Drive wheels

[Snake]

Are the drive wheels a positive lock on a trike ?

 

[cscsonny]

Mine are not and believe that would cause some serious handling and turning problems.

 

[427dave]

There is a differential just like a car. If there was not a differential it would cause a turning problem and want to push the front tire instead of turning.

 

[Snake]

Just thought that might be the problem with the pushing in the curves. I have a tractor with positive lock switch And it will make the front wheels slide in a turn if its on.

 

[John Luciano]

Only problem with turns is the learning curve( no pun intended) until you master the push , pull ,, lock elbow and power through, it will seem like you are plowing . Adding a rake reduce the learning curve.

 

[Snake]

cscsonny, I see you don't have ground affect on your trike . If I may ask , why ?? I really haven't decided if I want them or not. Some days I do & other days I don't.

 

[rhino 2]

If you had a locked rear axle, The first time you made a sharp turn on a hard surface you would most likely roll the trike. That's what made 3 wheel ATC's so dangerous and then outlawed..
I had 3 ATC's over the years and I can attest to what happens to their handling on black top...
:xszpv:

 

[cscsonny]

Hello Snake,
There were several reasons I opted not to get running boards on our trike.
I do like the looks on some trikes,however the CSC boards for our trike were not rated to step on or bear any weight.Another was ground clearence and several I had seen were rock chipped and scratched.
My biggest reason was that I wanted to keep my center stand.I can change oil and filter and other maintainence much easier while on center stand.I have even had all 3 wheels off at the same time using the center stand and a small bottle jack under the hitch bar.
Another big reason(believe this or not)is my wife likes to get under it and keep the underside as clean as she does the topside.She just loves to detail all our vehicles............and I do all the cookin......she hates to cook,been that way since we got hitched.
Hope tha answers your question.Sonny

 

[tfdeputydawg]

If you had a locked rear axle, The first time you made a sharp turn on a hard surface you would most likely roll the trike. That's what made 3 wheel ATC's so dangerous and then outlawed..
I had 3 ATC's over the years and I can attest to what happens to their handling on black top...
:xszpv:

I must respectfully disagree w/this info!
The Honda ATV's that caused many injuries and deaths years ago were prone to roll overs because of the design of the wheel base and narrow width + the speeds they could reach + the balloon tires.
While a true locked rear end would not be desirable on a full sized trike, having one would not make the trike prone to roll overs in corners.

- - - Updated - - -

cscsonny, I see you don't have ground affect on your trike . If I may ask , why ?? I really haven't decided if I want them or not. Some days I do & other days I don't.

I have them on my Hannigan. They are weight bearing and I removed my foot pegs and rest my feet on the boards. Much more comfortable ride,
As for chips-I had all forward facing surfaces on the trike and foot fairings covered w/3M stone guard. So far, no chips.

 

[Snake]

With a 6 deg rake , I don't think I can get it into my portable garage with the ground effect on. I think the ramp is to steep to clear them!

 

[THEREALTRIKKY]

There are a few trikes on the market that use a posi rear end, however, they're typcially "specialty high end" trikes like Boss Hoss, etc. A posi or "locker" rear end is NOT ideal on a trike for several reasons. A "what if scenario" would be.. Wet roads, if you go to turn left, accidentally twist the throttle with a posi, both wheels are "pushing" at the same rate highly increasing the odds of causing the front tire to slide instead of steer, causing the trike to go straight forward.

I've seen this happen on a few Boss Hosses, etc at rallies.. Someone gets on it, gets nervous and tense, cuts the wheel, twists the grip, and off they go.. Last one I saw went through a small ditch, across a road, into a parking lot and barely missed 2 cars before getting it stopped.

While similar can be done on any trike if you tried hard enough, a posi rear end makes it a more probably likelihood of happening.

 

[Shimpy]

I have a Champion with a differential. My question is can I jack one rear wheel off the ground and be able to turn the drive shaft inorder to lube the zerk fittings on the drive shaft?
I've been having to move the trike forward and back to get to the fittings but would think the wheel off the ground would spin free. Don't mean to change the subject (hijack).

 

[SMSgt]

My 2012 Roadsmith has a traction lock or posi-traction as we used to call it. The differential always works like a differential but I can lay rubber with both rear wheels. You do not have a traction lock that you can lock like some industrial vehicles do.