Four Wheeler TV: Engineering Test - 2004 Top Truck Challenge Video - video Dailymotion

Top Truck challengers undergo the preliminary engineering test to find RTI

Transcript

00:00 [engine revving]

00:05 The engineering section is made up of four elements.

00:07 The first is straightforward and very simple.

00:10 It's a measurement given in degrees.

00:11 It simply measures the angle of approach and the angle of departure

00:14 to measure the ability of a vehicle to get up or down off of an obstacle.

00:18 [music]

00:20 With the advent of rear steer over the past few years,

00:23 the results of the turning radius competition can vary wildly.

00:27 However, the measurements are still done the very same way they always have been.

00:30 Park your front left tire here, turn that away, go 180 degrees,

00:34 and you measure across it.

00:36 The big name is the ramp travel index.

00:38 We just call it RTI.

00:39 It's a 30-degree ramp.

00:41 The idea is to test the articulation of the truck.

00:43 Drive the truck up the thing as far as you possibly can

00:45 while keeping all four wheels on the ground.

00:47 Then the math comes in.

00:49 You take the distance in inches up the ramp,

00:51 divide it by the wheelbase of the vehicle,

00:53 multiply that times three zeros just to make sure you have a whole number

00:56 instead of an itty-bitty fraction, and that is your RTI.

00:59 [engine revving]

01:01 The last segment of the engineering competition is not all number crunching.

01:05 Actually, this is their opportunity to explain to the judges

01:08 why they built the vehicle the way that they did.

01:11 The judges pick this vehicle apart and then give a subjective judgment

01:14 on how they like it.

01:16 [tires screeching]

01:17 [BLANK_AUDIO]