Calculating the torque required to rotate a ski on snow

[Blurp]

Hello friends,

I'm currently working on an engineering competition project known as the Great Northern Concrete Toboggan Race, and I'm stuck on some preliminary calculations. I'm trying to calculate the amount of torque that will be required to rotate the front skis in order to turn the toboggan. I have determined a normal force on each ski, and therefore a frictional force, but I believe I am missing information required to calculate the true torque needed to overcome friction. Common sense tells me a larger ski will require more torque to overcome friction, so how do I factor in surface area? Is moment of inertia also relevant?

Any insight would be much appreciated, thank you.

 

[Nidum]

What do you mean by Concrete Toboggan Race ?

 

[Blurp]

What do you mean by Concrete Toboggan Race ?

It's a competition for engineering students. It's essentially a steel roll cage with a concrete running surface. In my case, there's two fixed skis in the back and two skis in the front that will be able to pivot. I'm trying to figure out how much force it will take to achieve that pivoting

 

[Bystander]

Where's the "pivot center" located? Leading? Trailing?

 

[Blurp]

The pivot axis is centered on each ski, which are 24 inches in length