IMPROVING THE DYNAMIC PERFORMANCE OF MULTI-TRAILER VEHICLES: A STUDY OF INNOVATIVE DOLLIES

The research approach taken was to examine the dynamic performance of a typical commercial vehicle when equipped with each of 4 dolly types (the trapezoidal dolly, the linked-articulation dolly, the self-steering B-dolly, and the controlled-steering B-dolly), and then to compare this performance with that when it is equipped with a conventional A-dolly. The performance measures of rearward amplification, dynamic rollover threshold (the point of no return where a rollover could take place), and yaw damping (the quality that suppresses unstable yaw response) were used in this comparison. The findings indicate that B-dollies are dynamically superior to A-dollies and other types of innovative dollies because of the roll coupling between the leading semitrailer and the dolly, and the possibility of steering the dolly wheels to achieve good trailing fidelity of the last trailer.