The Fleet Business Authority
Issue link: http://heavydutytrucking.epubxp.com/i/236631
Trailers Save POUNDS by looking down Pounds can be shed on parts underneath the trailer including landing gear, suspensions, axles and fifth wheels. which provides for a thinner wall tube section and a weight savings of 25 pounds per set vs. a comparable landing gear model. Jost also offers an aluminum hybrid landing gear, which has a weight savings of over 50 pounds per set. PHOTO BY JIM PARK Axles and suspensions A close look at all of the parts beneath the trailer might save pounds – for a price a As fleets everywhere work on cutting fuel expenses, one strategy is shedding pounds anywhere they can stand to lose them. "Most fleets that are fuel conscientious are weight conscientious. The heavier the unit weighs, the higher cost per mile to operate it," explains Rob Nissen, the national service manager for SAF-Holland. Every component on the tractortrailer is being increasingly scrutinized for weight savings – including those beneath the trailer. Landing gear An average trailer can weigh anywhere from 10,000 to 15,000 pounds. While landing gear is only a small percentage of that, a few pounds here and a few pounds there add up. That's why manufacturers of landing gear have been working to reduce weight. "Landing gear weigh about 150 to 250 pounds per set so when you are talking about making your landing gear lighter by 15 to 25 pounds, that's a savings of 10%," says Zoran Tomic, director, global landing gear product planning & market development, Trailers Systems Business Unit with SAF- Holland. While keeping an eye on the scale, the other eye has to be on the price. "You have to determine if the weight savings benefit justifies the additional cost," Tomic says. "Alternative materials may be considered but the cost penalty can be significant." He says in general, every pound of saved weight when replacing steel with aluminum will add $5 to $6 to the cost. Saving 10 pounds could increase the price by $60. If the cost of a lightweight product is significantly less than a steel "regular" product, he warns, than the quality or structural integrity might have been compromised. SAF-Holland and Jost have lightened their landing gear with both structural and material changes. Jost engineers say their A400 family of landing gear saves weight because they do not have an external gear box. The Jost Ultra Light series is produced from high-strength lightweight steel The two main ways to reduce weight in suspension products is through design and materials used, according to Ray Mueller, senior vice president for business development at Reyco Granning Suspensions. An example from Reyco Granning is the DockMaster 400 air ride van slider. "The DM400 subframe is more like the unibody construction of an automobile than it is the traditional hangers welded to a frame," explains Ken Wall, senior project engineer for Reyco's Trailer Value Stream. "By incorporating unitized, wraparound hangers and 9-inch Super C frame rails, we were able to produce a suspension 33% stronger than our leading competitor and still have one of the lightest air ride sliders on the market." Another weight-savings strategy is the use of high-strength materials. "Austempered ductile iron, for example, is stronger than steel," Mueller says, "so the parts can be thinner than steel parts without sacrificing durability." Hendrickson, which has trimmed the weight of a tandem axle air slider/ suspension system by more 750 pounds since its first introduction in 1991, says it uses multiple approaches to reducing weight: 1) condense the number of components needed to do the same job; 2) integrate multiple functions into a single component; 3) decrease component size while maintaining performance; and 4) design components to be more efficient with material usage (put the Kate Harlow • Associate Editor 54 HDT • JANUARY 2014 www.truckinginfo.com