Advantage of Argo Trans in mud versus T 20

[beungood]

In one of the posts here someone mentioned that the Argo open diff type trans tire traction transfer can sometimes be better in mud than all wheels spinning. And also mentioned it made it steer better, can someone explain this better to me?

Thanks,

Jack

[GREASEMONKEY]

Wow! I'm some what confused by that question!

Not sure if the tranny works as you think it does!

The Argo trans. is the steering! It's a slip style trans brake.
The tires all turn when there is no braking. When you apply one brake it slows down that output, or stops that side all together to steer in that direction!

In my experience the soup kinda bog mud will give you a run for the money steering! When i end up with one side getting traction, and the other no traction, that's the hardest! You have to learn to apply braking power to the side with traction, if you are trying to steer straight.

[mad_max_500cc]

wait a second its an open differential and you apply the brake to stop or slow one side to turn. if tou are in a low traction situation on one side only all the power will naturaly want to go to that side so the trick is to apply the brake on that side to get power to transfer to the other side. normaly across hard ground where all 6 wheels have traction the power will be split almost evenly due to the differential also i noticed another thing with open differentials that seems the same as an argo when one side looses traction and starts to spin the differental causes the spinning wheels to go twice the speed.but half the torque so tecnicaly isnt it an open diff? im by no means an argo guy (i live in buffalo and its max country) i just dont have any experience with argos. i know how a max t-20 works and have rebuilt several for people and it has true 6 wheel drive even when one side is in the mud and the other has traction all 6 have full power! this has come to my advantage plenty of times! but an experienced argo driver with creative stick work can over come this disadvantage quite nicely! please correct me if im wrong id like to learn more abought (the other guys) trans if i can. im an auto tecnition by trade(and one of my favorite things is trans work) and love to figure out how stuff works

[mightymaxIV]

Originally Posted by mad_max_500cc

wait a second its an open differential and you apply the brake to stop or slow one side to turn. if tou are in a low traction situation on one side only all the power will naturaly want to go to that side so the trick is to apply the brake on that side to get power to transfer to the other side. normaly across hard ground where all 6 wheels have traction the power will be split almost evenly due to the differential also i noticed another thing with open differentials that seems the same as an argo when one side looses traction and starts to spin the differental causes the spinning wheels to go twice the speed.but half the torque so tecnicaly isnt it an open diff? im by no means an argo guy (i live in buffalo and its max country) i just dont have any experience with argos. i know how a max t-20 works and have rebuilt several for people and it has true 6 wheel drive even when one side is in the mud and the other has traction all 6 have full power! this has come to my advantage plenty of times! but an experienced argo driver with creative stick work can over come this disadvantage quite nicely! please correct me if im wrong id like to learn more abought (the other guys) trans if i can. im an auto tecnition by trade(and one of my favorite things is trans work) and love to figure out how stuff works

You got it right Mad Max! An open differental will always send power to the wheels with the least traction. When you apply brakes to the spinning wheels the drive will take the path of least resistance sending the drive to the wheels with the most traction. It's the same thing you do with a sand rail with turning brakes. It can work well if you know what your doing. If traction is even the drive should be spread out to all six wheels. A Max is easier in these situations because all you have to do is keep the sticks forward and let all six wheels pull you through. If you stop you are high centered or have reached the limits of available traction.

[beungood]

I seem to remember someone coming up with a mod for the Argo transmission that used some type of cone clutch set up that was switchable for all wheel drive and regular drive. Funtothemax or something to that effect. They also had several Max mods also.

[GREASEMONKEY]

Originally Posted by mad_max_500cc

wait a second its an open differential and you apply the brake to stop or slow one side to turn. if tou are in a low traction situation on one side only all the power will naturaly want to go to that side so the trick is to apply the brake on that side to get power to transfer to the other side. normaly across hard ground where all 6 wheels have traction the power will be split almost evenly due to the differential also i noticed another thing with open differentials that seems the same as an argo when one side looses traction and starts to spin the differental causes the spinning wheels to go twice the speed.but half the torque so tecnicaly isnt it an open diff? im by no means an argo guy (i live in buffalo and its max country) i just dont have any experience with argos. i know how a max t-20 works and have rebuilt several for people and it has true 6 wheel drive even when one side is in the mud and the other has traction all 6 have full power! this has come to my advantage plenty of times! but an experienced argo driver with creative stick work can over come this disadvantage quite nicely! please correct me if im wrong id like to learn more abought (the other guys) trans if i can. im an auto tecnition by trade(and one of my favorite things is trans work) and love to figure out how stuff works

You have the theory correct, but it actually operates a bit different!

If I get one side in a rut, and that side has no traction, only the force of the tires swimming on that side. The other side on dry ground, with total traction. If I apply braking power to the side with no traction, then the traction side will force a turn twards the side with no traction! There for I had to learn to apply the most braking power on the side with traction to go straight.
Look at how I steer in this video. Check out the about 34sec mark, and again at 3:35sec. You will notice i have to brake on the side that starts to gain traction as I exit the mud, and in a long mud pit I have to do the same to keep straight.

YouTube - 6x6 ATVs attack Gulches Off Road Park