You’ve hooked up your trailer and you’ve headed to a weighbridge and the bad news is that your front (steering) axle is overloaded. An overloaded axle is both illegal and dangerous. It can overheat your tyres, make your braking performance much worse, affect your steering and even cause a jackknife if it’s bad enough.
Whoever loaded the trailer has put too much weight at the front, but you don’t have any ability to change that, so what can you do?
如果你有滑動 第五輪, you can move the load backwards so that more weight is over the tractor unit’s drive axles.
It’s common for drivers to move the fifth wheel, not only for weight distribution, but also to get the best aerodynamic performance from the vehicle. A smaller distance between the cab and the trailer makes for better fuel economy, but it’s not always possible to do this if the front of the trailer is heavy because too much weight will be over the steering axles.
Add to this the complication of full vs empty fuel tanks (diesel weighs around 8 pounds per gallon) and you’ll see it’s difficult to calculate an exact weight distribution.
如果您的牽引車有可移動的第五輪,駕駛室後面會有一個開關可以解鎖。
When the fifth wheel is unlocked, it can slide on this notched rail. Each notch represents a certain percentage of weight distribution forwards and backwards – you’d need to check the manufacturer’s documentation to know just how much.
放下拖車後,請將第五輪放回正常位置。
並非所有第五輪拖車都可以在與拖車連接時移動。該第五輪可以移動,但只能透過鬆開螺栓並向前或向後滑動才能移動。