Thats the whole point to make the opposing vehicle the crumple zone. Most of the energy should be absorbed by the weaker vehicle folding up.
Thats the whole point to make the opposing vehicle the crumple zone. Most of the energy should be absorbed by the weaker vehicle folding up.
Unless, of course, it's a tree or a bridge abutment that is the other party to the accident. Then your crumpling is good.
Bob
Its important to keep an off road vehicle light. I am not sure this is as important for on road use.
I believe he was specifically talking about keeping the ends light. If you hang some great mongo 4" pipe bumpers on both ends of your 4WD, you're guaranteed to turn it into a real dog over any type of bumps. Add a big ol' Warn winch, some brush guards, shovels, and about 100' of anchor chain, and it'll suck bigtime. The increase in rotational inertia about the center of mass will make the vehicle seesaw like the bull at Gilley's. Same thing applies to boats.
Pete Keillor
Not if you have the appropriate springs and shocks.
JTMcC.
Same thing applies to boats.
I agree the springs and shocks help, lots of travel with lots of damping for offroad, but you'll suffer compared to keeping the weight out of the ends. Used to run across mesquite pasture with some 2-3' drops at 50 mph in my cj. Ran like a dream. Stock, it would have cost me kidneys and fillings, and broken the jeep.
Pete Keillor
Caterpillar doesn't seem to agree, nor does John Deere.
Gary
Twit.
Off road vehicles range from mountain bikes, quads, desert racers, mud boggers, rock crawlers, regular old pickups, military duece and a halfs, 5 tons, M-1A Abrams main battle tanks, Humvees, great big electric company utility trucks, D-11's, pipelayers, and my favorite-welding rigs. Some are very light, some (particularly those used for work) are very heavy.
JTMcC.
>
On our old truck, we had a heavy piece of channel with a heavy oak plank bolted to its face. So when we had to give another truck or wagon a push, it acted as a buffer, and avoided too much scarring and damage at the contact points.
Gary
I thought we were talking about car type vehicles, such as the JEEP mentioned in the first line.....
Well, these things tend to go far afield at times, so feel free to talk about whatever you want. I was responding to a couple of comments to the effect that heavy off road vehicles, or off road vehicles with heavy loads are a bad thing. To me, and I am prejudiced, they are a wonderful thing. In fact, heavily loaded vehicles in an off road environment are a critical component in the income stream at my humble abode. I didn't mean to offend you, puleeez forgive me!
JTMcC.
This is my answer to the drivers I encounter every day - Ford Excursion, slightly raised, with 4x12" oak on all four sides. Of course, my low level fork-lift would come in very handy for removing those A-holes who insist on parking in the fire lane in front of the bank machine. Honestly, I have parked in the lot, gone to a human teller inside the bank, and the SOB is still there when I leave. Gerry :-)} London, Canada
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