I've never been able to come to grips with adding weight to a car foe snow. Added mass was is harder to start and stop in physics lab 101.
As some editor at Car and Driver (?) so aptly said once: that's why Goodyear doesn't hire first-year physics students to design tires! There are _many_ more factors here at work.
Worst winter traction I've ever had was in my big pickup truck, with the original tires on. Best winter traction I've ever had was in my big pickup truck, with aggressive tread tires and the camper on! Amazingly good traction, no slipping even on glare ice.
My 2 WD Ford F-250 is terrible in the snow, it gets stuck on wet grass with my 5th wheel on (About 2,000 pin weight)
A fifth-wheel is a lot of dead weight to pull with one tire! Works fine on the highway, though.
There is maybe 50 sq. inches of contact area between tire and ground to move that load.
Less, I'd say. The truck probably weighs some 6000#, and it's not evenly distributed. Call it a generous 1500#, plus half the trailer's pin weight for 2500#. 60 PSI in the tires? That's 42 in^2 of contact patch to push the entire combined weight around. -- Jim _______________________________________ http://www.okiebenz.com For new and used parts go to www.okiebenz.com To search list archives http://www.okiebenz.com/archive/ To Unsubscribe or change delivery options go to: http://okiebenz.com/mailman/listinfo/mercedes_okiebenz.com
