Recent content by RoyJ

That's been my experience - electric work well for small branches / limbing, but buck up a big tree, and you'll quickly kill the battery. Power use vs size of tree is not linear. In my "crew", we have a 60V EGO, 18V Milwaukee, and my selection of gas saws (usually a Husky 365). A small tree...

Also depends on the vehicle itself. My old Dodge V10 burns gas liked a carbed big block when crawling on FSRs, even if the engine is not putting out much power at those speeds. Goes through the 134L tank quick. My 2 door Jeep on 37s does much better at those speeds, 1/3 the fuel burn but 1/2...

Agree with what you said, but will add: tire deformation + thickness of the rubber determines your heat generated. i.e. a 1" thick sidewall vs 1/8" sidewall, both deformed by the same amount under (different) load, running the same speed - your thicker sidewall generates significantly more heat...

You can not use page 28 - 29 to compare E vs C vs P-rated tires, that's why there's a warning at the top. It's meant to compare tires of the SAME construction, of different load ratings. i.e. a 125 rated P-tire vs 114 rated P-tire For a tire of a given size (285/75R17), a P-rated tire has...

Bingo. Really depends where you live - out in the desert, this probably doesn't make much sense. Here in BC, we have many, many, miles of de-activated and overgrown forestry roads to explore. Hate threading through trees with my 1 ton, but a midsize doesn't have the payload for 1+ week off grid...

Answer is: it depends on the vehicle. If say, an F250's gvw was "neutered" for tax / CDL purposes, then its neutered payload is irrelevant to its mechanical capability. The most extreme example would be a Power Wagon. Its axles, drivetrain, brakes, frames, is functionally identical to a 3500...

What I did to avoid large and expensive cables is a rear battery, preferably pure lead agm. It acts as a buffer or large capacitor, and only needs two 4 gauge copper / 2 gauge aluminum cables back to the main batt. It's rare, at least in my use cases, to sustain 300+ amp draw, especially with...

Glad to see someone still reading it in 2024! Can't believe it's been 8 years since I geeked out, lol I've recently lost 2 alternators, one on a non-truck. Did some research and realized how poorly most OEM alternators are at supplying high amps @ low rpm, due to lack of cooling and cooking the...

The video shows an F450, which is much stronger than a 350 chassis cab. But good question, I too wondered where they measure it. Took some more digging...

http://d3is8fue1tbsks.cloudfront.net/PDF/Ford/Ford%20f350%20450%20500%20cab%20chassis%20spec.pdf Page 19, F350 chassis, 36 ksi frame, 8.7 sec modulus. 26,100 lb-ft bending strenght, believe it or not, lower than a modern Ram pickup. Thickness by itself can be deceiving. I feel we're all...

Interesting. On Ram 1/2 tons, 5'7 beds have forward bed mounts rear of the control arm bracket, and 6'4 beds slightly ahead of the bracket. In my future crew cab 5'7 bed build, the rear seat is coming out, and heavy stuff will be stored in its place (batteries, water, etc.). The bed will have...

Engineering is so over-rated... BRO science all the way!

Section modulus listed here (under Measurements): https://www.carhp.com/ram/3500-2014/specifications 50 ksi is published data from Ram. 3000 lbs is a conservative minimum based on light wrecker bodies: https://www.millerind.com/products/light-duty/century-411-412 Most that I've seen do not...

Sounds like the absolute worst case for stress concentration! Based on your info, I feel the ideal truck for high speed desert type offroading is a reg cab long bed. Load the COG ahead of the rear axle (easy on a long bed), so during a full compression impact, it's actually bending (not...

Pictures to show why frames always break where they do, look how much thinner it gets past the cab: Now hang a 2000 lbs camper out back, hit a big bump, full bump-stop contact (just inches past the the cab to bed transition), not hard to bend the rails. I just learned this about the Tundra...