the hubs locked, I could hardly tell any
difference between the Truetracs and open
differentials. They was smooth! And off
road, they transferred torque from the tire
with the least traction to the one with the
most traction up to their biasing limit of
about two and a half to one (2.5:1). Now,
I'll wager that yer don't know what that
means," said Gaffer with another sharp
look from under his singed eyebrow.
After acknowledging that I had no
idea what this biasing business was, the
old coot continued. "The best way ter
understand biasing is ter think of having
one tire in slippery mud and the other
on gravel. If the tire in the mud could get
100 lb-ft of traction torque, the Truetrac
would transfer 250 lb-ft of torque to the
tire on the gravel (100*2.5 = 250)."
"An open differential," he said peering at
me to see if I understood, "would have
only transferred 100 lb-ft from the mud
tire to the gravel tire. Them Truetracs
worked very well on mountain roads and
snowy highways. I really liked 'em until
I started rock crawling. Now why do yer
think them Truetracs were not very good
for rock crawling?" asked the old master,
testing to see if I really understood
torque biasing.
Sad to say, I did not pass the test and
could not tell Gaffer why Truetracs would
not do well when rock crawling.
"Ha!" pounced Gaffer, "I knew yer didn't
understand biasing. I really didn't neither
until I went rock crawling with my buddy,
Manybroncos. Now Manybroncos, as
you can tell by his moniker, drove a
well prepared, early style Ford Bronco
complete with Detroit lockers front and
rear we'll get to them in a minute. Now
where was I..."
"Oh yea, Manybroncos took me to the
rock pile where we warmed up on some
minor obstacles. Then, he took me to `The
Stairs'. You know what stairs are, boy?" he
asked with a feral grin.
I told Gaffer that of course I knew what
stairs were.
He laughed and said, "Naw, them are
stairs like what yer find in houses. `The
Stairs' were real, hair-on-your-chest ledges
made of steep sandstone blocks that
forced one tire and then another off the
ground and into thin air."
"And," continued the old coot, "Yer had to
get to the top! Them stairs were like the
minimum union requirement for admission
to the Rock Crawling Guild. Manybroncos
showed me the line. And then he
demonstrated how to make the climb by
driving up The Stairs with his Bronco.
"Then it was my turn. With confidence in
Modified GM 12 bolt Truetrac converted for use in a Toyota 9.5 inch differential
TOYOTA TRAILS
40