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Dave, Although Im an electrical instead of a mechanical engineer and used to do a lil antique pulling, I do rememeber some of this basic stuff from a few mechanical courses back in the good ol Purdue days lol. I consider the axle as the center point of this vector force analysis and discussion as thats where all the twisting torque forces are generated and which a puller wants transferred into pulling the load forward. As the hitch point is elevated (greater angle between sled and hitch) the weight of the sled obviously tends to provide more downward force which can improve traction, while as the hitch is lowered, the sled dont pull down as much on the rears and one spins out grrrrr rrrrr I guess I agree that provided any frame and support members are rigid what really matters is the distances and locations relative to the center of the drive axle. If the hitch point were way up front, that would be exerting force down on the front steering tires and off the rear traction tires where you want the load pulling downwards to increase traction. As we all know, the ideal weight distribution and hitch placement is where the front axle barely floats off the ground thus transferring max weight for traction on the rears but not allowing the front to rise too much which lowers the hitch point. Nowwwww just where is that lol and it depends on so many variables like track conditions and tire bite and torque ????? ???? Im waiting for an engineer to design a variable front/back high/low weight and transfer mechanism which senses loads and torques and elevations to make that variable weight move up n down n back n forth to maximize traction. Wooooo Hooooo oo how long before that guy would be banned????? John T Only a puller wannabe
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