Is It A Rear Engine Or Rear Drive That Makes It A Pusher?

PastorCharlie wrote:
All vehicles except those that are front wheel drive propel the vehicle from the rear. Front engines with rear wheel drive are pushers.

Why the big effort to segarate vehicle drives by engine choices?

Isn't it just another way to post engine preference? :h :R

The diesel part is just one advantage of the diesel pusher. The air ride, better brakes, smoother ride, heavier GVWR, increased storage, etc also have a lot to do with it.

These are things a diesel puller and a gas pusher don't offer.

It's not to segregate, it's to differentiate.

RLS7201 wrote:

PastorCharlie wrote:
All vehicles except those that are front wheel drive propel the vehicle from the rear. Front engines with rear wheel drive are pushers.

Why the big effort to segarate vehicle drives by engine choices?

Isn't it just another way to post engine preference? :h :R

Maybe your initials should stand for Politically Correct.
It's a slow day at my house too.....GRIN

Richard

PastorCharlie....

C'mon man. You cannot be serious. (eye roll)

Bill

Back in the era of gas rationing in Europe after the Suez crisis (mid-1950s), there were all kinds of weird cars launched on the market. My ride to work was a three-wheel "bubble" car made by Heinkel. The engine (175 ccs) and transmission were in the rear and drove the rear wheel, so it was a "pusher". It was a side-by-side 2-place "car" and the entire front opened, taking the steering wheel along to allow driver and passenger entrance/exit.

With rationed fuel and short supplies, 125 mpg was pretty good and you weren't out in the weather like on a motorcycle. It didn't win any "Stop-light Grand Prix", though.

The opposite of pusher is puller. So engine behind drive wheels = pusher, engine in front of drive wheels = puller. We don't seem to hear the term puller though. So in general a pusher refers to a DP. And most pushers are diesel, but the UFO chassis is a gas pusher. So the answer to the OP question is "engine behind drive axle".

It's just a description of where the engine is mounted. As the wheel base gets longer, there are design advantages to putting the engine in the back closer to the drive axle.

It does often get used as a hint that it's a more expensive unit as your more expensive units tend to be DPs and a lot of your less expensive units tend to be front engine.

This reminds me of a old debate as to whether a horse hitched to a plow is Pushing or Pulling the plow. :B

PastorCharlie wrote:
All vehicles except those that are front wheel drive propel the vehicle from the rear. Front engines with rear wheel drive are pushers.

Why the big effort to segarate vehicle drives by engine choices?

Isn't it just another way to post engine preference? :h :R

Maybe your initials should stand for Politically Correct.
It's a slow day at my house too.....GRIN

Richard

The term "pusher" just refers to where the engine is located since it is an important feature to many people. I think we all know that the vast majority of motorhomes are powered at the rear wheels whether the engine is in front or back. It doesn't literally mean pushing versus pulling, just front engine or rear engine.

It is more a description of the chassis configuration than the driven wheels. If the engine is in the back, it's a pusher. I may well be wrong, but I think the term comes to RVs from transit bus descriptions (and may well have been influenced by aircraft configurations with pusher vs. tractor propellers).

I suppose it would be possible, though not particularly sensible, to have a front wheel drive pusher chassis.

I think it is just a matter of people wanting to attach catchy names. Diesel pusher somehow sounds a little more exotic than rear engine diesel.