5 ms·
One of the reasons to put tracks on a vehicle is to reduce the pressure it exerts on the ground. A bulldozer might weigh 15x as much as light truck, but if it h
by Lagged2Death 10y ago
One of the reasons to put tracks on a vehicle is to reduce the pressure it exerts on the ground. A bulldozer might weigh 15x as much as light truck, but if it has 75x the contact area, it would have (much!) lower ground pressure, and would be dramatically less prone to sinking into snow or mud or what-have-you.
Some sanity checks:
1993 Toyota 4Runner / Hilux Surf: 25 psi
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ground_pressure https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ground_pressure)
Caterpillar D6R LGP Bulldozer: 5 psi
(http://www.ritchiespecs.com/specification?type=Con&category=Crawler+Tractor&make=Caterpillar&model=D6R+LGP&modelid=103955 http://www.ritchiespecs.com/specification?type=Con&category=...)
Some tracked vehicles like bulldozers are available in extra-wide track versions to reduce their ground pressure even further. It wouldn't be surprising if most of the snow fleet is so equipped.
- stouset 10y ago5 psi doesn't seem like much at all! I wonder if that's a pressure survivable by a human.
- loco5niner 10y agoLikely depends on how many square inches of the human are covered, and where on the human they are located.
- stouset 10y agoFor arguments' sake, the whole human.
- loco5niner 10y agoThis kills the human (joking... I don't really know)
- timdierks 10y agoLet's say an human with height 170cm and hip width of 85cm (these are between the averages men & women) gives a rectangular area of about 1.4 m^2; the head and legs aren't as wide as the hips, but this doesn't include the arms, so let's take it as a guess of the weight-bearing area for a prone or supine human. This area times 5 psi is more than 5,000 kg (more than 11,000 lbs). So yes, I think it would kill someone.
- grkvlt 10y agoSurely not? The point of pressure is that it's constant per area, so no matter how much is covered, the pressure felt is still 5 psi.
- paulddraper 10y agoNo. Put 5psi on a 1 inch x 1 inch area of my hand and I will be okay. Put 5psi on a 12 inch x 24 inch area of my torso, and I will be very much not okay.
- loco5niner 10y agothis is correct