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Re: Placement of ballast

To: "Thomas E. Bryant" <saltracer@awwwsome.com>,
Subject: Re: Placement of ballast
From: "Nafzger" <nafzger@vtc.net>
Date: Mon, 18 Jun 2001 12:39:20 -0700
Tom, I could not agree more. The center of pressure vs the center of gravity
and the polar moment of inertia if it all goes bad all enter into this.
Added traction if it helps you crash is not a good tradeoff.
Howard

----- Original Message -----
From: "Thomas E. Bryant" <saltracer@awwwsome.com>
To: "Bill & Dee Bennett" <benettw@earthlink.net>
Cc: "Land Speed List" <land-speed@autox.team.net>
Sent: Monday, June 18, 2001 7:02 AM
Subject: Re: Placement of ballast


> Bill,
> Having had some experience in this area, I will say, remember the
> discussion sometime back and the analogy of the arrow.  The primary
> concern is to eliminate the spin in the first place. Recovery from a
> spin is at best, a little skill and lots of luck! Ballast needs to be
> between the axles and low as possible. Just an opinion.
> Tom, Redding CA - #216 D/GCC
>
> Bill & Dee Bennett wrote:
>
> > Ok now that I have maybe stirred up (hopefully) a discussion on lack of
> > traction, transmission ratios, and suspension. Let me touch on something
> > else. Been thinking of placement of ballast. I recently ran across some
> > interesting information regarding weight placement. The information
compared
> > a long barbell ( no not the one for last call) and a heavy ball and the
> > ability to make each one turn. If you took a long bar supported it in
the
> > center where it could turn and placed equal amounts of weight on each
side
> > close to center you would find that it would be easy to spin. But as you
> > moved the weights out closer to the ends the bar gets harder to spin.
> > Granted once it gets spinning it spins longer. So with that thought
given
> > would it not be better to place ballast at farthest ends of a vehicle
rather
> > than right over or near the axle to also aid in stability. But if the
> > vehicle ever started to spin it might be harder to recover. Understood
that
> > you would want it placed as low as possible.
> >
> > Bill

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