Dirt drag truck question
 

I've been playing with the idea of taking a regular cab truck I have here and turning it into a dirt drag truck. So the question is with the limited traction on dirt compared to a normal drag strip where does the power range fall that seems to get down the track the best. Ive seen some big HP trucks get spanked because they can't get traction. I know chassis setup will play a part in this but for now everything chassis will be OEM. This will be a 12v auto that I will just play local with

Make all the power you can so racing only becomes a single task. The task of hooking the power.

What's rules for class?

I did really well with 800ish hp. I beat a few guys making over 1k just because they were all over the place and mine with straight.

Id say 750-800 from what I have seen. I did well with my vp truck at 650.

My thoughts were 6-800 would be pretty decent but was curious what others had success with before tackling it. I have a bunch of different turbo setups laying here I could put together. Knowing what I need makes that an easier decision

Also keep it simple. There's a lot of hot lapping at those events. I had the most fun with a big/ish single and a large Trans cooler.

Match hp to tires. 7-800 hp is all terrain tires. 1000-1200 is something like a bogger. Wheel speed matters. But as I asked. All depends on class rules

I'm trying to find the rules but to be honest I've not seen many at these events I've been to. Most are done along with the sled pulls so the tracks are pretty hard.

For the past year people have really gotten into the dirt drags. All terrain tires, 700-800hp, lightweight chassis/truck(you already have this), automatic transmission, and quick spooling turbo setup -- in no particular order.

This is likely very obvious to you, but hard tracks are much better for hp. Sand tracks don't like hp unless you are running a very light vehicle and boggers or paddles.

That's why I asked. When your hooked to something applying down force to the rear of the truck vs just a boosted launch and only the weight of the truck is way different. Didn't know if a stock chassis could plant 800 HP or would it just roast the tires. And I've never really seen any threads getting in depth about dirt drags.

Definitely looks like a fun way to run our trucks without much chance of carnage. My local county Fair has them every year, I'll be trying it this year

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Dirt drags, sand drags or mud drags??? Big difference in all three!!! I have seen a lot of guys be successful on Nitto NT405S tires in dirt drags. I have even seen tracks develop a black groove where the tires run and even seen hints of tire smoke on the dirt.

Unless it is mud or sand I would suggest looking at street type tires over aggressive mud or paddle tires.

I was playing with the idea of the STS's since they are soft and work really well on pulling trucks on hard tracks

You bring up a good point, sand versus packed dirt is very different. Dirt with moisture(mud) is different too, although not a as common unless it has rained recently. All terrain tires work the best for the most anything, but really hard pack, nitto 420s or street tires work best, and loose sand, boggers work best.

I meant to say Nitto 420s...

At one dirt drag here in Tennessee I raced my Duramax truck that has 37X12.50R17 Goodyear Wrangler MT/Rs and true beadlock wheels. It had rained all week and the night before up through the morning of the event so I thought I would be able to air down and have a big advantage over the other guys racing. In the test and tune passes it was a little muddy and I may have had a slight advantage, but by the time eliminations rolled around the Nitto 420s had an advantage and were able to put down the power to the track in a much lighter package.

If the tracks you plan to Dirt Drag on are hard packed dirt at all I would not run anything more aggressive than an AT tire and honestly I would run a Nitto 420s or Toyo Proxxes ST or something similar to that...

I never ran anything but nitto 420s. Always hooked the perfect amount.

Like this:

guernsey 2 - YouTube

Once Craig installs his new power plant this thing will be doubly hard to hook. I've been thinking of actually going with a computer that senses rotational acceleration and plumb in a small waste gate to dump the unused boost. Something not near as involved as a factory anti spin. Rumor had it a few fellas were running ignition retard boxes on gassers in the NMRO giving just about the same effect.

I have this really dumb idea on a throw out bearing. I like this route but the dang clutch price and maintenance is going to go up.

We will also have a complete different set of tires when we show up at one of these next.

Also, the second one we attended, we made two practice passes and then literally waited all evening until 10:00P.M. when we had to leave and they still hadn't ran mod-diesel. I'm not trying to be conceited or brago-do-shish, but, when a truck like this rolls into your dirt drag, you might want to let the crowd see it run more than twice.

Broken link

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