by stillsmokin » Tue Aug 23, 2011 9:35 pm
With the caltracs forcing the truck to squat in the nose the downforce that is created by the bellcrank mechanism pushes down on the tire in the direction of gravity thus multiplying its effect. But really you are cancelling out the force that starts the wrap to begin with more than anything. The thought is any residual force left over must be in a direction that benefits the machine, down. Keep the center of gravity as low as you possibly can for stability and to fight the sled.
You want to keep your nose down as much as you can pulling, steering issues creep up if the nose gets too high. Its a big problem if you have serious ground speed and crappy steering. Driveline angles get hairy in the front as well as the nose rises. If you are lifted to allow for steering with 2100# on the weight rack (like pulltilbroke and myself are) all the effects are worsened. 33x12.5 tires wouldn't turn in my wheelwells with the iron on if it wasn't lifted, so I have to make it work.
Front axle wrap is bad, so getting rid of it is beneficial, however a guy gets rid of it.
Our axle wrap problem is really a front leaf spring problem. Someone needs to make us a front leaf spring for pulling to reduce wrap, more like chevy and ford trucks have, there should be 3 leaves eye to eye at the top of the pack with multiple bands. The front spring eye should have been wrapped by the second spring as well but, I am unsure if it would clear the hanger that way. With some slight change in spring rate or arch to offset the massive amount of weight we have to hang off the front to get up to say 8500# without the tires eating the wheelwells. Most of the springs I've tried are designed with soft ride characteristics only in mind. I'm on the 4th set of front springs and don't like these either. I probably need to call alcan spring at this point.
92 W250LE REG CAB, SLED PULLER, S400
93 W350LE EXT CAB, dually, 5 speed