Dana Incorporated launched a hydrostatic driveline for telehandlers in North America. The system’s modular architecture enables customers to easily transition to a hydrogen or battery-electric vehicle design.  The new driveline has been showcased at the CONEXPO-CON/AGG 2023 tradeshow held in Las Vegas from March 14-18.

Developed for telehandler applications lifting up to 12,000 pounds, Dana’s new driveline comes equipped with a compact Spicer 312 dropbox for high-power hydrostatic motors. This new hydrostatic dropbox functions as a continuously variable transmission without torque interruption and delivers enhanced performance with precise movements at low speeds, reduced fuel consumption, and an integrated spring applied hydraulic release parking brake.

The transmission is designed to be coupled with the field-proven Spicer 222 front and rear heavy-duty axles, which each feature a limited-slip differential and provide the customer with maintenance-free brakes.  The complete driveline system is optimized for efficiency as well as noise, vibration, and harshness.

“Dana has more than 40 years of expertise designing and implementing hydrostatic transmission solutions for diverse applications across the off-highway market. Our new hydrostatic driveline offers operators an easy-to-use solution with increased performance and efficiency at low speeds.  This makes it an ideal fit for use in the North American telehandler market and its modular approach gives customers the flexibility to make the transition to a zero-emissions solution.”

said Jeroen Decleer, senior vice president of Dana Off-Highway Drive and Motion Systems.

In order to support the industry’s transition to zero-emission vehicles, Dana optimized the axles and driveline system for efficiency to support a variety of architectures, allowing customers to retain the same driveline solution while choosing between implementing a hydrostatic dropbox or electrically driven design.

From single-and two-speed dropboxes to shift-on-fly and powersplit transmissions, Dana offers a complete range of hydrostatic transmissions that enable customers to leverage the best solution for their specific vehicle’s duty-cycle requirements.