on this car crazy episode of Mythbusters the obscenity begins Adam and Jamie think outside the box well there's your problem as they literally reinvent the wheel our lives have officially become a Caron testing the myth that square wheels will give you a smooth ride provided you drive fast [Applause] enough meanwhile Carrie Tori and Grant tackle a date night movie myth there's something you don't see every day can two cars stuck Bumper to Bumper let's do it drive city streets I've got no the cut Corners do you believe we're getting paid to do this and even do a 180 spin so yeah that was pretty much the best date I've ever been on who are The MythBusters Adam Savage and Jamie heinan things are going to start to get a little crazy in here between them more than 30 years of special effects experiened together with Grant Imahara Carrie Byron hi gr and Tori Bachi it they don't just tell the myths they put them to the [Music] test [Music] hey what uh what you doing daydreaming what is a Hamman daydream about Square Wheels like what if you put Square wheels on a truck I would imagine it would give you the roughest possible ride it would be the clunkiest imaginable ride well it would in the start but if you went fast enough it eventually smooth out wouldn't it you're wondering how fast you have to drive with square Wheels in order to get a smooth ride yeah that's great I think we should put it to the test it may have come from the hamman's mind but it's also going gang busters on the fan site because according to the myth at a fast enough speed the difference between square and round Wheels would disappear but can this really be true or is this a myth that's head it back to square one so what's your plan for these Square Wheels well pretty much everything that we need for this is going to be really abused so the wheels we going to have to design to be able to take all of the stress the truck's going to have to be really heavy duty it's going to have to be four-wheel drive and have a big torquey engine in it super beefy Wheels super beefy truck I think we should also add in there some nice objective way of measuring the smoothness of the ride we get like we compare it to a round wheeel drive and see how close we can get instrumentation precisely okay what I'm trying to figure out here is that if we took a wheel like this and changed it into something shaped more like this a square how fast would we have to go to stay on the corners like so and actually end up with a smooth ride whether that's possible or not at what speed that occurs that's what we're trying to find out and first up com the brainstorm how to design a square wheel in the first place how's this Square wheel going to look it's going to be square right Reinventing the wheel is no easy feat obviously we're going to go with steel for this what about something like you know a straight box well I think that's a a decent place to start every single wheel rotation and then we SPID her out with some gussets could lead to a catastrophic collapse that'll start to look pretty sexy because of the 5,000 lb truck that they'll be carrying this is really going to be bizarre yeah but by Thinking Inside the square their idea gets into gear cool let's get to it yeah the final four-sided design has reinforcements at the center and Corners making it incredibly strong but also incredibly complex add with so many individual pieces of Steel it'll need to be laser cut and thanks to the wonders of Television our parts are here they're here dude that takes no time at all that is gorgeous man those are so pretty let's set one up okay these come in like this this goes here this is from years of building Legos without looking at the instructions these laser cut parts are absolutely gorgeous they're coming together beautifully and Jamie and I have quite an efficient little assembly line going here you can't tell but he's just as happy as I am it's an assembly line because the prefab Wheels require hundreds of individual welds in order to keep our Square wheels from each weighing like 200 lb of piece we've designed it all out of 3/16 in steel now that may not seem like much but the design and the gussets and the distribution of the forces really ought to be able to take this but with steel this thin you can't just lay in these big fat welding beads you actually have to stitch it carefully because the stuff if it gets too hot can warp and that's bad it's a laborious process but hopefully it'll be worth it and once the MythBusters get their heads down their hubs are soon looking like the wheel deal nice want to grab a side let's put it on the ground yeah this is how the tire goes on right hopefully that has a satisfying ring to it doesn't it it really does it rings like a bell it's so pretty I'll be right back it's a square wheel those two words should shouldn't go together they shouldn't but this isn't quite up to shape yet well there's your problem because next it's time for the rubber to meet the rim when you started this job did you ever imagine you'd be lubing a square Tire to fit a large piece of rubber on it that's been my lifelong dream in theory the guide bars should make Levering on the tire easier go ahead and get a clamp on that yeah but trying to fit a square peg into a round hole is just as difficult as it sounds my family's been fitting Square wheels for two centuries now no one's bought one though I want my Square Wheels even bringing in a 2,000lb wrecking ball this is like how the Egyptians do it the old Egyptian Fork Li doesn't get the tire onto the square So Jamie has a solution we are literally trying to fit a square peg into a round hole and I had designed the size of this steel wheel to perfectly fit the tire that I chose the thing is that while I could eventually get it over the square wheel I might not be able to get it back off again so we're going to jump up a size in the tires slightly bigger I hope it works and shim them to where they fit properly we'll be good to go sometimes the simplest solution is is also the most obvious how's it look much better dude I was able to just put it on by hand wow that is a square wheel that is without a doubt a square fraking wheel thanks to their Ingenuity and hard work the MythBusters have squared the circle doing that makes me nervous now they just have to complete another three next up a conjoined car Caper all right so we have another Hollywood myth and this one comes from the movie date night where two cars get into a head-on collision and become conjoined not only that but they continue to drive around the city I know this one they actually get stuck together they go forward backward go around corners it's awesome a little demolition a little stunt driving I love it it's a date night with a difference according to the movie two cars crash together then speed down city streets cut corners and even manage a 180 spin but could two conjoined cars even move let alone achieve these turbocharge tricks all right so we're going to test whether these two conjoin cars can drive all these crazy Maneuvers right but are we going to test whether they can become joined that way in the first place no actually we don't have to test that I was talking to these guys at the crash test facility and they were saying that this can happen cars can become connected in a collision it's very rare like one in 100,000 chances but it can happen which means that could take days and days to replicate not to mention that's quite a chunk of change okay so we'll join the cars ourselves and we'll do it just like they did in the movie nose to nose and make sure that they never separate cool because this myth really is about the Maneuvers and not whether they can get stuck together and we've got to design something that can accelerate break do slide turns 180s and safely exactly now the real question is how the heck are we going to do this well step one is to get two cars more or less identical to the ones in the movie here's what we got over here we have our cab which is a basic sedan rear wheel drive and for our Sports sedan since we can't afford a $158,000 car just to w we got one with equivalent technology it's got equivalent horsepower and it's all-wheel drive and with that step two is to turn them into a double act whoa hey what's that it's got missiles this is the coolest car ever what the heck are these B connecting two cars Bumper to Bumper was never going to be easy all right well problem number one this car has an all aluminum frame so there's no welding to it well that sucks no welding means that the MythBusters will have to come up with a plan B now initially we're going to try and connect to the bumper but that's not the strongest part of the car the strongest part of the car is is actually the frame that's where the driver's cage is that's the most rigid part of the car so we're going to use that to connect frame to frame instead of Bumper to Bumper let's put these cars together it's a heavyduty solution I'm not using the light stuff that'll ensure that their heavyduty cars stay nose to nose on the track now each of these cars weighs over 2 tons and we'll have to be stuck together driving over 40 mph so we've designed Steel frame that will fuse to the taxi and that will bolt to the sedan simple and all that serious steal means they've got some serious welding to do glamorous very glamorous the guys take a page from Flash Dance as the Sparks Fly and slowly the date night frame comes together all right so we're done building the frame that's going to keep the two cars together as you can see we've overbuilt it cuz there's going to be so much torque on that frame from the two cars that it has to be strong the only thing left to do is to attach the frame to the bottom of the cars to get those two cars connected it's like a giant steel bow [Music] tie cut the muffler off of any car it sounds cooler the cars have got serious muscle but with the aluminum side bolted in and the other side welded on the frame should keep that in check so all we need to do is get our cars on the flatbed and take it out to location to test this myth that's all they have to do but with the connected cars weighing it at 4 tons I think we got a problem here with this forklift that's not an easy [Music] proposition what's that it's making evil noises and it's kind of doing like this who would have thought this would be the most difficult part of the day just packing up the cars we haven't even started the experiment there's something you don't see every day eventually the double wide is loaded up and ready for its turbocharged Excursion see you [Music] there since Jamie was just a baby a circular wheel has been the design of choice for a smooth ride but could a square wheel at speed be just as comfortable well after squaring up a feet of engineering Excellence The MythBusters are ready to roll on testing let's get out of here and with a truck packing plenty of power they hit the road for a familiar testing ground I love this tarm mag nice day for a bouncy ride huh absolutely it is let's get started this thing about Square Wheels not something you want to do on a public road that's why we're out here on this Runway where we can do whatever we want now what we want to find out is whether we can drive fast enough in this truck with square wheels on it oh look at that that we end up with a smooth ride and of course we have to survive to tell the tale but it's not just about survival it's also about data if these babies have any chance at all of giving us a smooth ride how are we going to know beyond our own subjective experience we need an objective measuring system for telling us how with our Rus and that's where Jason and Scott come in they work at LMS a software and Hardware engineering company that measures the vibration of all sorts of things from Cars to airplanes to washing machines and they're going to measure our experiment yep Jason and Scott position the sensitive sensors in three key areas good to go to track the vibration on the suspension the steering column and of course the passengers and with the test track set [Music] that looks festive they'll be put to use first in the round wheel control in three 2 one go here we go feels like a pretty nice ride so far as it should be yeah 55 55 and 60 60 MPH feels pretty smooth I think we got a good measure bring it to a hold and head back to home base throw some Square wheels on this puppy unsurprisingly the traditional Wheels provide a comfortable ride something that's backed up by the sensors guys we get anything good absolutely so we see went up to about 60 MPH steering column and the seat pad uh are nice low levels of vibration as we'd expect that looks like a really good Baseline yep we expect this to go way up with the square Wheels out so do we yeah all right let's get it with the Baseline set it's time for the weirdest wheel change in automobile history this is so raw and yet it feels so right the abenity begins you know I don't think you'd need a parking brake with these things no need to curb your wheels on a hill no no all four wheels are mounted and flat to the ground but will they even turn let alone get up to a speed that could be smooth personally I don't think we're going to get a smooth ride out of these Square Wheels but more than that with all of them flat I seriously imagine that the first quarter turn the first time the truck Bo and lands on that second part of the square the truck may look at that as an accident and just shut down we might not even get more than one quarter turn on this test well as the MythBusters Mantra goes there's only one way to find out yeah but that's a way that first involves a suit up for safety because with the world's first set of square Wheels doing the spinning the MythBusters are taking no chances let's do it ready all right here we go the Moment of Truth Square wheel smooth ride all four wheels flat in 3 2 1 go they're off to a puppy start hey right out but as Jamie accelerates the ride seems to get smoother at least until it suddenly stops all together something's dreadfully wrong yeah we're sitting sideways we're sitting sideways and we're not level I know whoa oh crap Jamie it's bad there's your problem what happened we sheared everything out of that wheel hub all the bolts all of them well at least it didn't ruin the wheels yeah exactly the term of art for that is one hell of a ride go the methodology was to start out with just one hop just get over one quarter turn and see how it felt make sure the airbags don't go off So Jamie did that and then the moment that seemed okay he floored it who hey that's Mo right out and for about 5 Seconds there it felt like we were actually getting something approaching a smooth ride and then everything fell apart the fact is this is one of the most powerful trucks we could get our hands on and driving with all four wheels flat just too much for it but even in that 15-second window the wheels did get up enough speed to spin corner to corner however do the sensors confirm that it was smooth all right Scott what do you got for us well you can definitely see uh some Trends here as the speed goes up the vertical acceleration in the suspension is definitely going down if I go to the steering column you see the same Trend as the speed goes up vibrational energy definitely goes down well the data is pretty compelling and it actually seems to match what Jamie and I felt in the truck which is that before it destroyed itself we actually felt the ride smoothing out there might just be something to this so we're going to keep on testing it absolutely because it ain't over until the square Wheels Spin and don't fall off the truck The MythBusters have got Double the Trouble with a date night double driving myth and after some ingenious Automotive surgery look M No Hands the conjoined cars are at Alam ready for the maneuvering Mayhem so we're testing myth in the movie date night where two cars get in a head-on collision and they become linked together during this whole 3 minute sequence they drive around and around back and forth we're going to start with the straight line test because potentially that is the safest and the easiest on the cars that's right they're breaking the scene into its elements the straight line test the 90° turn and the 180 spin and first up they're going straight with the cabin neutral can the sports sedan really shove it backwards at 40 mph from a standing start yeah well once the cab gets its obligatory MythBusters makeover now that's a taxi it's time to find out all right so I'm going to be playing the taxi driver you guys are going to be on a date all right well we're going 40 m hour as a myth State at a really fast Street speed and we're going to start by going forward and backwards can Drive first all right let's go it's our Sports sedan it's fast and it's got a lot of torque but you know what it's designed for a specific load and by connecting our taxi cab to this car hey what are you doing get out of my way essentially we're doubling that load making it even harder and that means that all the torque that this car has it's going to need all of that to push this car out of the way yep the sports sedan may have the power but can it shove the weight of the 4,000lb T taxi too and can this double act max out at 40 mph ready ready let's do it all right putting it into neutral parking break off hands off the wheel in three two one [Music] go amazing just like the movie the sports car takes the taxi for a ride but there's a slight problem I've got no steering an hour I've got no steering brakes brakes no steering brakes brakes brakes got brakes we went off course pretty fast off course is an understatement the tandem cars only narrowly missed the fence so we got up to speed and I guess you could call that straight line but man that was scary the problem is that the Turning axles that control is steering on our tandem car are actually in the middle and what used to be the rear wheels are at the front which means you have very little control over where you're going and of course with the sport sedan pushing double the load the brakes have to work twice as hard and you need twice the space to come to a stop who knows what's going to happen when we try to do this in Reverse yep that's right reverse is next let's do it because stunt two of the movie has the sedan dragging the coasting cab at 40 mph all right 40 mph in Reverse in three 2 1 go 20 mph look at that we're already off Course once again steering the 4ton monstrosity is almost impossible 40 m [Music] hour well we got 40 but the twin cars pull off the reverse right now it's looking very good for the myth with connected cars you can drive forwards and backwards at High high speeds you don't have much control but it is possible oh no but I think the real question on everybody's mind is how is the date going and from my vantage point pretty well I got a joke for you bartender says we don't serve time travelers here time traveler walks into a [Music] bar driving in a straight line may be confirmed but there's still plenty of double driving start turn now and dating to [Applause] come so can we call it was that our a smooth ride well it started to smooth out but then the truck broke and the wheel came off that was almost bone shattering but it occurs to me what if instead of all Wheels being flat we offset two of them to a 45° angle increasing the periodicity of the points hitting the ground might make the ride smoother and easier on the truck yeah that makes sense but I start to worry that making things less symmetrical like that might set up some sort of an oscillation and a certain orientation that would end up flipping the truck and that it suck you're totally right that then says to me that we want to do some smallscale testing try different wheel orientations and see which one we feel is both safest for us but also might be easiest on the truck I agree okay after a bone shaking ride with all four wheels in the same orientation it's time to experiment with some different configurations now this is the orientation we had our Wheels in for our most recent ride and a bumpy ride it was but this is not the only orientation we need to have our four wheels we could Mount two of our wheels at a 45° offset to the other two thus doubling the frequency with which one of the points of the squares hits the ground for every rotation or we could offset each Wheel by 22 1/ 12° for every rotation thus quadrupling the frequency with which one of the points hits the ground which one of these is going to give us the smoothest ride I haven't the slightest idea that's why we're about to test this in small scale and for that they'll need a set of wheels so Adam brings this out of the woodwork I think that's a good start then it's time to tune up the treadmill to give it a run all right let's try this first off a little recap of why four insync wheels are so uncomfortable ow but we'll offsetting the wheels by 45° decrease the jolt Factor much better wow I didn't expect that to be so nice let's ramp it up all right two wheels offset diagonally at 45° is a clear Improvement yeah but will the 92.5 de combination be even better the way this works is that one's always flat one's always at 45 and the other two are in the middle okay ooh that's the oscillation I was worried about that's what we don't want to do because that's what is going to flip the truck at speed a closer look at the 22.5 proves that the chassis is bouncing up and down and side to side making the 45° offset the most stable configuration our small scale test showed that the best configuration was to have two opposing Corners with their points down the opposite two corners with their Flats down that balances things out the best and so that's what we're going to do full scale I've got no steering so far in this date night driving drama no the conjoined car Precision Driving is two for two stop but next The MythBusters are going around the bend all right you ready to do this on the streets we're all going to crash so far our two-car monstrosity works great but that's only in a straight line now it's time to take it to a curve that's why we're here on an unmarked intersection to see how well our cars do in a real City street on a turn Carrie and I will be in the sport sedan Tor will in the taxi based of what I've seen so far I'm not entirely sure how well this is going to work but hey we hit the curb at least the taxi is leading get off my cab in the movie with the sedan providing the power the tandem cars take turns at speed but will getting Double the Trouble round a 90° Bend be that straightforward taking it to the streets in three two one go Grant gets the conjoin car up to 40 mph and then with a corner approaching Yanks the [Applause] wheel so our turning radius is nothing but with the Turning axles stuck in the middle of the cars it's not looking good for the myth this doesn't seem to be working after repeated attempts The MythBusters and the cars are still behind the curve well you know we're fighting so many things here I mean including traction well in the movie it was wet outside and we do have a fire truck on site so how about we slip slide around the corner by matching the road conditions of the movie the theory is that water will reduce the grip of the tires and let the car drift around the bend my feeling is adding water is just going to make it harder for us to turn it's kind of like driving on an IT Road even if you have steering that works you're going to lose traction and you're going to go straight water not going to help us well with the road watered down it's time to find out if tor's right slippery and wet in three two one go once again the car gets up to 40 [Music] mph but doesn't achieve the wet and wild slide and it's clear that water alone doesn't make a difference dry Road or wet Road we're still not making the turn but in the movie although the sports stand was brand new the taxi not so much so we're going to replicate what you might see on a taxi that's done thousands of miles of City Driving bald rear tires it's definitely a likely scenario ready to burn some rubber do it and our taxi driver is ready to strip those [Music] tires Tori lays down some rubber do you believe we're getting paid to do this and soon enough the tires look like they've seen serious action that looks bald to me I think that's great let's go for it you got a piece of Tire in your hair a so this is our last ditch attempt to get this turning to work and we've balded the tires we're going to have a wet Road thus reducing the traction of this set of tires my prediction probably still not going to work I mean we might get a better turn out of it but look there's no way we're making a 90° turn well let's find out all right here we come taking the corner in three two one go once again Grant takes it to 40 start turning now and then nothing not much of a difference just like the movie The Sports sedan does all the steering but there's still nowhere close to Corner meaning there's only one movie variable left to try now we're going to switch it up this time we're going to have the taxi pushing the sports car we're thinking because the taxi is a two wheel drive and it has ball tires that will be sliding more and hopefully pivot around the sports car to make the turn it's the last chance for the myth if the taxi can't slip the corner then this date night Bend is busted Tori guns the C pulls the wheel but the cars don't turn left instead 50 yd Downstream they suddenly Veer right yeah yeah okay stop stop stop by pure fluke Tori finally got the cars around the corner even if it was the wrong one we made the turn all right maybe not the turn I wanted to make but it still made the turn so why did we turn the wrong way well here's my theory see the taxi is a regular rear wheel drive car when Tori yanked the wheel the front wheels lost traction and that made the car unstable because of the wet Road and the bald tires that instability eventually resulted in the rear wheels sliding out they happen to slide out to the left and that meant the car turned to the right now the sedan on the other hand has all-wheel drive and computerized traction control so it never succumbed to the instability and thus never made the turn whatever the reason for the wrong turn one fact is clear the Corner turn is on the road to nowhere okay stop stop stop driving in a straight line forward confirmed driving in a straight line backwards confirmed cornering busted we may have made the corner but it was the wrong one which is pretty much going to get you killed so the real question is can we do the most spectacular maneuver the 180 spin I for one cannot wait for this one hey we've been testing how fast you need to go in a vehicle that's got Square Wheels to get a smooth ride and we've determined already that it's not as simple as just putting Square wheels on your car put some on our truck and we broke it then we figured there might be other orientations than just all four wheels flat that'll give us a smoother ride so we've tried a bunch of those out in small scale we've got the pattern we think is going to work and we come back out here to the alamer runway I'm going to try it again our lives have officially become cartoon with the wheel hubs back in shape after their last outing it's time for the truck to get squared there it is and this time two diagonal wheels are offset by 45° our creation she is ready to take life but will that configuration make all the difference a prediction yeah I got a prediction I think this is going to be super unpleasant for us in the driver and passenger seat I just don't see any way that even going at like 50 mph this is going to smooth out I just don't see it well with the sensors mounted and The MythBusters wrapped up in their safety gear all right sir you ready for this ready as I'll ever be will they get that smoother ride fair and square square Wheels smooth ride 45° diamond formation and three 2 one go oh w yeah come on baby oh that's not bad bastard to begin with the offset wheels are smoother yeah holy wow and as lead footed heidman gets the truck up to speed dude this is not bad 18 mph keep going Wow Come on Master continues to improve that is until the wheels can take it no more w wow that was intense that wasn't half bad when you got up to 20 M an hour I got enough brakes though I think the truck didn't like it too much I don't think it did either did we lose all four tires I think so although one of them just sort of stayed on the truck and just not on the wheel this is not bad as we had hoped the faster we went the less of the really heavy hammering we felt yeah holy but that was substituted for something else that seemed like it might even be worse it was just a really sharp hard vibration that I couldn't help but think was doing something horrible to the bottom of the truck once we were up to speed once we were up to the fastest speed we could get which turns out to be about 18 M hour I have to admit that I am impressed with how smooth that ride was it was smoother than I thought it was going to be let's put it that way Adam thinks the ride evened out but was it enough to ever be called Smooth yeah so how does the data look well here's your speed in red and you can see where you kind of slowed down and there's a lot of vibration as you sped up the vibration of steering column really starts to Trend off well that's pretty much just what we felt in the cap yeah awesome the ride was progressively smoother but it was also progressively destructive with the tires and break pads coming off completely well that was one of the worst things that ever happened to that car it was fun though absolutely it does make me think though you got an idea I do awesome at the other end of the runway you ready for the fun Maneuvers oh yeah the tandem car Trio are taking the date night myth for its final spin so we have one more test to perform and this is the finale of this sequence now in a desperate attempt to finally get the two cars free One driver turns the wheel in One Direction the other driver turns the wheel in the other direction and instead of breaking apart they spin around in a circle but before we attempt that with this two-car freak Show what we need is a little practice a little practice with practice defensive driver Alama County Sheriff Marvin ruff hi hey you ready to teach me to drive dangerously safely I am ready the guys will get to grips with a 180 spin technique on a normal car first hand on the gear shift spinner [Applause] wheel yeah only when they've mastered this nice and smell will they unleash their twocc car Beast look at your focal point snap and Roll Baby and just just like that schools out so bring on this myth's Grand Finale now we know from the movie that it was a little vague who was doing the pushing and after all of our Corner tests we're pretty sure the taxi is the one that has to do it in theory having the thrust come from the rear wheeel drive taxi should increase their chances of making the 180 all right water engage out away or you're going to get wet and 2,000 gallons of gray water will replicate the wet road conditions of the movie my big concern on this next test is flipping the cars I mean we've done this maneuver with one car and it felt like it was going to flip now that we have two that's a lot more weight that could potentially cause these cars to roll that could totally ruin carrying Grant State flipping out is a very real possibility for this test particularly because this time the cars are going to Peak at 50 mph okay this is date night spin around 3 2 1 go for the last time Tory puts the pedal to the metal and pushes their conjoin Colossus up to speed 40 50 miles then the moment they hit the wet patch Tori and Carrie turn their steering wheels in opposite directions and yeah that's what I'm talking about how do you know a 180 spin not quite as clean as the movie but a 180 nonetheless that's better than coffee think I pop my back it's true that both rear tires pop but they're the only things worse for wear it works we got the cars to spin just like in the movie that was awesome I think we have to call that confirmed absolutely confirmed and absolutely exhilarated I was having the time of my life I was looking Tory dead in the eye half time like come on I knew exactly what he was doing and it was so [Music] exciting so yeah that was pretty much the best date I've ever been on now we've done a little research as it turns out in order to achieve this effect in the movie the special effects artist built one giant single chassis for both cars all Wheels had steering and they had caster wheels underneath the stabilized the actors weren't driving driving the driver was actually in the trunk and we achieved the very same effect with nothing but good old bald tires well that was good fun well it ain't a date with the mythbuster till the wheels come off so it was a good date it was a good [Music] date at the Waste Management Facility in Altimont this is like the weirdest sport ever oh sorry it's like bowling towards a hooer with witch's hats I don't know what you would call that the MythBusters are making the earth move for Jamie's big idea it looks great from here Jamie good let's face it there's a very good reason they don't put Square wheels on [Music] cars but you know that started me thinking maybe there are circumstances where Square Wheels would be the best thing like what if you had a really Steep Hill covered with loose dirt that you wanted to climb and that is where this comes in a smooth slope leading to an almost vertical wall and filled with loose dirt this is the ultimate testing ground to compare the efficacy of square Wheels versus round Wheels 50 ft high and with varying degrees of steepness this ought to be fun this Hill has exactly the kind of off-road conditions for the ultimate test of the MythBusters Square Wheels here's how this test is going to go first we are going to take the truck with its round wheels and we're going to drive it up that slope as far as we can make it let's say we make it about halfway up editors will you give me a dotted line halfway up the slope thank you then we're going to bolt the square Wheels to the truck and we're going to take the same slope and see if we can make it farther if we can we have literally reinvented the wheel well I think everything's in place shall we suit up and do the uh round wheel test I don't see why not all right if we can't we've just proven what we already suspected Square wheels are stupid it's a simple plan you ready I am now and it all comes down to Jam's theory on why Square Wheels could work better on loose ground when it comes to soft surfaces the thing about round Wheels is that all of the weight of the vehicle is right here where it contacts the ground the PSI there is very high that means that it'll easily sink through soft stuff and get buried also as it tries to roll forward it tends to plow that Soft Stuff ahead of it which makes it hard to climb out of things and that's why in things like sand or snow or loose dirt and we're stuck you get stuck on the other hand our Square wheel has this entire surface contacting the ground which means that the PSI is going to be a small fraction of what it would be under a round tire and then when you try to move forward instead of just plowing into the dirt it's going to actually cut into it and actually lever the whole vehicle ahead at least that's the theory that's the theory so it's time to get Trucking round wheeel hill climbing control test in three 2 one wa W you think that's as high as you can go I think so that's pretty darn High yep halfway up the hill and the round Wheels can't get a grip on the loose Earth so The Benchmark to beat has been set what do we do now I don't know back down slowly I well I if I can which means The MythBusters must return to the start line that is intense and swap out the wheels it's like one of those what are we doing moments I think we have more of those moments than we do the normal ones time for predictions I myself believe that the square wheels are actually going to make it farther than the round Wheels I'm guessing by like 10 or 15 ft but more importantly is Jim's prediction now you notice if you watch previous episodes of Mythbusters that he doesn't like making a solid prediction he likes saying a version of who can say that's why we're doing this experiment but in this case he actually also thinks the square Wheels have a really good chance of climbing this hill watch this our round Wheels got us about halfway up the loose dirt on the Steep part now we're never going to get all the way up because well it's vertical up there and we just can't do that but the square Wheels I think they're going to get us most of the way there ha So Jamie made a prediction and it's the same as mine I hope we're right well it's now or never with the halfway mark to beat can the square Wheels make a mole hill out of a mountain you scared nah just a little Hill and we've got Square Wheels exactly this is square Wheels to final Hill Climb and three 2 one go [Music] no just like the round Wheels the spinning Square Wheels can't get purchased on the loose ground all right we're going up real slow now hill climbing and square wheels go so for take two the Hamman goes for a slow and steady approach this is promising woo [Applause] mov forward moving forward you know what what I don't think they're working I don't think they're working either we tied at best we touched the tape but I don't know if we can beat it I don't think we can I think you just got to face it Square wheels are just playing stupid it seems The MythBusters had to reinvent the wheel to discover that square wheels are just too well Square well that was freaking spectacular we start climbing the hill I'm feeling really good I can only imagine the volume rooster tail of dust we're kicking up we get up to the tape we're touching the tape I'm thinking we're going to break the tape more more and then we just stayed stationary we made it exactly as far up this hill as we did in our round Wheels I can't think of any better test to demonstrate that there isn't really a specific advantage to the square tires well there you have it at best our Square Wheels did the same job the round Wheels did on this course I got to say I'm disappointed in it though because I really think there's something to these wheels there may be other environments out there where they would actually prove Superior to round Wheels but as of this point they're not so how do you want to call this do Square Wheels give you a smooth ride well as ridiculous as it may seem I think we got to call that one plausible what about hill climbing that one not so much the uh Square Wheels didn't provide any kind of significant advantage over the round Wheels yeah well what are you going to do you want to drive back to the shop no let's walk it's more comfortable okay I think this is the last we'll see of the square Wheels not by a long shot [Music] he [Music]