I heard long time ago from a loader operator that each of the loader's wheels drives independantly from the others making it even better than 4x4. But I don't know whether all loaders operate on this principle. Also I have another question about electric drive loaders like letourneau.I know that letourneau uses electric drive but does it suffer power loss due to this?Wouldn't it be more powerful if it was a regular loader like wa1200 for example?
First this is dont belive everything you hear, the operator may have been refering to a hydrostatic drive loader which may be true to a degree but not really (engine drives hyd. pump which uses hydraulics to drive a travel motor/s which drive the wheels, but no, they dont really operate independantly anyway there is pros & cons with electric drive systems i think compared with a WA1200 they dont have as good break out force down low, the new generation loaders have a differant drive system which provides charging on braking which is a plus over the mechanical drive WA1200, they both break down though
I don't know exactly what it means for each wheel to be driven independently. In a wheel loader, there are 2 differentials, one in front and one in the back. Wheel loaders operate in full time four wheel drive. Because the front and rear differentials are always locked together, 2 wheels have to be slipping (one in front and one in back) simultaneously to spin the wheels. Many wheel loaders are equipped with differential locks or limited slip differentials in the front, and some in the back too. When differential lock is engaged, all the wheels are locked together, and all wheels must be slipping to spin any wheels.
My old Trojan loader has a lever in the cab, 2WD [just the front] or 4WD [front & rear] Each axle has a differential, without it you would have a real tough time steering.
I had an Allamand compact loader-hoe that had hydrostatic drive. The rear axle was driven by a hydraulic motor, and with the flip of a switch, it had front wheel assist with seperate hydraulic motors at each front wheel. Problem was, both wheels drove off the same hydraulic circuit, so if you picked one front wheel, you lose drive to both because the oil follows the path of least resistance, which happens to be the front wheel with no traction.
Seems like that would be easy to fix with a flow divider...
kat12, There are many versions and applications on wheel loaders. I have driven a big Pettibone and I could steer the back tires and front tires seperately. I don't remeber if I could take it out of 4 wheel drive because we never wanted too but it was a great machine once you got used to it. You could slide into a tree sideways and actually steer yorself sideways away from the tree. They had a sticker on it that it was the loader that could not get stuck. I never got it stuck but I believe that may be an awfully hard statement to stand behind. I hope that gives you one application. Invent_4U