I was camping at Keystone Lake over the last few days. I walked my pup over by the boat ramp and saw a semi truck with an insane long trailer backed all the way down the boat ramp. It had what I would guess to be 60' long and 15' wide 2 story house boat on it. The truck started bouncing around and couldn't get the massive boat out of the water.
Beside it was a Chevy 2500hd much like mine. They decided to put the 2500hd in front of the semi truck and hookup the chains. Sure enough it tugged the big truck and huge boat right up the ramp. I suppose the big rig was probably doing most of the work, but the story is more fun if you just picture the Chevy dragging a huge train up a boat ramp.
Not sure why, but it was just really fun to sit back and watch a beast that size get relocated.
I got some cell phone pics, but they didn't turn out very good.
2011 Chevy 2500HD CC/SB 4x4 Victory Red
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Obviously not enough weight on the drivers. My buddy did something similar. The big rigs batteries were down and wouldn't start the engine. Fortunately the driver had not dumped the air so my friend hooked it behind his Ford and got things moving. Driver dumped the clutch and it took off. Almost caused a pile up on the highway with everybody gawking.
A 4 wheel drive truck in the low range, with a automatic transmission will have a lot more horsepower than even a 12 liter big rig at 1 MPH. This is because the transmission on the big rig can only give a certain amount of slip before the engine stalls at 0 MPH, but the GMC can rev up to 1800 MPH at 0 MPH and be producing about 150 - 200 HP! And the weight on the rear tires of the big rig is not actually very much weight with only a boat trailer hooked up to it.
Put on a 10,000 pound hitch weight, and the big rig tires will get planted on the ground, but otherwise they will start to bounce.
Yes it's fun to watch a small pickup do the work a Big rig can not. My buddy used to use his Mitsubishi Montero to pull campers out of a steep 4 wheel drive area. At 3-5 MPH, the trucks can not produce enough horsepower to get up a steep 25 degree embankment. If they could have hit it at 10 MPH, no problem, but at a slow speed, with the low RPM torque converter limiting engine speed to about 900 RPM, it would not make enough HP, but his tiny truck in low range, with a low ratio first gear, would make lots of power at 2 MPH.
He even towed a big rig truck off the freeway that was stuck in traffic, and had broken it's driveshaft by trying to start to quickly. By keeping it in first gear, he could pull the 65,000 pound truck at 5 MPH on fairly level ground.
Seems the tractor didn't have enough pin weight for it to bounce the rear end (s).
This time of year with lower lake level's and moss I can't get my little boat out either in 2wd
Yes indeed the boat ramps can be fun to watch.
Hang around state parks after a rainfall and watch the bigger two wheel drive babies spin those rears trying to budge a trailer.
My International toter had close to 10,000lbs on it's front tires and brother that makes them hard to push through any soft stuff even with the rear diff's locked up. Twice; 4X4 pick-ups saved my butt.
Today is just the tomorrow you worried about yesterday!
I assume the large torque of the semi engine, the stiff clutch, the total lack of weight on the drives, and the usual slime on the ramp are the major causes.
bstark wrote: Hang around state parks after a rainfall and watch the bigger two wheel drive babies spin those rears trying to budge a trailer.
My International toter had close to 10,000lbs on it's front tires and brother that makes them hard to push through any soft stuff even with the rear diff's locked up. Twice; 4X4 pick-ups saved my butt.
Just because you're in love with 4WD doesn't make 2WD owners: "babies", as you put it. In fact, many of us are obviously more mature.
I too laugh at those who mis-use their stuff, or expect too much ( or both ) but calling names to boost your own ego? Appears you're not all that confident about your choice of 4WD.
4WD isn't best for everything, and has several dis-advantages.
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Obviously not enough weight on the drivers. My buddy did something similar. The big rigs batteries were down and wouldn't start the engine. Fortunately the driver had not dumped the air so my friend hooked it behind his Ford and got things moving. Driver dumped the clutch and it took off. Almost caused a pile up on the highway with everybody gawking.
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