Methods for the Objective Description of the Driving Characteristics of Heavy Commercial Vehicles

In the past, several useful test procedures together with suitable description criteria have been developed for the presentation of the driving characteristics of passenger cars and cars with trailers. Due to the manifold design principles of commercial vehicles and because of the accelerated development of vehicle combinations with optimal space utilization ~ from lorry and bus through truck-trailer tractor-semi-trailer, articulated bus to bridge trains and short-coupled truck trailer - the driving characteristics of these vehicles vary far more widely. In order to categorize newly designed vehicle combinations, the description of the driving characteristics, in comparison to existing constructions, is of special interest. In this paper a survey of test procedures applied so far and the published measurement results for driving characteristics of heavy commercial vehicles will be given. The authors' measurements of 16 t lorries, a 38 t truck-trailer and a special 38 t semi-trailer-train will be compared with these findings. Based on the investigations carried out the applicability of the test procedures developed so far only for passenger cars as well as the restrictions required for application to heavy goods vehicles will be demonstrated and evaluated by measurement results. Important measurement values and description criteria for this vehicle category will be shown