Quote:
Originally Posted by 99metro
This is from a Colorado website:
* For bobtails (trucks without a trailer) and empty trucks, the stopping distance is even greater because the lighter load has less traction. Heavy trucks are designed with brakes, tires, springs and shock absorbers optimized with the weight of a full load.
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The "less traction" statement is ridiculous. Yes, there's less friction. There's also (proportionally) less Kinetic Energy in the truck and (proportionally) less work to be done in stopping the truck. Therefore, it makes no difference.
I will agree with the brake/susp. setup argument though; a heavily loaded truck can put huge amounts of stopping force on the rear brakes due to the weight on them, while an unloaded truck would need to use mainly the fronts...