The Definitive Torque vs. Horsepower post
Year after year, I keep seeing the same old debates about torque vs. horsepower. Everyone seems to have a general idea that we are referring to power, but most don't really understand the relationshi...
Forum Discussion
My '03 truck= 305 hp Cummins.
Buddys '04 truck= 305 HP Nissan
My '03 truck = 555 ft lbs Cummins.
Buddys '04 truck = 379 ft lbs Nissan.
Both trucks have 3.73 axles pulling the same 4800 lb 21' bass boat/200 Merc over the same roads to the same lakes for the same bass tournaments.
The Nissan drags down to 25 mph in low gear and won't accelerate on one long steep highway in the hills.
The Cummins keeps the 50 mph highway speed limit at 1900 RPM an can still accelerate in the same gear on the same hill.
I've pulled for a living in the carburetor era with small blocks and big block gassers in mostly one ton DRW trucks pulling in the 25k-28k GCW range. In many cases the small blocks had the same HP as the big blocks in the same brand truck with the same driveline/etc. Diesels back then were all anemic in the hp/torque numbers and weren't a serious player yet in the LDT size trucks.
One thing I learned when actually working the different trucks/power plants for hundreds of thousands of miles is when pulling the same size load and having equal hp is he who has the most torque gets to the top of the 17 mile long grade first and is waiting on the truck with less torque and is struggling to "catch up".
Buddys '04 truck= 305 HP Nissan
My '03 truck = 555 ft lbs Cummins.
Buddys '04 truck = 379 ft lbs Nissan.
Both trucks have 3.73 axles pulling the same 4800 lb 21' bass boat/200 Merc over the same roads to the same lakes for the same bass tournaments.
The Nissan drags down to 25 mph in low gear and won't accelerate on one long steep highway in the hills.
The Cummins keeps the 50 mph highway speed limit at 1900 RPM an can still accelerate in the same gear on the same hill.
I've pulled for a living in the carburetor era with small blocks and big block gassers in mostly one ton DRW trucks pulling in the 25k-28k GCW range. In many cases the small blocks had the same HP as the big blocks in the same brand truck with the same driveline/etc. Diesels back then were all anemic in the hp/torque numbers and weren't a serious player yet in the LDT size trucks.
One thing I learned when actually working the different trucks/power plants for hundreds of thousands of miles is when pulling the same size load and having equal hp is he who has the most torque gets to the top of the 17 mile long grade first and is waiting on the truck with less torque and is struggling to "catch up".
