| Explanation |
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A Limited Slip Differential or LSD is an improvement to the open differential in
that it allows a driven wheel to have a limited amount of slip before the differential
attepmts to correct the slippage of the wheel. This slip is usually a very limited amount. Your tires don't have to spend five to ten seconds or more skidding before the limited slip differntial attempts to correct it. The LSD just needs to establish that there is a loss of traction in that wheel and many limited slip differential can notice slippage in under two seconds, sometimes in several milliseconds. So the slipping of the wheels is necessary but sometimes it is corrected before you can notice it. The problem with open differentials is that the design needed to have the wheels rotated differently causes the wheel offering less resistance to recieve the torque from the drivetrain. If a wheel is slipping it will spin freely and naturally offer less resistance than the wheel that is firmly on the ground. This means that once a wheel starts to slip both wheels becomes useless. There are basically three types of limited slip differential:
The average limited slip differential works better at improving on road performance than pulling a stuck vehicle out of the mud in off roading situations. There are limited slip differentials that work on recognised off road vehicles such as the Jeep Gran Cherokee but many LSDs work to improve vehicle traction and performance on snow, leaves or even tight corners on road. Since traction is required for accelerating and turning, an open differential may not be useful here even if the vehicle is all wheel or four wheel drive. The limited slip differential will continue sending power to the wheel or wheels with traction in these conditions. |
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