Quote:
Originally Posted by Ether
Because with a wide base there is less scrubbing of the wheels.
Think of a vehicle that is 3 feet wide and only 6 inches long. When it is skid-steer turning, there is almost no scrubbing of the wheels, because each wheel is moving in the plane of the wheel.
Now think of a vehicle that is 3 feet long and only 6 inches wide. When it is skid-steer turning, each wheel is moving sideways (perpendicular to the plane of the wheel).
Here's a sketch.
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Also very important, the wheel can actually exert a significant tangential force. Note how in the wide configuration, the wheel is nearly aligned with the direction of motion, so when you turn you get a larger component of the force.