Strong, competent and high-quality coupling of a road train is ensured by a proven and reliable connection of its two main elements – a truck tractor and a semi-trailer. Hitching and uncoupling are the two most important procedures that are carried out before starting and ending work, as well as when changing a semitrailer.
These procedures must be performed by an experienced professional who has undergone the necessary instruction and has all the necessary skills and knowledge, including theory and practice.
If the hitch or uncoupling is not performed correctly, problems such as:
The safety and reliability of the coupling and uncoupling of semi-trailers and tractors is ensured by strict compliance with all requirements, norms and standards. Only in this case, it is possible to guarantee the delivery of goods from point A to point B without any incidents.
To perform the coupling procedure, the driver or his partner must be guided by special instructions and documentation that contain the following information:
Employees at such events should receive appropriate training. They read the instructions and documentation, and then sign in the corresponding document.
All operations related to the operation, repair and maintenance of freight transport devices are performed by persons who have reached the age of 18 and are trained in safe work procedures. A prerequisite is an introductory, initial or repeated briefing.
Hitching and uncoupling are important procedures that require attention and concentration of the performer. Gloves, protective overalls, special shoes and other personal protective equipment are required. In addition, you will need to strictly follow all the steps and steps.
Any activities should begin with a health assessment:
If you find any problems and malfunctions, you should immediately notify the responsible person and proceed with their elimination (carry out repairs or maintenance of the chassis, brake system, steering, light signaling, and so on).
Before hitching / uncoupling, put the tractor and semitrailer on a flat surface. In this case, the longitudinal axis on them must coincide. The semitrailer is braked by a parking brake, antiretractable stops are placed under its wheels. The drawbar without supporting springs must be mounted on a special support.
All connecting hoses, the wiring system are checked (all wires must be removed and secured), the sides of the semitrailer are closed and fixed.
The tractor moves in reverse to the semitrailer, while making sure that there are no outsiders in the danger zone. It is located between the tractor and trailer only after putting the tractor on the parking brake and turning off the engine. The gearshift lever is in the “neutral” position.
The procedure includes:
Hitching and uncoupling is ideally carried out by two people, however, in special situations, when there are no other options, this procedure can be performed by only one driver.
It is very important to conduct an assessment of its condition immediately before the departure of the road train. It is necessary to check the air pressure, oil pressure, the sound and light signals. Also checked the operation of washers, braking systems, electrics. Must have a first aid kit and a fire extinguisher.
It is necessary to assess the condition of the wheels and the tread, to check the reliability of the fifth wheel coupling. Do not forget to clean and wipe the dirt of headlights, lights and turn signals.
The uncoupling procedure is performed in the reverse order. To do this, the tractor and semitrailer are exposed on a suitable flat platform, after which the following measures are carried out:
Remember that only competent and correct execution of hitching and uncoupling operations ensures the safety and durability of any vehicle. All routine procedures must be carried out accurately and correctly; you cannot skip a single paragraph of the instruction.
It is imperative to carry out regular technical inspections with the replacement of working fluids and worn elements. Such procedures should be performed “automatically” – over time, they will become a habit and will not cause any difficulties.
Painting of trawls, semi-trailers, special equipment in Ukraine
After the cleaning and surface preparation procedures, it is necessary to paint. The painting procedure is not particularly difficult if you need, for example, to clean a small chip or re-paint the places with scratches and dents that appeared during operation.
If there is a need to paint the entire structure, special equipment and special conditions cannot be dispensed with. In a conventional garage, it is quite difficult to paint a trailer, semi-trailer or trawl over the entire surface after shot blasting.
To do this, you need to use the services of Trans-Auto-D professionals who have all the necessary skills and experience in this field. The painting process is quite complicated technologically, and special care and attention are required for maximum protection against corrosion processes.
In the company Trans-Auto-D, you can order the processing and painting of the most dimensional and complex structures. Semi-trailers and trailers, trawls and frames – for the masters of their craft there are no unsolvable tasks. Using high-quality consumables and modern painting equipment of well-known brands, you can guarantee a positive result in terms of high-quality and reliable protection of surfaces from any external influences.
Any surface must be pre-treated with sandblasting or shot blasting. After this procedure, rust, dirt, old coating layers up to the “bare” metal are removed from the surface.
An anticorrosive coating is applied to the pure metal, then stages such as:
After staining, structures can be additionally treated with special tinting compounds.
Specialists of the company Trans-Auto-D carry out cleaning and painting procedures of any complexity, working with equipment of any modifications, varieties and dimensions. Experts select only the most effective consumables for a guaranteed quality result.
Processing, cleaning and painting is carried out in the shortest possible time. The cost of the services provided is determined by the volume and complexity of the work, the current state of the design, the need to use additional techniques for high-quality cleaning.
The main components that must adequately ensure reliability during operation, the required load capacity, ease of management of a variety of cargo trawls, trailers and semi-trailers are a high-quality frame base and an efficient suspension and axle system.
At the same time, the suspension system itself includes not only axles, but also spring elements, steering arms and other elements that very often fail in our difficult operating conditions.
All existing types of auto-suspensions are conventionally divided into two large categories:
Speaking of a dependent type, it is understood that the wheels of each continuous separate axis are fixed in a rigid bundle. In this case, the torque is transmitted from the engine through the bridge to all wheels simultaneously. The main disadvantage of such a system is the reaction to the problems (pits, bumps) of the road surface of two wheels at once, and not one.
A car with this type of suspension is quite difficult to drive, it requires an excellent response from the driver to the slightest changes in the movement of vehicles on bumps. Roughnesses in the road should compensate for dampers or springs in such situations. In this case, depending on the type of suspension can be used:
Any dependent suspension is characterized by poor sprungness of the entire body, strong shaking on road bumps, drifts during bends, and difficult handling of the car.
These suspension options are more variable in their execution. The drive for individual wheels is the semi-axis, which interacts with the chassis using a rather complex system of levers of longitudinal and transverse types. Suspension independence is expressed in the fact that each wheel reacts to road irregularities (bumps, pits) individually, while the general kinematics of the movement process is simpler and more predictable.
Over the decades, hundreds of variations of independent-type pendants have been invented, tested and released.
It does not make sense to list them all, because only a few options are most often used in modern automotive industry:
For a long time, the main type of suspension for this type of vehicle was the dependent suspension on springs. Over time, the tasks facing the carriers became more complicated, the dimensions and weight of the cargo increased. This required the search for new, more efficient and reliable systems in management. Today, dependent suspension on springs in trawls, if it is found, is quite rare.
The main types of suspension in our time are:
As practice shows, the most common steel suspension using pneumatics. Off-road high-frame semitrailers are most often equipped with spring-balancer suspension. Special reinforced pneumatic suspension systems can also be used here.
One of the expected innovations is the hydraulic suspension type, which are equipped with semi-trailers of all lines. The hydraulic system is controlled by “smart electronics”, which minimizes the impact on the parameters of movement of the road terrain.
She constantly monitors all the features of the coating, if necessary, increasing the angles of rotation of the axes and varying the clearance (ground clearance). With such a system, it is simple enough to go through even the coolest turns.
One of the important points when testing the strength of the frame and axles is the loading of a heavy load – self-propelled equipment. Here, the critical point is tensile loads of tens of tons of the rear trawl truck, which experiences maximum impact.
It is for this reason that the trawls for transporting self-propelled equipment are additionally reinforced in the rear. In addition, appropriate ladders for arrival are selected, which may differ in carrying capacity, material, type of execution.
Existing norms and standards for heavy equipment, multi-axle trucks, semi-trailers, trailers include strict requirements for maximum axle loads. The design of modern semi-trailers includes special gauge sensors that allow you to avoid quite substantial fines for exceeding the permissible loads on the roadway.
