I was pondering this morning and just was amused at engines being rated in horsepower..:laugh: i think one horse has more power than a one horse engine..unless it's a nag.. Why Engines are Commonly Measured in Horsepower
horsepower?
- Thread starter Raskin
- Start date
"A horse exerting 1 horsepower can raise 330 pounds of coal 100 feet in a minute, or 33 pounds of coal 1,000 feet in one minute, or 1,000 pounds 33 feet in one minute. You can make up whatever combination of feet and pounds you like. As long as the product is 33,000 foot-pounds in one minute, you have a horsepower. [sic]"
https://auto.howstuffworks.com/horsepower.htm
If geared properly, that means a Tecumseh 2.5 hp could lift 825 lbs 100 feet in a minute! I find this hard to beleive, but after seeing what a Tote Gote can pull with only 3hp, it doesn't sound far off.
If they had used donkeys in mines, it would have been Donkey Power!
Also, small engine manufacturers got in trouble a few years ago for overstating their HP claims, there is more on the web about this elsewhere, but this is why you see modern small engines rated with things like "net torque" or "equivalent to X Horsepower" or "formerly X hp" on engine decals nowadays instead of a HP rating.
https://auto.howstuffworks.com/horsepower.htm
If geared properly, that means a Tecumseh 2.5 hp could lift 825 lbs 100 feet in a minute! I find this hard to beleive, but after seeing what a Tote Gote can pull with only 3hp, it doesn't sound far off.
If they had used donkeys in mines, it would have been Donkey Power!
Also, small engine manufacturers got in trouble a few years ago for overstating their HP claims, there is more on the web about this elsewhere, but this is why you see modern small engines rated with things like "net torque" or "equivalent to X Horsepower" or "formerly X hp" on engine decals nowadays instead of a HP rating.
Back when we had a DynaJet dyno we did quite a few pulls with Mr Goat. Here is a quote from the post back in 2013
"We finally got to make some pulls on our DynoJet chassis dyno (500 hp ATV, motorcycle, gokart version) and Mr Goat got to be the first vehicle on the dyno. This is an inertia dynomometer and with Mr Goats very low gearing each pull lasted under 2 seconds. When you opened the throttle from an idle the thing would hump up on the roller and immediately reach maximum speed.
With the low gearing it needed less than 2 hp to reach maximum speed and spool up the torque converter.
To really test for hp you need MUCH higher gearing that will allow for a longer pull (slowly opening the throttle helped some and generated higher hp) and no torque converter. The torque converter really gives some weird curves for certain functions the dyno measures. "
It took my son a little while to figure out why the "curve" was a near vertical line with a time span less than two seconds.
Tom, I imagine your results were more meaningful than ours due to your gearing.
"We finally got to make some pulls on our DynoJet chassis dyno (500 hp ATV, motorcycle, gokart version) and Mr Goat got to be the first vehicle on the dyno. This is an inertia dynomometer and with Mr Goats very low gearing each pull lasted under 2 seconds. When you opened the throttle from an idle the thing would hump up on the roller and immediately reach maximum speed.
With the low gearing it needed less than 2 hp to reach maximum speed and spool up the torque converter.
To really test for hp you need MUCH higher gearing that will allow for a longer pull (slowly opening the throttle helped some and generated higher hp) and no torque converter. The torque converter really gives some weird curves for certain functions the dyno measures. "
It took my son a little while to figure out why the "curve" was a near vertical line with a time span less than two seconds.
Tom, I imagine your results were more meaningful than ours due to your gearing.