Current horsepower rating

notjustair

Well-known Member
I have an old (built in 83) ZTR with a Briggs twin engine - 18 horse. I can't remember how many cc's. I want to say 594. I've also got a mower with the Kohler Courage 20 horse. I have explained (the the better half) until I am blue in the face how the 18 has more torque and guts and thus gets by with less HP. It's a five foot cut. They probably would put a 35 horse on it today! It drinks enough fuel to be a 35 horse, that's for sure.

So if that old engine was made today what do you think it's rated HP would be?
 
Ask Sears about vacuum cleaner horsepower and the outdoor power equipment industry in generalvabout the lawsuit the manufacturers dealt with over small engine "horsepower".

Then, find something more "happy" to discuss with the "better half", and take her out for supper.
 
Tell your wife that if she wants to discuss horsepower with you, then she needs to have a full understanding as to what that term means. Click on the link below, step away from the computer and let your wife sit down and study that article.

When she is finished reading it, ask her if she now knows exactly what horsepower ratings actually mean? If she does, then she is a lot smarter than anyone I know.

Not only did the OPE industry end up in a lawsuit over HP ratings, so did the tool manufacturers. Specifically, the air compressor and shop vac makers because their HP claims were outrageous in terms of what could be powered by a normal household circuit that delivers 120 volts AC and is fused at 15 amps


Many of the OPE engine manufacturers stopped putting HP ratings on their engines and just put displacement.... which is just as pointless and meaningless.

Torque ratings are far more meaningful. The ONAN twins such as the B48 will easily power a tractor with a deck through long, thick grass that will cause a modern Vanguard engine to bog down, even though the Vanguard has a a higher HP rating. As one hot rodder noted a very long time ago, there is no substitute for cubic inches.

The Kohler K and M Series engines are another example of torque beasts that will put to shame many modern OHV single cylinder engines.

Your wife is taking the term horsepower too literally and I can understand that. It is a shame that we do not have ONE single, universally accepted meaning for that word so that we would all be on the same page.

Good luck with the explanations.
Horsepower
 
Many of the OPE engine manufacturers stopped putting HP ratings on their engines and just put displacement.... which is just as pointless and meaningless.

Aren t displacement and cubic inches the same thing ???

As one hot rodder noted a very long time ago, there is no substitute for cubic inches.
 
(quoted from post at 18:02:04 08/11/14) Tha old timers used to tell me,
Horse power is how mucha wyrk you can do.
Torque is how fast it can be done.

Yes, there is a difference in torque and horse power. Respectfully, your old timers had it backwards.

Torque is a force and as such provides a measure of the capability to move a load. It does not indicate how fast the load can be moved.

Horse Power is work per unit time and is indeed a measure of how fast work can be done.
 
(quoted from post at 13:26:05 08/12/14) Horsepower with low torque is ok in a race car.
But not mucha the good in a plow thractor

The torque delivered to the rear axle is the force that rotates the rear wheels to pull the plow. The gear ratio is selected to supply the torque required. Engine horse power will determine (limits) the speed at which you can pull the plow.

The large steam traction engines of years past were very low horse power and yet pulled very large plows. However, they pulled at a slow walking pace due to the limited horse power.

Many times when people talk about "torque" they are referring to an engine with a broad power curve. It is the broad power curve they desire however, it is the engine horse power that untimately determines the work that can be done in a given amount of time.
 
I offer no argument vith what you stated.
I come from the old school of thought.
Back in my day the slow turning engine with a high torque curve was the engine of choice in semi-trucks.
such engines were the Hall-Scott, they turned about 2100 RPM and had pound feet of torque almost double the cubic inches.
The inline 6 cylinder Chevrolet engines were a study to be considered, they had a wide torque curve, but low horsepower rating.
Things on paper don't always translate to the actual performance oot on the road.
I likeum discussions such as these, I might learn sumthing.
 

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