Why do most Raptors lean right when jumping?

[Jason Sarno]

I’ve seen several videos of jumps from 1 foot to 8-10 feet and the Raptor always appears to be front right heavy....I’ve experienced this myself.

Does anyone know why they always seem to land on the front right tire first?

I realize takeoff and the dirt ramps will are varying but even on what appear to be perfectly level the front right tire touches down first.


Just curious.

 

[CoronaRaptor]

Because this guy is in the passenger seat?

 

[Venerous]

@Jason Sarno - It would have to do with a human being in the drivers seat. Because of the weight on that side, it rolls the body in that direction at launch due to physics that I could take forever to explain but to summarize - Newton's First Law. This causes the passenger side to lift first thus fall first. You wouldn't see the same result with equally weighted people in both the driver and passenger seats, I would expect the exact opposite of what you noticed to occur and the left touch first in a right-hand drive version with the driver being the sole occupant. This is just a very educated guess though so, I defer to anyone else that has more compelling/convincing data.

 

[melvimbe]

@Jason Sarno - It would have to do with a human being in the drivers seat. Because of the weight on that side, it rolls the body in that direction at launch due to physics that I could take forever to explain but to summarize - Newton's First Law. This causes the passenger side to lift first thus fall first. You wouldn't see the same result with equally weighted people in both the driver and passenger seats, I would expect the exact opposite of what you noticed to occur and the left touch first in a right-hand drive version with the driver being the sole occupant. This is just a very educated guess though so, I defer to anyone else that has more compelling/convincing data.

I'm not sure I agree with this, particularly about the truck lifting. Perhaps I don't follow what you mean, but 'lift' would imply that the truck is lifting off the ground like an airplane achieves lift with it's wings. I don't think that's really happening with a truck, and I don't think the right side, the lighter side, is leaving the ground sooner than the left side.

My guess, and it is just a guess, is that the left side is applying more force against gravity, and therefore, stays in the air longer as it has more force to overcome gravity. Force is mass* acceleration, right? If both sides of the truck have equal acceleration, but the left side has more mass, then the left side has more force. And since gravity is the same force on objects regardless of their mass, then force of gravity would mean that the right side would not travel as high on the left side (since less force is applied against gravity than the right) ... and therefore, the left side would land sooner.

I wouldn't be surprised if that's totally incorrect though. My brain tells me that if two separate vehicles with different weights approach the same jump with the same acceleration, the lighter vehicle would go higher and land later. But, this is one of those things where your instinct isn't always right. I think the reality is that the lighter vehicle is likely to approach the jump with greater acceleration, and thus apply the same or more force than the heavier vehicle would. All I know for sure is that a heavier object doesn't fall faster than a lighter object, so the reason one side falls sooner than the other has to be on the rising part of the jump, rather than the falling.

 

[GordoJay]

My guess, and it is just a guess, is that the left side is applying more force against gravity, and therefore, stays in the air longer as it has more force to overcome gravity. Force is mass* acceleration, right? If both sides of the truck have equal acceleration, but the left side has more mass, then the left side has more force. And since gravity is the same force on objects regardless of their mass, then force of gravity would mean that the right side would not travel as high on the left side (since less force is applied against gravity than the right) ... and therefore, the left side would land sooner.

I wouldn't be surprised if that's totally incorrect though.

That's good.

... All I know for sure is that a heavier object doesn't fall faster than a lighter object, so the reason one side falls sooner than the other has to be on the rising part of the jump, rather than the falling.

This is correct, and if you think about it, it shows why your first guess is wrong ...

 

[melvimbe]

This is correct, and if you think about it, it shows why your first guess is wrong ...

Please enlighten me. Seriously, I'm intrigued and want to understand this better...

 

[GordoJay]

Please enlighten me. Seriously, I'm intrigued and want to understand this better...

OK, here goes. Apologies in advance if I'm not clear. Feel free to ask questions.

My guess, and it is just a guess, is that the left side is applying more force against gravity, and therefore, stays in the air longer as it has more force to overcome gravity. Force is mass* acceleration, right? If both sides of the truck have equal acceleration, but the left side has more mass, then the left side has more force. And since gravity is the same force on objects regardless of their mass, then force of gravity would mean that the right side would not travel as high on the left side (since less force is applied against gravity than the right) ... and therefore, the left side would land sooner.

The mistake you appear to be making is to think of gravity as a force, rather than as an acceleration. Gravity produces the force in conjunction with the mass of the object that it interacts with, but it isn't a force.

Objects don't apply a force against gravity, it's gravity that applies force on objects. Objects apply force against the ground because gravity is pulling them down into the ground but they don't resist gravity, what they resist is being pulled through another solid object, the ground. The force that gravity produces is linearly related to the mass of the object, using F=ma, where a is equal to g, the acceleration of gravity, which is a constant at the Earth's surface. The reason that heavy objects and light objects fall at the same speed, neglecting air resistance, is that g=F/m. Since g is constant, F and m scale linearly. More force is applied to larger masses and thus all objects fall(accelerate downward) at the same speed.

 

[GCATX]

Woah, nerd alert!

My first thought was that was that if you're on the gas as the back wheels leave the ground the normal rotational force of the engine will lift the driver side and push down on the passenger side. Front passenger tire no longer on the ground and can no longer push upward, leaving more pressure on the passenger rear.

Just a guess though.

 

[Jakenbake]

I looked through most of my event photos and with a passenger my landings were pretty level (left to right) provided the takeoff wasn’t off camber.

I don’t have any photos that show the same jumps without a passenger to compare. I do not notice me landing passenger nose heavy though.

You could make an argument that the off center mass is creating a rotation about the longitudinal axis of the vehicle combined with the nose down rotation of the front heavy vehicle. But the mass of the driver and fuel tank compared to the overall mass of the system isn’t that high. Say 6-7%? Could that make a difference? Sure, but probably not as much as driver input, terrain features, etc.

Just an opinion

 

[DFS]

While the feather and anvil accelerate towards the ground at the same 9.8 m/s/s, (neglecting air resistance, only in a vacuum), they only hit the ground at the same time if initial displacement from the ground is equal. So could the passenger side of the truck be slightly heavier, therefore never reaching the same vertical displacement as the drivers side, thus travelling a shorter distance to the ground than the passenger side as well as some of the axis of rotation being in effect?