How does the sled work?

[LBZ]

First off, I'm not dumb
I know what they are, I sort of know what they look like, and I know that the end result is weight transfer causing more drag on a pan and increasing the load.
My question is about the weight transfer. Does the weight start to move as soon as the truck does, or when the flag man signals good to go?
Is the transfer driven by the wheels on the sled, or is there a seperate system that once you start moving, it starts moving and if you stop, it keeps going till it gets to the end?
I'm just trying to come up with a pulling strategy.

Thanks

 

[dmax tim]

the transfer is driven by the wheels on the sled.
Thanks

this part is correct, they have different gear ratios to move the weight forward faster or slower.

that's why everyone wants to get it moving fast to begin with.

 

[Leadfoot]

Also there is two parts to most pulling sleds. There is the transfer box and the pan. Some older sleds just had the weight move up the rails and over the front of then pan to stop vehicles.

Newer sleds have a pan that is hydraulically, pneumatically, or combination lifted at the start of the pull to allow for faster starts. As the weight box moves up the rails it hits a microswitch that triggers the pan to drop.

The transfer speed can be adjusted as well as the location of the microswitch (for sooner/later pan dropping) to help dial in the distance of a pull.

One of the newer sleds I saw actually has a ram that pulls the front of the sled down toward the pan at the end of the run lifting the rear of the sled in the air and it seems to hit like a ton of bricks.