New "mega trucks" - vs - the old "under powered" trucks

:wink: …“trying to stay inthe race” You have something there. Our Gov idolizes Chris Chistie.

Albert Champion came to the US from France as a young man and founded both the Champion and AC spark plug companies. I assume he had a preference for metric threads.

Very good Insightful and thanks BLE,now riddle me this why are not all fire hydrants standard thread type and pitch?-Kevin

dagosa, another factor may be the possibility that Toyota is simply being honest about the horsepower of its engines. There’s lots of ways you can game the dyno to make an engine put out high horsepower numbers for advertising brochures.

There is a company called Jett Engineering that makes high dollar model airplane engines for pylon racing. Dub Jett himself is an avid modeler and pylon racing competitor.
In the company’s FAQ section, they answer the question why they make no horsepower claims for their engines. Essentially they don’t want to get in a lying contest with their competitor’s inflated claims, although the website says it in a more diplomatic way.

Under rated sure…but more honest ? I tend to pretty much believe major manufactures as any of a car’s competitors can test an oppositons car or truck.

@kmccune: Okay, I’ll bite.

I’ve never opened a hydrant, but I’ve opened up a water main, and it was reverse thread. Dunno why, but I’m sure there’s an explanation. My WAG is that many hydrants are reverse thread, too.

Well MJ,fire dept people have told me that they have to carry adapters,for standard thread and pipe thread I believe,looks like something as critical as emergency equipment would be universal,it may also have something to do with the age of the Hydrants,these fire hydrants are expensive beasts and most Towns wouldnt like to have to replace a bunch of them(the installation is not all that easy either)some distributors carry fire hydrants that utilize a lot of stock componenents and some manus make ones that are pretty much unique and some locales will not approve anything but the more expensive ones,the reason I added this little spiel because some posters here like trivia of a sort of technical nature(I do)

Even Rolls Royce feels they must throw out horse power figures on new models

after decades of posting the power of their engines as sufficient.

If the power level is already available, why not post it? If anyone wants to know about the power level of a Rolls Royce engine, just look at the equivalent BMW engine. It should be similar, if not exact.

I assumed that the RR tradition of not advertising horse power ratings was in keeping with the company’s mystique of understated elegance and delivering more than was promised.

You have a good point, Rod. IIRC, Bentley always advertised power ratings as they were the sport division of the duo. Now that they are no longer together, maybe Rolls Royce has an urge to recreate the sport division.

@“Rod Knox” it’s like, “If you have to ask, you can’t afford it” or in this case " if you think you have to know, you can’t appreciate it". You just assume that a RR will start when you turn the key and will pass most everyone when you step on the throttle. You don’t have to know how or why, just appreciate it.

Harley Davidson is another company that has a policy of not making any horsepower claims.

Here is a FAQ from Jett Engineering’s website, this is a company that makes model airplane engines for pylon racing competition.

Question: Why doesn't Jett publish the horsepower of its engines?

Answer:
Jett reveals the power of its engines by publishing and guaranteeing the RPM each engine turns a specific propeller. This may be easily compared to similar data from the competition. HP figures are not so easily compared because there is no industry standard with which to test. As a result, each manufacturer tests independently of the other, often on uncalibrated equipment. In cases where competitive advertisements claim power on the optimistic side, Jett is forced to remain silent, or publish equally optimistic claims. Comparing RPM on a fixed and available brand of propeller is the only way to accurately compare engines.

It is usually ok to compare HP numbers generated by the same person, i.e., a tech writer. Just don’t compare his numbers to someone else’s.

You may have noticed that the home air compressors sold by your local hardware store have quietly dropped their absurd horsepower claims. I believe there was a class action lawsuit leveled at the power equipment manufacturers for making absurdly inflated horsepower claims.
Really, someone explain how an electric motor can make 6.25 horsepower while drawing 15 amps on a 120 volt ac line.

Years ago, there was a similar class action lawsuit against the makers of home stereo equipment and overnight stereos that put out “200 watts per channel” suddenly were only good for maybe 25 watts. I know for sure that a 25 watt Fender Champion electric guitar amp is way too loud to turn up all the way in your living room if you have neighbors living next door.

Sorta like those superlative aircraft engines they produce?

@B.L.E. Funny you should mention that about he stereos. It actually is possible ( or was) to truthfully rate a stereo at 200 watts per channel while some one else could rathe the identical stero at 25 watts. Most amplifiers will put out very high wattage at unacceptable distortion levels. The higher the accepted distortion level, the higher the rated power. Over the years, better quality equipment started making a little more sense by posting steady output at standaed levels but car audio equipment is still the biggest offender. What the heck. In a car with the ambient noise, anything is acceptable it seems. At the distress of everyone, Bose never posts the wattage of their amplifying equipment. They still charge RR prices though.

@dagosa I think a lot of people get too hung up on stereo specs. The reason Bose never posts the wattage of their amplifying equipment is very likely because it’s hard to compete with the first liar.
Also frequency response. If you cut off everything above 12kHz and below 80Hz, most people would never know the difference, but everybody thinks they need a 20 to 20kHz frequency response so the can hear “Wild Thing” by the Troggs the way is was really meant to be heard.

The reason Bose never posts the wattage of their amplifying equipment is very likely because it's hard to compete with the first liar.

Wattage is thee least significant speaker spec. It means practically nothing. Says nothing on how loud a speaker will get (which 90% of the buying public THINK it means).

Friend of mine has a set of speakers that have a rating of 75 watts RMS). But they are extreme efficient. Their efficiency rating is 105db. Most speakers are below 90db. Those inefficient speakers would need over 100watts of power to be as loud as my friends speakers when he’s driving them at a mere 1watt.

If you cut off everything above 12kHz and below 80Hz

Most music rarely is beyond that range…but there are a lot of music that is (mainly classical).

Another peeing contest?

I saw the Troggs perform live when that song was popular. I was a kid. They were so terrible that people simply walked out of the theater. I did too. Man, did they get lucky with that song.

So cheap AM transistor radios actually improved that song.