> Date: Thu, 25 Jun 1998 09:38:26 -0400
> From: Rader <rlr@rtp-bosch.com>
> Organization: Bosch Telecom
> To: Dakota Mailing List <dakota-truck@buffnet.net>
> Subject: DML: FWD pickups
> Reply-to: dakota-truck@buffnet.net
> All you folks have made some reasonable conjecture about why there aren't
> more FWD pickups around, thanks.
>
. Well, a properly-loaded pickup has the center of mass located
> in front of the rear axle. This means more weight on both the front
> and rear axles; not a problem, and actually tends to balance out the front:
> rear weight ratio.
As long as the truck is not accelerating.
> Anybody who loads a truck with the center of mass behind the rear axle
> is just begging for trouble in any case, and I'd actually suspect that the
> problem of taking weight off the front end is worse for a RWD than FWD
> vehicle. Since FWD combines the steering/driving wheels, you'll know
> you've lost traction as soon as you put your foot in it. On a RWD platform
> you won't notice the lost front-end traction until you actually try to
> steer.
>
> Towing is another very real case of taking weight off the
> front end, but again I think that problem is worse in a RWD platform.
> Besides, the problem is minimized by the tongue weight rating.
Forward motion transfers the weight rearward. To have a good
fwd truck you need to have extra weight up front to keep it from
rising too much. Weight transfer benefits the rwd platform, because
it applys force to the drive wheels.
> So the lack of FWD pickups seems to be due mainly to the lack of a
> truly heavy-duty FWD transaxle, and that truck owners tend to like RWD/4WD
> better (I know I do). The Arrow/Rampage/Rabbit pickups were all based on
> small auto chassis and couldn't have been rated for any noteworthy hauling
> or towing capacity.
>
> Speaking of H/D FWD transaxles, what about the high-performance vehicles
> like the blown Grand Prix and SHO Taurus?
These motors don't have much torque.
|{eith R. Phelps
Cat..... the other white meat.
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