so i was just wondering how exactly does the rear wheels of an articulated dump truck get power? are they dummy wheels? or can they help drive/push the truck or does it have some kind of weird drive shaft that is able to bend and transmit power ?? this is a confusing topic for me since i havent really seen how they work can someone shine some light please???
Drive shaft across the articulation joint. Most artic trucks are all wheel drive.
got any pics of how it works ?
Its a basic standard driveshaft with a spline that lets it get shorter as the truck articulates. Same as log skidders, front end loaders, etc.
The rear wheels are the primary drivers. Drive line comes out of the back of the transmission drop box and continues to the front differential. There is an inter-axle differential like on a highway truck that will split torque between the middle drive axle and the rear drive axle. The inter-axle differential can be locked so both axles will drive together of left loose so they can rotate as necessary around corners and such. The transmission drop box also has a connection going out the front to the front axle of the machine. Older models just had a jaw clutch to disconnect the front axle from the drivers but today have another differential inside the drop box to allow the front axle to drive all the time. That differential can also be locked on most of todays trucks. Each manufacturer has their own ideas of how the systems should work and there were also a bunch of ideas that didn't work out so good in the early days. What is seen today closely resembles regular highway truck drive axles with a couple of twists, pun intended.