Horsepower vs. Horse Power

[mattaraki]

On the lighter side...
Were I to pull 17,000lbs, I'd need my '05 3500 with it's 330HP and 660 Torque. This past weekend at the National Western Stock Show in Denver, I watched a 2HP harnessed Percheron team pull 17,000lbs! Can you imagine what 330 of those bad boys could pull? An aircraft carrier? A skyscraper? Occasionally Mother Nature puts things back into perspective for me.
Feeling somewhat less significant...

 

[promisedland]

Thought provoking post.
Go pony power!

 

[Tractorat]

Those horses were just geared down to handle the extra weight. :-laf

 

[DaveHess]

Cool post! Thanks for sharing!

 

[cerberusiam]

You don't NEED 330 HP to pull 17k, that is the real answer.

 

[Tractorat]

The real question is, how much torque do the horses have ?

 

[Bob4x4]

Torque gets the job done,hp is how fast it gets done

 

[Mark31]

On the lighter side...
Were I to pull 17,000lbs, I'd need my '05 3500 with it's 330HP and 660 Torque. This past weekend at the National Western Stock Show in Denver, I watched a 2HP harnessed Percheron team pull 17,000lbs! Can you imagine what 330 of those bad boys could pull? An aircraft carrier? A skyscraper? Occasionally Mother Nature puts things back into perspective for me.
Feeling somewhat less significant...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twenty-mule_team

 

[crabman]

"when loaded with ore, the total weight of the mule train was 73,200 pounds (33.2 metric tons or 36.6 short tons)."

 

[Mark31]

"when loaded with ore, the total weight of the mule train was 73,200 pounds (33.2 metric tons or 36.6 short tons)."

Do it for 10 days in those conditions, go back for another load, and again and again. The physical and mental toughness of those men (and animals) is something that I think only the "Seal Team Six" type can identify with.

 

[KOG]

73,000 doesn't sound like much until you consider that they were on wooden wheels and offroad (well,unpaved road).

 

[KATOOM]

Horsepower is a misunderstood and often misused representation of what an engines capacity is. Torque is the true force being felt and HP is just the mathematical equation in order to understand the time frame of that work being done.

Point being, if Watts witnessed a donkey pushing that mill wheel around and around.....we'd all be having a discussion about "donkey power".

That said, since humans are capable of sustaining up to 1/4 HP, I'd say that the true power of a horse is far more than what people think when they're talking about the number of ponies under the hood. :-laf