Originally Posted by Captain Spalding

Hello all. I’m hoping you can help me with a semantic issue. It involves off-road driving and the distribution of torque.

Question 1: Imagine you have a vehicle with 3 locking differentials. And all three are locked. And the surface that you are driving upon, at the current moment, provides traction to only one wheel. All three diffs are locked and there is no wheel spin. Do we say that 100% of the torque output is going to the one wheel with traction? If not 100% then how much? (Let us discount mechanical losses and other inefficiencies.)

Question 2: Now imagine the same question - all three differentials locked – but now two wheels have traction. Does each wheel receive 50% of the torque? Or do both wheels still get !00% of the torque, or is the torque split based on the weight distribution of the vehicle across both wheels, or what? This is relevant in terms of evaluating how much stress is being put on various components, so damage can be avoided.

Let’s leave it at those two questions for now. I have others, but depending on how these two get answered the others might answer themselves.