CTIS for toyota axles

[itchy355]

Just fooling around.

As far as I know, the only doable solution is to mount portal axles to our Toyotas to be able to go full time internal CTIS (without lines running outside of the truck).

Seems rather sad.

So looking at this and the axle cross section got me thinking. It should be somewhat possible to drill an air hole through the axle's knuckle body right ,,into'' the axle seal, remove the seal altogether and machine a new double seal with an air hole, drill a hole right through the axle direct perpendicular to it and then another one in it's length from that point, so we'd create a rotary union and thus got air into the birfield joint; drill the birfield sub axle in its full length and have some high quality air line going through it right out into the wheel center, through an L coupling and into the wheel.

There should be plenty of material to keep the strength as the axle shaft is thicker at the axle seal (where the perpendicular air hole would go) and a small (3-4mm) hole in the very center shouldn't affect rotational strength very much. Question is if the birfield sub axle wouldn't get too weak with a bit thicker hole through it (3-4mm plus 1-2mm for the tube) but then again it's the center, most of the force is at the surface.

Another question is if any air tube would be durable enough to sustain being bent in the birfield joint while being in a fast rotation (on a highway).

Sort of possible or totally out of question?

 

[lcwizard]

Good thing you're just fooling around.... I understand the concept for military ,when bullets are flying and you're running for your life but
seriously, would the very high cost of developing this be worth the convenience? How much time does it take to stop and check air pressure?
To have this system would already require an on board compressor. A hose doesn't take up much room. This project would have to be followed immediately by a Star Trek style transporter that beamed a Wendy's Baconator meal directly to your front seat so you didn't have to stop
at the drive through......we need to slow down. I use the time stopping to air up, air down to circle the truck and look for other problems

 

[SuperBuickGuy]

I sort of agree with you, Lcwizard, especially since they are not zero maintenance (I drive an H3 and am pretty active in several hummer boards - so I am conversant on the issues faced).
But

I've been bouncing this idea in my mind. You know how we have TPS in most modern car wheels? I wonder if the tech could be used to create a bluetooth enabled deflation system. I think that it should require a second valve stem that you could cap (so that someone can't deflate the tires when going down the highway) with a metal cap. But when you head to the hills, you could use your iPhone or similar to deflate to a certain point. To inflate, you'd still have to stop and hook up hoses - which I think is a good idea because it gives you the chance to do a post-wheeling inspection to be safe for the ride home. An additional benefit is you could have a medusa hose (hose with two snake ends) that could quickly inflate your tires to a pre-set level.

To me the real benefit would be that there are plenty of times when I don't need to go to the lowest psi; but I'm too excited or lazy to actually step down to find "best" traction. With bluetooth enabling, you could test pressures to find the "perfect" setting. Sure, you'd still have to get out and inflate again - but there is a sub-set of our hobby that would find this pretty cool and without the air-leaking issues of the CTIS.

Now I'll see that come out at SEMA and be irritated I didn't pursue it - and that wouldn't be the first or even 10th time that's happened (though a couple actual thanked me so that was nice) - but I'm so overloaded on projects that taking on another fairly low-sale device and marketing it is not something I'm excited about doing.

 

[Tapage]

I believe guys in Iceland ( Artic Trucks ) have something like that ..

 

[itchy355]

Oh well, .. there's also the truckers who use it I guess quite without trouble, former soviet mil vehicles had it figured sort of trouble free as well as tatra. All in all it's not about ,,why to do it'' but ,,if it'd work''

And as you said, there are plenty of times it just doesn't pay off to air down/up just for the small part of what-the-heck, but it damn would if there's nothing else than a button push from achieving that.

If the system was fairly doable, not overcomplicated and not extremely expensive and street use prohibitive (= portal axles), it would be useful to some. OBA itself is a good thing all in all (I guess all agree to that) and to have this bonus with it.. heck, why not.

 

[Mace]

If the system was fairly doable, not overcomplicated and not extremely expensive and street use prohibitive (= portal axles), it would be useful to some. OBA itself is a good thing all in all (I guess all agree to that) and to have this bonus with it.. heck, why not.

I'm sure it's possible and could be done similar to the ARB diff setup. However, you just listed all of the things it would be. Doable, but overly complicated, and terribly expensive.

Air down to whatever PSI a trail demands (based on your tires/rims) and leave it. I've never gotten denied on a line because my tire press was 2 psi too low...