Torque =???

[Sawchip]

I am going through the motions with a new van, i have 2 options

 

1 120 bhp 300nm torque

 

2 150 bhp 375nm torque & add blue

 

It will spend its life overloaded and towing like every other arb vehicle, so the more power the better...but...what can i compare the extra 75 nm of torque to? the power of 75 cats pulling it? or 75 rocket engines or anywhere in between?

 

If the difference is hardly noticeable then id rather not have the extra cost of ad blue! any ideas?

You could use what you have as a reference to the figures your looking at on the new trucks. Have a look at what your current truck is and see how it compares with the outputs of BHP and Torque of the short listed ones ..should give you a feel for what to expect in comparison. One other thing on top of all the spot on info that has been mentioned is..Just how darn "drivable" a vehicle is with a good toque output from "low" down and up into the 4000rpm range is when we are talking a work truck. Grunt low down wins in the enjoyable and non frustrating stakes , so the more the better ..as long as the drive train ..IS ..up to it .

[daltontrees]

I am going through the motions with a new van, i have 2 options

 

1 120 bhp 300nm torque

 

2 150 bhp 375nm torque & add blue

 

It will spend its life overloaded and towing like every other arb vehicle, so the more power the better...but...what can i compare the extra 75 nm of torque to? the power of 75 cats pulling it? or 75 rocket engines or anywhere in between?

 

If the difference is hardly noticeable then id rather not have the extra cost of ad blue! any ideas?

 

AS others have said, torque is rotational force of some sort of mechanical arm. So here's a way of thinking of it in human terms. If your forearm is 1/3 of a metre, then 75nm is the equivalent of rotating a weight of 22.5kg (just less than the weight of a bag of sand) on an arm of 1/3m. So imagine standing alongside a table, put your elbow on it and have a bag of sand on the floor witha rope around it and you have the rope in your hand. Sort of like horizontal arm wrestling. 75nm would be the equivalent of being able to pull your forearm and the bag of sand from the horizontal to the vertical in about a tenth of a second. If you managed it, the bag of sand would fly over your head and hit the celiling. Quite a significant force.

 

Tractors use a short arm and all the engine's power to shift huge weights slowly and steadily. Sports cars use a longer lever arm and all the engine's power to get a relatively light vehicle up to high speeds very quicky.

[simonm]

150 it is.