Lets Talk Physics - Rotating Mass v's Dead Weight

I have always thought about this: Dragstrips spray down the entire 1/4 mile. After the initial start when the tires tend to break traction, all of that extra sticky VHT on the track HAS to slow you down. It simply has to! Maybe not much, but at our local track you can't hardly walk down the track without getting wore out!!!


Oh, and By the way...this is a great thread!
 
joefarmer said:
You can easily run 10's on 255's in a 4x4.
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What would your 60' times look like though? With enough power to run 10's I would think 255's will struggle on the short end of the track. No? I have no where near the power to run 10's and I can bark and break loose my 33" Nittos on a 15-20psi boosted 4X4 launch.
 
Rip did it with his 3rd gen. Not sure what the 60's looked like, but the truck moved and hooked well. I never had problems on 245s or 265's running well into the 11's.
 
joefarmer said:
Rip did it with his 3rd gen. Not sure what the 60's looked like, but the truck moved and hooked well. I never had problems on 245s or 265's running well into the 11's.
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Dang! That is moving . . . Well I hope these tires work out for me. I debated between 285's and 275's. The weight difference was minimal and so was the height so I went for the extra width. We shall see.
 
I lost a little over 3 tenths in the 1/4 mile going from 285's to 37's.
 
BilletGarage said:
So I decided to buy a few more of my current factory forged wheels and mount Toyo Proxes on them in the interest of cost. I was very surprised to find that the factory rims I have are only 23.2 lbs each. Very light for an 8 lug wheel. I then weighed three different configurations for comparison.

- My current wheel/tire combo - Nitto Terra Grappler 285/70/17: 78.2 lbs each
- Factory wheel/tire combo - BFG Rugged Trail 265/70/17: 73.0 lbs each
- Race wheel/tire combo - Toyo Proxes S/T 285/60/17: 61.6 lbs each

I'm pretty happy with a reduction in weight of 16.6 lbs per wheel/tire and almost 2.5" reduction in Diameter overall. I can't imagine this wouldn't have a significant impact on track times/speed. I'll let you know!

Wheels are from lightest to heaviest - Left to Right

IMG00003.jpg
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Are you sure about that weight? 23.2 lbs. That is very light. I have been looking for a light weight wheel and tire combo just for strip days. The lightest I have found so far is a 29 lb. wheel at 18" as I planned on running 305 60 18 proxes. Maybe I should change my thinking and just run stock with these 285's. It would look fairly ridiculous with the 6" lift but oh well.
 
03kbcobra said:
Are you sure about that weight? 23.2 lbs. That is very light. I have been looking for a light weight wheel and tire combo just for strip days. The lightest I have found so far is a 29 lb. wheel at 18" as I planned on running 305 60 18 proxes. Maybe I should change my thinking and just run stock with these 285's. It would look fairly ridiculous with the 6" lift but oh well.
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Very sure. I weighed them myself. It is a very light wheel and surprised me too. So
I figured, why reinvent the wheel. :D
 
BilletGarage said:
Very sure. I weighed them myself. It is a very light wheel and surprised me too. So
I figured, why reinvent the wheel. :D
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EXACTLY. Now I need to rethink my tire choice. The Proxes ST's are getting hard to find. Thanks for quick reply. EDIT: I just saw that the load rating is 2600 lbs. Gulp.
 
An old rule of thumb we've used for years is that 1lb. of rotating mass = 10lbs. of weight for E.T. purposes.

The best drag strip rolling stock we've found for these trucks is the OEM alloys & Toyo Proxes in 285/60/17... they are the lightest, smallest diameter, widest tread tire with enough weight capacity to carry a 4-ton vehicle in relative safety. Price isn't bad, either.

There's a significant performance decrease with oversized wheels & tires - the 37" Toyo MTs on our '05 (38" Toyo MTs on the '98) makes the truck feel like the Smarty's turned down to SW#3.
 
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