Project History

IHT is from the initial of "Integrated Hydrostatic Transaxle". It is an all-in-one driving device consisting of HST(Hydrostatic Transmission) and transaxle in one housing.
Tuff Torq has developped and introduced into the market ahead of the competitors in the world.

HST, which enables smooth driving without shifting and clutch operation, was used as conventional speed changing system for riding lawn tractor. However, transaxles were needed besides HST, which brought disadvantages such as increased drivetrain system space, weight and price. So riding mowers with HST were limited to some of high-end models. It seems to take long time before residential modes also introduce HST.

Integrating our hydraulic and gear technology fostered so far, KANZAKI successfully designed transmissions with compact size, high performance and durability, which have gained a reputation for products responding to our customers' need.

Recently, riding mowers produced in North America totals about 1.1 milloion units annually. Most of them have IHT except for a few low price models with mechanical transmissions. IHT has been so popular that we can say it is standard system of drive axles of riding mowers. TUFF TORQ has IHT market share of approx. 50% in North America and provides IHTs for most of the major OEMs in Europe.

Now our IHT technology has extended to other applications besides riding mowers as following.