi-traction" which was a brand name for an Eaton LSD unit.

You did happen to skip a very well-known differential, the 2-speed differential. I'm not sure if Toyota ever put one in any of their commercial trucks, but most all other manufacturers have, from 1-ton trucks up, at some point. To see how they work is truly ingenious and resolves the age-old question: gear for torque, or gear for speed. With a 2-speed, you can have both. In a truck, this is very helpful.

Exlent video

Holy sh*t I get it now. What an informative video. Thank you.

this was very helpful... im 14, i love cars, i even took note lol! XD

oh ok lol. Thank you for your response. I was just curious because you said "low budget" so I was curious

I finally understand basic differentials now. I grew up thinking that a basic differential sent power to one dominant wheel (right side) 100% of the time and the other wheel part of the time. Turns out both wheels are treated exactly the same in relation to one another.

Thanks for the education.

I'd think that the answer depends on how tight the tracks (or areas) you're going to run on would be. If you need to turn tightly and the vehicle is pretty wide, it will handle better with a differential than a solid axle. If traction isn't huge on the vehicle (like if it was an off-road RC truck) then it wouldn't matter much. Keep in mind, Karts run with solid axles and they handle great, their track and wheelbase are small.

ya i no what a welded diff is now. i have know for quite some time, but thank u for the reply. i appreciate it.

im a huge DRIFT nerd so i need to learn abotu this, nice video =D

Nice!!!

very nice....description...........

Good explanation......

that is called diff lock. nice video; gotta tip my hat for you