Calculating Drawbar Pull

Calculating the drawbar pull of a vehicle doesn't have to be complicated. In fact, once
you know the equation and how to find each of the factors involved, it's rather simple.
o find the drawbar pull !DP" of a vehicle in pounds, you'll need to multiply the torque of
the vehicle's motor !" in inch pounds by thegear reduction !#" !including the a$le and
transmission" and divide that number by the radius of the drive tire !r" in inches. he
resulting number represents the tractive effort of the vehicle. In other words, it's the gross
pulling force the vehicle is capable of.
%ut that's not all of the information you'll need. o determine the actual !or net" drawbar
pull, you'll need to know how to figure out the rolling resistance !##" of the vehicle.
Drawbar pull is the tractive effort minus the rolling resistance. he equation looks like
this&
DP ' $ # ( r ) ##
DP ' $ # ( r ) ##
o determine the rolling resistance !##" )) the force necessary to move a vehicle over a
surface )) multiply the gross vehicle weight !*+," in pounds by the rolling resistance of
the surface !#". he rolling resistance of the surface is measured in pounds per thousand
pounds of vehicle weight, divided by -,... !-.. if you're using metric measurements".
he rolling resistance of several different surfaces can be found in tables like this one that
you can easily locate online. /o, for e$ample, to determine the rolling resistance of an
0,...)pound vehicle on good concrete, you would multiply 0,... !*+," times -1
!pounds per thousand pounds of rolling resistance on good concrete" and divide that
number by -,... !a constant". If you're using metric figures, you'll use -.. as your
constant. 2fter you do the calculations, you'll find that the rolling resistance of our
e$ample vehicle is -3. pounds. he equation looks like this&
## ' *+, $ # ( -...
## ' *+, $ # ( -...
4ow that we know the rolling resistance, we can get back to the drawbar pull equation.
5et's say that the torque of our e$ample vehicle's motor is 6,0.. inch)pounds !6.. pound)
feet" and it has an overall gear reduction of -.&- along with a tire radius of -0 inches.
2gain, complete the calculations, and you'll discover that the tractive effort )) or gross
pulling force )) of the vehicle is 3,778 pounds. o find the net drawbar pull, subtract the
rolling resistance from the tractive effort. In this case, the drawbar pull of our e$ample
vehicle is 3,168 pounds.
4ow that you know the equation and how to find all of the factors involved, it shouldn't
be difficult to calculate the drawbar pull of your own vehicle. If you'd like to read more
about towing, weight and other related topics, follow the links on the ne$t page.