Question about last night power pullers

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I had a question about last night's Power Puller episode. During the second pull-off, both teams sat there unable to move for at least 30 seconds. How is it that the V6 was able to produce enough power to stay completely even with the V8 like it did? The only thing I could think of was that it was a big V6 and a small V8. Thanks.

William

-- William Barrett (wildbill65401@yahoo.com), February 06, 2001

Answers

The limit was not the power produced, but the amount the tires could transfer. They must have had comparable axle loads, so the tires (closely matched) were able to generate comparable force. Was very neat to see.

-- Jeff - The NERDS (tm) (dp@the-nerds.org), February 06, 2001.

Certain low end stock car classes use tire size to keep it even. the tuners try to build only the horsepower that the tire can transfer to the track. The money saved is spent on tuning the suspension and weight distribution to make a winner. The weight limit kept the teams at a parity. With an unlimited weight for the tractor then the heaviest would almost always win. the heaviest would just gear down and drag the lighter one around like a toy.

-- Stephen A. Binion (Stephenbinion@hotmail.com), February 06, 2001.

The V-8 was a 3.5 liter Rover (nee Buick) that produces (when fresh) something like 165 HP. The V-6 was a Ford, and probably a 2.9 liter, that makes something like 150-155 HP. I don't have torque numbers handy, but the V-8 certainly had an advantage there.

Overall, not much of a power difference, and both vehicles had enough power to overcome their tires' traction on the dirt. With larger tires or a grippier surface, assuming the engines were putting out their full rated power (an iffy proposition for scrapheap engines) the Orange team should have had an advantage.

As is so often the case on SC/JYW, the machine that didn't break, or capsize, won. In this case, it was the machine that broke less often.

-- Rick Tyler (rick@raf.com), February 06, 2001.


William, The key things here are , traction (Tire design & size) & weight on the rear tires. The vehicle with the most traction would always win even if it was way under horsepowered. If they had made it lower geared with all the weight on the rear tires (to keep the wheels from spinning) the v6 would have easily pulled the v8 (spinning its wheel so fast) backwards.

-- Rick The Rocket (hoodoo2@povn.com), February 06, 2001.

I also noticed that the team getting dragged didn't resist by locking their brakes. Was it not allowed or did they just not think?

-- Searoy (searoy@aircooled.net), February 06, 2001.


Major Dick and bowser were probably too busy cursing to think about brakes.

-- Stephen A. Binion (Stephenbinion@hotmail.com), February 06, 2001.

Can anyone explain why tractor tires are mounted to rotate in the direction that they do? It has always seemed to me that rotation in the opposite direction would give better traction, but I have a feeling that if it did everyone would do it that way.

Do you think that using steel wheels like this would have been a good idea?

-- Mark Richter (jyw@troyjaycees.org), February 07, 2001.


The tread design for tractor tires goes back to when they were made of steel. It is called self cleaning, it supposedly pushes the dirt and mud to the outside as it spins. Mounted the other way it would pull the debris to the center of the tread reducing traction. This is a farm tractor tread designed to be used on soft earth, as opposed to mud.

JustJay

-- JustJay-Captain-Three Rusty Juveniles (justjay@neo.rr.com), February 07, 2001.


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