That may be one reason, but I’d also wager it’s the gear ratio. Turning those giant wheels in dirt/mud is going to take a lot of effort. But if they’re geared so you have to turn the steering wheel 3 or 6 times, it’s going to be a lot easier. Even with power steering, this is going to help you. Also, a big steering wheel (I don’t know if a tractor has it, but a truck or bus does) gives you more leverage.
Same with cars. If you’re going 65mph and you nudge the wheel, you’ll end up in the wall. OTOH, if you’re trying to parallel park or doing something else where you’re turning the wheel while stopped or going very slowly, it’s easier to move the wheel, if it turns more then the tires.
This is the same concept is using multiple pulleys (block and tackle) to lift something heavy. In both cases, you pull further or turn more, but it’s easier.
I hoped you mentioned to your kids that in a car you have to steer in the direction you want to go, instead of counter steering in the opposite direction as on motorcycles.
When I took driver’s ed, they explained more in terms of being able to control the car. If you feed the wheel, you will always have both hands on the wheel if you hit something or a tire blows at the wrong time.
As I get older, I appreciate how much gumption my grandma had. When I was in grade school, there were times when she would demonstrate things like that to me.
For this particular thing, she picked a time when the road was empty (out in the country), and then she showed me how a wrong twitch of the steering wheel at a fairly high speed made the car react.
I was about 4 years too young to get my drivers license, but that’s a lesson I never forgot.
An experienced motorcycle or bicycle rider steers by applying force to the bars, upsetting the machine’s balance. they then move to the position required to maintain/restore balance.
The required force increases with speed, automatically reducing the sensitivity of the steering.
Until you attach a sidecar, then you have to steer it with motion, like a car.
At extremely low speeds, or if the bike has horrible steering angles, you need to move the bars to maintain balance.
All of this instinctive and many riders do not even realize this is how it works. With instruction and practice these learn to make the bike respond much quicker. Bicycles in particular are often steered with body English which results in dangerously slow response and poor precision.
Steering rates vary greatly between models and types of vehicles. My wife’s Ford truck has a lock-to-lock spec of 3.82 rotations, my muscle car is 2.28 turns lock-to lock.
I’m not about to enter into the substance of the debate but using rally driving (or any sport) as a basis for what one should do in ordinary life is usually inane.
Rally drivers are racing. That means they would happily sacrifice some safety for a couple of seconds of time saved. Priorities in ordinary street driving are completely different.
