Frank: ever practical.
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Phil! Thanks - I may just take you up on that... if I ever get the ice & snow chopped out of the driveway so I can get in the garage and fiddle with it.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by nemo
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Thanks for that link!
I'd bet it would be different for my ~1830 lbs Firefly vs. a 80,000 lbs transport. It makes sense that it would come down to the ratio of the power consumed by the vibration vs. the overall power requirement of the vehicle.
I did find a link that says it's an issue for passenger cars, but for an odd reason: it says the inefficiency is only due to traction loss & slippage.
Quote:
WHEEL BALANCE AND MPG
GOAL: To understand how properly balanced tires can improve vehicle mpg.
... A tire 1 ounce out of balance and traveling at 60 mph exerts 7.73 pounds of excessive force each revolution! Energy is lost!
... The greater the imbalance and the greater the speed, the greater the loss of traction and a corresponding loss of fuel economy.
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Source:
Wheel Balance and MPG
The page also says that unbalanced non-driven wheels won't affect efficiency. Doesn't make sense to me -- the vibration costs energy regardless of which wheel it's on.