Wheelbase Totally Explained

Everything about Wheelbase totally explained

ť For the British TV series of the same name see Wheelbase (TV series).

In both road and rail vehicles, the wheelbase is the distance between the centers of the front and rear wheels.

Road

In automobiles, the wheelbase is the horizontal distance between the center of the front wheel, and the center of the rear wheel. At equilibrium, the total torque of the forces acting on the car is zero, and thus the wheelbase is related to the weight on each tire by the following formulae: ť

W_f =

is the height of the CG above the ground,

a

is the acceleration (or deceleration if the value is negative). So, as is common experience, when the automobile accelerates, the rear usually sinks and the front rises depending on the suspension. Likewise, when braking the front noses down and the rear rises.:
Because of the effect the wheelbase has on the weight transfer of the vehicle, wheelbase dimensions are crucial to the balance and steering of the automobile. For example, a car with a much greater weight load on the rear tends to understeer due to the lack of weight and therefore grip from the front tires. This is why it's crucial, when towing a single-axle caravan, to distribute the caravan's weight so that down-thrust on the tow-hook is about 100 pounds force (400 N). Likewise, a car may oversteer or even "spin out" if there's too much weight on the front tires and not enough on the rear tires. Also, when turning there's lateral torque placed upon the tires which imparts a turning force that depends upon the length of the tire distances from the CG. Thus, in a car with a short wheelbase, the short lever arm from the CG to the rear wheel will result in a greater lateral force on the rear tire which means greater acceleration and less time for the driver to adjust and prevent a spin out or worse.
Wheelbases provide the basis for one of the most common vehicle size class systems.

Bikes

The wheelbase on many commercially available bicycles and motorcycles is so short, relative to the height of their centers of mass, that they're able to perform stoppies and wheelies.

Rail

In rail vehicles, the wheelbase follows a similar concept.
On vehicles where the wheelsets (axles) are mounted inside the vehicle frame (mostly in steam locomotives), the wheelbase is the distance between the front-most and rear-most wheelsets.
On vehicles where the wheelsets are mounted on bogies (amer.: trucks), three wheelbase measurements can be distinguished:

the distance between the pivot points of the front-most and rear-most bogie;
the distance between the front-most and rear-most wheelsets of the vehicle;
the distance between the front-most and rear-most wheelsets of each bogie.

The wheelbase affects the rail vehicle's capability to negotiate curves. Short-wheelbased vehicles can negotiate sharper curves. On some larger wheelbase locomotives, inner wheels may lack flanges in order to pass curves.
The wheelbase also affects the load the vehicle poses to the track, track infrastructure and bridges. All other conditions being equal, a shorter wheelbase vehicle represents a more concentrated load to the track than a longer wheelbase vehicle. As railway lines are designed to take a pre-determined maximum load per unit of length (tonnes per meter, or pounds per foot), the rail vehicles' wheelbase is designed according to their intended gross weight. The higher the gross weight, the longer the wheelbase must be.

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