Since it first went on sale several years ago, the Detroit Truetrac differential from Eaton [1] has been popular for a wide variety of applications. Outfitted in everything from daily drivers, to street/strip machines, even road racers, tow rigs, and medium duty trucks have found this unique differential useful.
The secret has been in the maintenance free design and the Truetrac’s ability to get traction to the wheel that has the most grip, instead of wasting power by sending it to the wheel that is spinning. There are no clutches or springs to wear out, meaning that the differential won’t fail because of a worn piece of friction material or a weak spring that needs replacing.
These differentials also require no special gear oils or friction modifiers, reducing the costs of maintaining them.
Eaton has released this video demonstrating how the Truetrac works in varying situations. While you may never encounter some of these in your ride, many of them apply to those who drive their cars daily. If you tow your car, or are fortunate enough to have other toys that require pulling with a trailer, an upgrade to a Truetrac differential can also offer improved stability of the tow rig.
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Left: Under normal conditions torque is distributed equally to both wheels. Right: Under limited traction conditions more power is distributed to the wheel with the most traction.
On the track, Truetrac differentials offer the ability for cars to launch harder. Those that do more than travel in a straight line when racing can rely on the differential to open during cornering keeping power going to the traction wheel, while allowing for differences in wheel speed during the turns.
Checkout the video, and for more information on the Truetrac and other Eaton differential products, for your particular application visit the Eaton web site, or connect with an authorized Eaton dealer.