Poor Mans Lockers

[Qten]

Hi all,

I have been having a think (yes this is dangerous)

I had this idea about some kind of poor mans lockers simular to Land Rovers traction control were it can put braking power to a wheel
when it’s spinning freely.

I was thinking of this idea I heard that is used in comps where some rigs have two hand brakes (one on each rear wheel) to be able to
Do sharp turns without the inside wheel spinning.

Maybe if you used some kind of solenoid or something to be able to do this on each wheel you could affectively have a poor mans lockers
The only problem being you would need to know which wheel has the least amount of traction.

Now this could be done with a spotter or perhaps some kind of sensor which could detect which wheels are spinning faster then the others and perhaps pulse the brake for 2-3seconds on the wheel that is spinning freely to transfer the
power to the other wheels.

Granted this would not be the better then lockers because it would only be reactive and not constant.

But if you were going up a rock and saw you had little to no traction on a wheel
You could lock that one wheel with a series of buttons on the dash for example and transfer the power straight up.

Has this been done before on any other 4wd? Apart from land rovers :D ??

You would also need to be able to completely by pass the system when your on road due to possibly malfunction eg going down the road at 100km/h and suddenly your rear left wheel locks up… Ahhh [img]smile.gif[/img]

:D

Qten,

[mattc]

Have you tried applying a little of your regular handbrake? I used to do it in my old 4-runner when I was cross-axled. Done it in the TJ too (when the handbrake works). Probably not something you would want to do too often if you want your brakes to last but ca nget you out of a spot.

[haggis]

Hey Qten (and others)

Been thinking of something like this for my Subaru Brumby ute (a way to apply the brakes on individual wheels at whim to force power to the wheel on the ground, even better if I can do it electronically, with some sort of sensors/solenoids etc).

Will probably be having a go at it in some form this summer when I get some time (at least on the rear axle, which is an open diff - even more challenging as the handbrake is on the front wheels - might have to put discs on the rear and use a front wheel handbrake assembly from another suby). I have a few engineer mates and I reckon it'd be a great little project - traction control for old vehicles... geez, I could become rich if I can pull this one off!

Until then I'll just have to use the Hilux to pull it out. :-) hmm, that could be a problem until I figure out how to drive both of them at the same time!....

Cheers, Haggis.

[ 25 August 2002, 08:58 AM: Message edited by: Haggis ]

[Phil]

They are called "cutting brakes" do search on POR and other hardcore sections prolly find what you're after.

[Jeeps]

Poor man's lockers really need a welder to do the trick. Cheaper and faster to apply. More fun too. ;) [img]tongue.gif[/img]

[Steve]

I think by the time this "Poor Man's locker" becomes a reality that a rich man's locker probably would work out cheaper? You could always convert the TJ to have tracks like a tank. Then you could lock up one side and do a complete 360 standing in one spot!

[JP Mark]

Agree with AY, by the time you got this sorted it would have been much cheaper to just go out and buy a locker and be done with it.