Thread: Stuck the truck like a buck in a ruck with no luck

Heh heh! So what you are able to do is to "lock up" each 3rd member, but after doing that, whichever axle (forward rear" or "rear rear") has the LEAST traction.......is still able to "spin its wheels" while the other one just sits there looking stupid. Is that a fairly accurate description? If you get time to (and feel inclined to) you could post some photos of the forward axle assembly showing the "power divider" and any air plumbing serving that portion of the assembly. I can't imagine why Freightliner would include the "side to side" locking differentials and then disable or even delete the "locking interaxle differential" (power divider section) on the forward axle. I remember how power divider equipped trucks could "lock the power divider in" to force power to flow to both rear axles when traction was low. Usually, doing that would offer enough additional traction to prevent the dreaded "one wheel out of four spinning and I'm stuck" scenario. The "power divider" is nothing more than a differential to "divide the input power to the 3rd members in half" so that 50% of the power serves the forward axle and 50% of the power serves the rear axle. The "main differential" (inside the ring gear "chunk") of each 3rd member further divides its 50% of power in half so that the left and right axle shafts receive 50% of the 50% ( that means each axle "wheel end" is given a 25% share of the power output from the transmission). OK, before the advent of "side to side" lock up differentials in Class 8 trucks, you only had the option of "locking in the power divider", which would guarantee 50% of transmission power feeding each of the 3rd members. Even with the power divider "locked in", the "main differential" in each third member could feed power to the least tractive wheel end (which would spin like hell while the opposite wheel sat still and looked stupid). You could end up with a spinning wheel on each 3rd member and still be stuck (even though you had the power divider locked and IT was working OK). So now, on this '03 Columbia, have we just exchanged the ability to "spin one wheel on each 3rd member" for the ability to "spin both wheels on just one 3rd member" (while the two wheels on the other 3rd member just sit still and........)? If Freightliner has done this intentionally, there just aren't words to describe how badly their engineers have missed the entire point by cheating the drivers out of maximum traction by FAILING TO PROVIDE side to side lock in conjunction with power divider lock.