Tuesday 10 November 2020

Is this a counterweight?

                                   

I was watching this tractor placing a new caravan. There was a large box on the front shown as A. I was wondering whether this was heavy to produce an opposite moment to that given by the caravan and stop the tractor's front wheels being pulled up into the air as it pivots on the back wheels. I'm not convinced because normally the engine is heavy enough on a road car to do this for a touring caravan. Since most of the weight of the van is supported by the wheels, the downward force at the towing point shouldn't be large. That would mean that the tractor won't be supporting much weight, just providing a forward force to get the caravan moving.