these trucks make insane torque, right? But how come you don't see any front end lift off the line or the need for wheelie bars like you do on soupped up nova or mustangs and the like, at the track? Do the gas engines make more torque off the line or what? I think it would be cool to see a dodge truck popped up off the line. Any ideas?

 

Got a heck of a lot more weight on the front end of these trucks. Unless you've got some real good slicks, I don't know if there'd be enough traction to lift the front end.

 

Yes, these engines produce a lot of torque, but the vehicle configuration makes it quite difficult to pop a wheelie. There is a moment(radiusXforce) that it takes to make a vehicle pop a wheelie. The radius is from the rear tires to the center of mass and the force is the weight of the vehicle. Pickup trucks have very large radius values(they are long with the center of mass quite far forward) and they are quite heavy.

These numbers are fake but just for the sake of argument, assume you are comparing a 7000lb truck vs a 3500lb car. The truck has the center of mass 10' in front of the rear wheels while the car's CM is 5' in front of the rear wheels.
Moment for truck: 7000lbs*10'= 70,000lbft
Moment for Car: 3500lbs*5'= 17,500lbft

The truck has 4 times the moment required to lift the front wheels. You can produce the torque from the engine with proper gearing but you will run out of rpms quickly. And the real problem is traction. You simply won't hook up well enough in a regular street truck to do a wheelie. Some of the purpose built diesel trucks can lift tires because their axle length is shorter, the truck is lighter, and their weight distribution is different.

 

thanks for the info. That is understandable.

 

Well, same idea, but he explained it a heck of a lot better...lol

 

And most of our trucks at the track are launching in 4x4. so all 4 tires are grabbing at the same time.