Idiots who tailgate

[Scania]

I've heard the braking performance of a bare tractor unit can be very impressive.

It is although the unit is a lot more stable with a (properly braked!) trailer attatched.

I bet, they have a huge amount of contact patch to put braking force onto the road with!

Indeed. plus very clever ABS systems and brakes capable of stopping a combined weight of upto 60t - an average tractor on its own weighs 7.5t.

With modern HGV's, you have to allow for the brakes, its very easy to stop the truck sooner than its load wants to stop, usually resulting in whats termed a "shot load"

 

[Skeeter]

With modern HGV's, you have to allow for the brakes, its very easy to stop the truck sooner than its load wants to stop, usually resulting in whats termed a "shot load"

Lol

 

[norm]

Indeed. plus very clever ABS systems and brakes capable of stopping a combined weight of upto 60t - an average tractor on its own weighs 7.5t.

With modern HGV's, you have to allow for the brakes, its very easy to stop the truck sooner than its load wants to stop, usually resulting in whats termed a "shot load"

I heard from a trucker that a dangerous scenario can be when the air hose disconnects from the cab causing the trailer brakes to all lock on at once.

You ever heard of this happening? Apparently it goes some way to explain massive tyre marks on the motorway you see sometimes.

 

[Skeeter]

I heard from a trucker that a dangerous scenario can be when the air hose disconnects from the cab causing the trailer brakes to all lock on at once.

You ever heard of this happening? Apparently it goes some way to explain massive tyre marks on the motorway you see sometimes.

Failsafe. Better all the brakes lock than them all stop working. Can imagine its still scary as hell for the driver though.

 

[Scania]

I heard from a trucker that a dangerous scenario can be when the air hose disconnects from the cab causing the trailer brakes to all lock on at once.

You ever heard of this happening? Apparently it goes some way to explain massive tyre marks on the motorway you see sometimes.

Failsafe. Better all the brakes lock than them all stop working. Can imagine its still scary as hell for the driver though.

Indeed a somewhat scary failsafe. And if this happened on the move, you'd end up with an almighty crash.

A break in the Red airline will cause this along with a loss of pressure, if the pressure drops below a certain level, the brakes lock on. This is why you sometimes hear of trucks stranded with locked brakes.


The massive truck sized skid marks are caused by (usually) trailer axle(s) that have faulty ABS senders resulting in one or more wheels locking under hard braking, especially with an empty / lightly loaded trailer.