In Australia, there is considerable interest in the properties of heavy vehicle suspensions and how these properties relate to road damage. However, there is little empirical data available that shows what the properties of suspensions in the Australian fleet are actually like. To fill this void, ARRB Group conducted a survey, funded by the Roads and Traffic Authority, NSW, of the suspension properties of 150 heavy vehicles fitted with triaxle groups randomly selected from the Hume Highway at Marulan Checking Station. The survey was conducted in March 2006. This paper presents key results from the survey, including statistics on the age of the trailers surveyed, the type of suspension fitted to the trailers, the load on the triaxle group of the trailers, the damping and damped frequency of the suspension fitted to the trailers, the temperatures of the shock absorber fitted to the trailer suspensions, and the static load sharing of the suspensions. Inspection of the data found very little relationship between any of the parameters. The findings of this survey add to the body of knowledge, provide information on the characteristics of this sector of the suspension population, and provide critical information for the axle mass increase debate. (a) For the covering entry of this conference, please see ITRD abstract no. 0612AR242E.
Samenvatting