Diff Video
 

http://www.chevyavalancheclub.com/in...?topic=16225.0

Someone link it

This?

Ya, frickin complicated isnt it?

Yes. And think, the likely "end game" for automobiles is relatively much much simpler. Electric motors on the drive wheels controlled by a power controller based on feedback from sensors. No engine, trans or diff at all.

I think end game will be a hybrid system like seven seven one. Has turbine powered generator with direct drive electric motors. I also think there will be a large fully electric plug insector as solar power gains popularity. I don't believe that fossil fuels will ever go away.

Certainly I don't think liquid chemical energy is going anywhere anytime soon. Too useful in too many ways.

HOWEVER, within mass infrastructure, those subsystems of turbine/generator per vehicle are redundant IF you have something like an inductive grid. So in the cases of a dense metropolis and urban cars, they could be very simple direct drive with only a very small energy buffer battery and pick up power direct from a grid in the road itself. No tanks, turbine, generator. Throw in some advancing materials science that will make it possible to be exceptionally light and the power output needed for useful transport is considerably lower too. Of course, autonomous navigation. Suspension will be full electromagnetic ride control. This is not imagination, it's ALL already been reduced to practice. It's a matter of scale implementation. I think we'll see it on a large scales in big urban areas in 30-50 years. That would be my guess anyway.

That would require a huge capital investment by the government to accomplish. Upkeep would also be substantial. The other major issue it that transporting energy results in a 25% loss so the return on investment would be zero or close to zero. I would rather have the consumer assume the risk and have my own power plant on board. Especially is you want the "off the grid" capability.

AC transmission losses depend on a number of factors. Estimated average in the US is around 7%. This includes some quite long runs. In a half decent world with fusion plants immediately adjacent to metropolitan areas, that would go down even more.

http://www.eia.gov/tools/faqs/faq.cfm?id=105&t=3

Rail lines around the world (like Japan) have their grid on the centenary system and this kind of thing has been around for a long time. What I'm suggesting is only an extension of this idea really. It would be part of the road system. Economically this could work in a variety of ways. The easiest, though not necessarily best is for producer of electricity to wholesale into a government road grid, which is then resold to end users.

The grid (gird of subgrids) in the US is pretty long in the tooth without much slack capacity AFIK. In any event, it's going to have to be addressed one way or another in the not so distant future.

But no doubt, retrofitting something like what I'm talking about into existing roads would be a major project, but I think eventually that's where it will be as part of how things are done at least in densely populated areas. Basically EVERYTHING on demand.

I think the end game will be a Subaru differential. I dont know whats in there, but they are tiny, and I never hear of them breaking. Ill bet more of the gear reduction happens in the trans. I dunno... Attachment 956