It is true Copey


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Posted by Clint Dixon on Thursday, March 26, 2009 at 17:32:16 :

In Reply to: I am not buying the off set diff story posted by copey on Thursday, March 26, 2009 at 00:39:49 :

Others have given you bits and pieces of information in posts below. What it boils down to is that Dodge killed three birds with one stone by using the offset rear differential:

1) The rear PTO shaft was able to be routed more directly in a straight line to the rear of the truck without a centered differential to contend with. True, it is not perfectly straight. Three U-Joints, two shafts, and one slip yoke were used. Routing would have been a quite a bit more complicated if a centered differential had been in place to work around. Remember, these trucks were designed to be used as stationary power plants, not just as hauling trucks. The engineers envisioned the truck serving as a power plant that could be used 24 hours a day....continuously. Having complicated PTO shafts with multiple angles and numerous U-joints was not an option. Also, the shafts are not your normal PTO shafts. The long one has the same tubing size as the trucks front and rear drive shafts. Both rear PTO shafts have the same U-joints as the front and rear drive shafts of the truck. Definately heavy duty stuff here.

2) By using the offset rear differential, a lessor degree of angularity was maintained on the rear drive shaft providing power to the rear axle. Quite a nice thing to consider on a truck also designed for severe off-road usage. When an owner swaps out to a centered differential, and connects the rear drive shaft to the "straight through" shaft of the transfer case, the angularity of the rear drive shaft is increased considerably.

3) The U.S. Government had already paid for all of the tooling for the offset differential and axle housing. It was used on the WC62 and WC63 model trucks delivered to the military. The offset axle housing was modified only slightly for use on the WDX-WM300 model Civilian Power-Wagon.

So you see, it was a win-win-win situation for Dodge to use the offset differential on the new Power-Wagon.

Junior



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