Re: Why are front duals canted?

Posted by Steve - IN on February 10, 2003 at 15:08:27 from (12.222.17.160):

In Reply to: Why are front duals canted? posted by Gary The Rookie Farmer on February 10, 2003 at 14:16:00:

Gary,

I think you're talking about narrow front tractors versus wide front tractors. The outward cant on the narrow fronts is called positive camber, and it's there for a couple of reasons. 1. It's easier to navigate down really narrow rows when the bottoms of the two tires are closer together. 2. If you'd use 0 camber or 1 degree or so negative camber (top of tire straight up or canted in, like on your truck or street car), the front tires would have more "stick" or "side bite" they used to call it. Notice that with a wide front you have each tire pivoting on its own axis when it turns. With a narrow front you have two tires pivoting on the same axis. The outside tire will always have a larger radius to run than the inside tire in any turn - so they're always "fighting" with one another to some extent. If both tires have a lot of "side bite" the thing is going to be a real booger to steer in a turn. With positive camber the tires have less "stick", a smaller tire to ground contact patch so they're easier to steer. You'll notice that ribbed tires are generally used, which also decreases the contact patch over the flatter, fatter tires you have on your car or truck.

Another term you'll see is caster. That's a measure of how much the axle is offset from the vertical axis of the kingpin. More caster = more self centering action, the kind of thing you'd want going down the road for stability. Less caster means it turns in to a corner easier.

This might be as clear as mud, and the easiest way to see the effects of camber change is with some vehicle that lets you change it a lot easier than a tractor will.

Steve

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