I don't see how you can say it won't affect his chances of winning.

Bigger gears will give lower wheel speed and greater tractive force for a given RPM, both should be an advantage in pulling although it would require proportionally more weight in the bed to take advantage of the change. A limited slip, or even moreso a locker, will split the tractive force between the rear wheels, making the right rear less likely to break traction.

As to whether it's worth the time, effort and expense to make the change, that's a different question. The whole pull-off idea seems pretty silly and is probably going to result in somebody doing serious mechanical harm to their truck.

 

my friend challenged me to a pull off once i get my truck on the road. i have a '66 F-250 2wd. it's got a 300-6 with a dana 60 in the rear with 4.56 gears. my friend has an '88 diesel suburban 4wd i'm not sure what gears he has in it though. if i weigh down my bed, would i have a good chance?

 

prolly not against a diesel...dont even try it

 

i thought so, thanks for saving me the embarassment!

 

haha... that sounded funny. Just thought i would share.

I would never advise participating in a truck pull. Watching is fine, as long as its not your truck.

If you have ever seen that Lethal Weapon movie where the guy takes the house down with that awesome looking F-350 low rider cruiser rig, thats what you will be doing to your truck. That part of the movie brought me to tears.

 

Hey fast frank,
If I had a 3/4 ton truck with a 4.56 gears and a 300 I'd hook it to that 'burban. As long as he is in 2wd also. Weigh down your bed too. We are talking about an 88 GM diesel. I dont know if its a 6.2 or a 6.5 but either way it dosent have a turbo and those GM's were GUTLESS!

 

my bad i thought u said 98...hell if its an 88 go for it...they were terds, like the guy above me said, make sure ur both in 2wd and load ur bed down.

 

i dunno, i have seen a 6.5 litre diesel pull the **** out of a few loaded stock trailers. altho i would latch on to a 6.2 w/ a friggin volkswagen

 

i think he actually has a 4.2 litre if i remember correctly

so you guys think i can take him? if traction wasn't a factor?

 

i outpulled a 93 chevy 1500 4x4 with a 350.........and i was only in 2wd. i have a 1981 F150 4x4 with the i6 and an np435 4spd manual and the np208 t-case. what i did was go in 1st gear, with the t-case in 4-lo without the front hubs locked. i also have 4.10 gears and a locker...........so i pulled him for 30 feet or better without ever engaging my front axle. it can be done, in my opinion it is just not very necessary to prove that we have the best trucks ever made.

 

I hate to burst your bubble here, but the scene taht you are talk ing about, Mel Gibson has a GMC 3500 crew cab daully. So it really wasn't that big of loss.

Here is a little story for you guys. One night in the summer of 2001, I was at a local small town bar with a couple of buddys. There were a couple other local guys that were talking &#%! about how badass there Dodges were. One is a 99 and the other a 2000, both are 3500, 4X4, ext.cab, Cummins diesels, and both sticks I believe. A farmer who one of my buddies is freinds with was sitting next to them, finally he got tried of hearing all about the big, bad, Dodges. So he asked if they wanted to hook bumpers, not to one, but both trucks. So they all got up and went out side, the farmer said that he had to go get his truck, and the bar also cleared out. About 20 minutes later he got back with his F-550 crew cab, 4X4, PSD, auto, with steel flatbed, aux. fuel tanks for tractors, and also 2 buckets of sand from the Bobcat. They hooked the Dodges in a straight line, so one was in the middle of the other Dodge and the F-550. They werein 4wd and low range. The first Dodge started pulling, so them the farmer got on the throttle and started to pull the other truck backwards. Then the second Dodge also started to pull, the 550 started to go backwards, until he mashed the pedal to the floor. Both Dodges, still under power with tires swealing and black smoke making it had to see, got pulled backwards about 30 ft. Then the drivers side 4wd hub on the 550 decided that it didn't like the abuse and somehow shot out of the truck and acrose the road into the post office parking lot. After collecting all the pieces, the farmer went to the dealership on that monday, and when they asked how he blew the front end out, he said that he was pulling loaded chopper boxes. So it ended up getting covered under warrenty. The Dodge boys weren't running there mouths so much after that.

=+=+=+=+=
Paul

 

a few questions...

1. how much should i weigh down my bed?

2. what type of surface is best for this?

3. what is most likely to break?

4. any general driving advice?

 

Does anybody on this site know of any stock pickup pulls in the Minnesota area that have a six cylinder class? Have gone to a couple in the past and had a great time.

PS: The best time I had was when I pulled against a bunch of v8's. NO, I didn't beat any of them (all 350's +), but I did beat the only other 6cylinder out there. ANYWAY, back to my story, as I was dying out at the end of my pull some ****$ucker in the crowd started yelling "use the clutch, hit the clutch". I thought to myself "&%$# you and shut the @#$% up", but didn't say anything. Well, when he was up to pull, I discovered that he had a Massey diesel engine mounted in his F250, I thought he was going to out pull the crowd. BUT, to my joy, he dropped the clutch and dropped both his front and rear driveshaft yokes. I never laughed so hard in my life. And I quote "use the clutch, hit the clutch"...............hahahahahah you f*&#ing idot hahahahahaha

 

fast frank 66

1. about 1000# for a 1/2-ton; 1500# for a 3/4-ton; 2000# for a 1-ton truck.

2. Flat coarse pavement for you and mud for your opponent.

3. The tires away from the surface they're on, or a u-joint. They're designed to be the weakest link so more expensive parts don't break.

4. Read my earlier post.

Not really - wheel speed will always be exactly 0mph at the critical moment (when someone says "GO!"), so that doesn't matter. Once one truck starts moving forward, it means the other has either stalled out or is spinning his wheels, so the game is over.
Drive ratio has absolutely nothing to do with traction - that's strictly a function of weight, and the 2 materials that are trying to stick together (the tires and the surface). Since the tires on the trucks are pretty much the same rubber compound and we can assume they'll be on the same surface, the only variable left is who has more weight on the driving wheels.
No, the weight is constant because the rubber compounds and surface are constant.
The function of a locker is to concentrate the driveline torque on ONE wheel, assuming the other loses traction. An open differential splits the torque equally until one tire slips, then sends all the torque to the slipping tire. But if either of your driving tires loses traction, you've lost, so having a particular differential type is moot. One tire won't win, even if a locker or a spool is sending all the engine's torque to it. The rubber can't take that much stress, so it'll powder and both tires will spin.

The "tractive force" is friction, and it occurs between the rubber and the road. Gears don't affect it - engine power doesn't affect it - differentials don't affect it - tire size doesn't affect it (but smaller tires can't handle as much). All that matters is the weight on the tires and the surface they're resting on. Those 2 factors determine how much force it takes to break friction's hold on them and let the tires slide. If you have MORE weight on your driving wheels (assuming you haven't overloaded them) AND your engine is capable of putting more force on the chain/rope/strap/cable than your opponent's tires can take (regardless of his engine's power/torque), you'll drag him off. If you can't produce that much force, you'll stall. If he has more weight and enough torque, he'll drag you.