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can anyone explain something to me? my tires are smaller than my brothers but i exccelerate faster and my truck goes faster. i thought bigger meant you would go at least a little faster. im just a little bit confused?

Just a little confused. I used to think that too, once upon a time. . .before I met all the guys here.

Anyway, the bigger a tire you have, the more it weighs, and the more poundage your engine has to turn the longer it takes to turn it. While taking a bite out of economy and mileage. Despite the fact that bigger tires turn fewer times in a mile.

Lift up the front of the trucks if you want to experiment and spin each tire and unless you've got problems the larger tires will take alot more energy to spin, and keep spinning. The size of the tires doesn't matter too much, you could have 40's and if, (by some miracle of science) they weighed the same, you shouldn't lose any power or performance. Just don't count on that any time soon.

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Richard Barnes Salt Lake, Utah
1980 Luv Mikado 4X4
http://geocities.com/luvtruck2004/

Tire and wheel weight does come into it, but I don't it is the major factor going on.


A larger tire will take you farther for each time it turns and a smaller tire will take you less distance. How fast you accelerate depends on the amount of force applied, and force in this case is basically horsepower vs distance. Think of it like this, the more HP applied per foot, the faster you accelerate. Smaller tires mean your HP is spread out over less distance. My physics isn't technically correct here, but that is the basic idea. The bigger the tire, the less power you can put into going faster for every inch you travel. The same applies to rear end gearing. Larger ratios are like shrinking the tires and you get more power. It is all sort of like putting the tranny in the wrong gear. Try starting your smaller tired truck out in 2nd gear. It might complain, but it should do it more easily than the larger tired truck. Putting bigger tires on changes the ratio of the drivetrain in the same way that shifting up a gear does.

The top speed issue could be a lot of things. Wind resistance, condition of the two trucks, gearing, better power from smaller tires (same as gearing basically), or just plain speedo error. Right off with smaller tires your speedo will read higher than a truck with larger tires going the same exact speed. You could be looking at a top speed of say 85 on your truck and you are actually doing 75-80. The reverse could be true of the truck with bigger tires, 85 on the speedo could really mean 90-95. Which one is off depends on which one has stock size tires on it, if either do.

It could all come down to the power issue above. As the two trucks start to get up in speed, the smaller tire one may just have the extra bit power to push it through the wind better or carry it up over a hill.

Shit, now im confused

Made sense to me, dang that guy must be an encyclopedia with fingers.

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Richard Barnes Salt Lake, Utah
1980 Luv Mikado 4X4
http://geocities.com/luvtruck2004/

800xl is a genious i guess...

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1980 LUV 4x4, going under re-construction...