Climbing ability

Climbing ability of a vehicle describes the ability of the vehicle to climb an incline .

Demonstration of the climbing ability of a Mercedes-Benz G500 at the IAA 2013

Incline in percent and degrees

The climbing ability depends on several factors:

• Engine power
• Gear ratio of the engine
• Drive concept of the vehicle
• Weight distribution, center of gravity of the vehicle
• Traction of the tires on the ground

The climbing ability is given either in degrees or in percent . The slope in percent is defined by ${\displaystyle s}$

${\displaystyle s=\tan(\alpha )\,100\,\%}$.

Where is the angle of the path to the horizontal. This definition corresponds to a slope of 45 °. This means that for every 100 meters of difference in altitude there is 141 m of distance and 100 m of horizontal distance. In the case of a gradient of more than 45 °, the gradient angle is usually given, as it is more descriptive here. A slope angle of 90 ° corresponds to an infinitely large value in percent. ${\displaystyle \alpha }$ ${\displaystyle s=100\,\%}$

literature

• Karl-Heinz Dietsche, Thomas Jäger, Robert Bosch GmbH: Automotive pocket book. 25th edition, Friedr. Vieweg & Sohn Verlag, Wiesbaden, 2003, ISBN 3-528-23876-3