Which type of hydraulic retarder is suitable for your vehicle?

What are the classifications of hydraulic retarders? What are the characteristics of each type of hydraulic retarder?

According to the different media, the hydraulic retarder can be divided into oil medium hydraulic retarder and water medium hydraulic retarder.

Oil medium retarder, is currently the most common hydraulic retarder products on the market. The concept of water-mediated retarder was first proposed by Voith Germany, which has the characteristics of small weight, fast response, high torque, low power consumption, continuous braking, flexible installation (trailer can also be installed), and convenient post-maintenance (the working medium is water).

However, such as the lubricity of the water medium is not as good as the oil medium, water medium is easy to evaporate at high temperatures and other difficulties still need to be overcome. Although there are corresponding products on the market, but because of the current high price and other factors make it is not widely used. Therefore, at present, the oil medium hydraulic retarder is still the mainstream product on the market.

According to the different installation methods, the hydraulic retarder is divided into three categories: series hydraulic retarder, parallel hydraulic retarder and independent hydraulic retarder.

The reason for the three installation types of hydraulic retarder is to take into account several fields such as trucks and buses, light and medium trucks, and special vehicles.

Series hydraulic retarder: installed at the rear of the gearbox, the drive shaft passes through the center of the retarder and is on the same axis as the gearbox. Since the installation position is at the rear end of the gearbox and directly acts on the drive shaft, the gearbox is slightly modified in the case of installation and modification.

However, the series hydraulic retarder is equivalent to adding another section to the rear of the gearbox, which requires sufficient space and is suitable for vehicles with larger body spaces. It is worth mentioning that the tandem retarder cannot be equipped with a rear power take-off, so some engineering vehicles do not fit the tandem hydraulic retarder.

Parallel hydraulic retarder: It is installed in parallel with the drive shaft. Parallel hydraulic retarder has the advantages of compact structure, light weight, convenient installation, etc., and is suitable for use in vehicles with tight body space.

Although the parallel hydraulic retarder is small and exquisite, it also sacrifices some performance accordingly. Moreover, the parallel hydraulic retarder is basically customized according to the characteristics of different gearboxes, so the parallel retarder is not available for all models, and the gearbox needs to be modified when it is modified (whether the gearbox has a pre- Leave the retarder interface, if there is no interface, you may need to replace the entire gearbox sub-box to achieve installation).

Independent hydraulic retarder: The independent hydraulic retarder is installed in the middle of the beam, not directly connected to either the transmission or the drive axle, allowing more freedom of installation, no matter which transmission is available, as long as there is a drive shaft it can be installed.

There is not much difference between the independent hydraulic retarder and the Series hydraulic retarder. The difference lies in the installation method and the connection method with the drive shaft. So, how should we choose a hydraulic retarder? If you are buying a new vehicle, you only need to confirm with the dealer whether the vehicle is equipped with a hydraulic retarder and clarify the operation method of the hydraulic retarder.

If you want to install a hydraulic retarder in the later period, you should choose according to your model. If your model is a heavy truck-based chassis and a product model with ample space, it is recommended that you choose a series hydraulic retarder Device. After all, this retarder only has the requirement of installation space, and the installation can be realized by adding a conversion bracket directly at the rear of the gearbox.

If you are a light truck or medium truck owner, it is recommended that you choose a parallel or independent hydraulic retarder. First of all, the chassis layout of light and medium truck models is relatively compact and may not be able to support series liquefaction and installation. It should be noted that the installation of parallel hydraulic buffers may modify the vehicle gearbox, which will increase a part of the cost.

For some special engineering vehicles that need to install power take-offs, the problem you need to consider is the installation of power take-offs. The tandem retarder will affect the installation of the rear power take-off, and the front and side power take-offs can be installed as usual. Parallel retarder does not affect the power take-off device. Therefore, the rear-mounted power take-off vehicles cannot be equipped with series hydraulic buffers. You can only choose parallel and independent hydraulic buffers. For side-mounted and front power take-off vehicles, basically three types of hydraulic buffers can be selected.