Ok, so this is a commercial for Chevron’s Delo oil, but if you get past the cheesy announcer, this is a pretty cool video. Not too often do you see two industry power houses go rounds.

Statistics:

Truck:

• Brand: 2007 Kenworth
• Model: T800
• Engine: Caterpillar
• Horsepower: 500

Tug Boat:

• Brand: Unknown
• Model: Tug
• Engine: Repowered in 2012
• Horsepower: 900

So, on paper, the tug boat has almost twice the power as the truck. Really this is a measure of physics more than it is raw or brute strength.
What is greater, the thrust produced by the boats propellers or the friction between the tires and the road. Really, no matter how much power either has, if the thrust is always less than the friction, than the truck will never loose. If the friction isn’t great enough between the tires and the road, then the truck will slide backwards regardless of how much power it has.

If the Tug produces more thrust, then the truck slides backwards.

Now we are sure this is a very well “engineered” stunt where someone put pen to paper and actually calculated how this would come out. If their calculations were wrong, well, then they added the emergency rope severing device, aka explosives to detach the two duking it out.

Always good to have a backup plan. Explosives should pretty good to us!

What no one can calculate is how fast or slow someone realizes what is going on and changes/adopts their driving style. It is apparent that the truck driver realizes pretty quick that he is getting pulled backwards and what he is doing isn’t working. So, he quickly changes his game plan and over powers the tug.

It is a very interesting battle and one that I don’t actually know how many people stay up at night pondering; what is better a tow truck or tug boat… Well, maybe we did as children and perhaps our kids will tonight if we let them watch this.

What is next? What do you want to see hooked up?