Physics question

Aha!

By ‘higher on the other side’ you mean ‘higher than it would without the flywheels’, as opposed to ‘higher than the point from which it starts’, don’t you?

Yes, the flywheels will make it go higher because they add mass to the system, without proportionally increasing the losses due to friction and air resistance.

I was ignoring air resistance, and dealing only with friction on the surface. Why wouldn’t the flywheel-laden rod proportionally increase the losses due to surface friction?

To complicate things even further, wouldn’t it just end up slipping at some point, not rolling?