Weight Transfer Under Braking: Why the Front Brakes Are Bigger

Build or take a wheeled cart — the dynamics cart set, or a board on the axle-and-wheel kit — and load it with weights. Stand its front wheels on the kitchen scale and its rear wheels on a block of the same height; read the front load. Weigh the whole cart too. Raise the rear wheels by 100 mm on a stack of books and read the front load again. Put your numbers into the notebook in place of the example inputs. Now move the weights higher on the cart and repeat: the front load changes MORE when the cart is tilted, and the notebook gives a greater height. A high centre of gravity means more weight transfer — the reason a tall van pitches so much more than a low car.

A practice rung: the statics of a braking vehicle, which set the proportions of every brake system — bigger front brakes, pressure-limiting valves to the rear, and today anti-lock systems that keep each wheel just short of locking. **Honest limits of the model.** Rigid body, no suspension movement, level road, and constant deceleration. Suspension geometry can resist the pitch (anti-dive); a slope changes the static loads; and a tyre's grip is not exactly proportional to its load.