Tankers with lift axles

sorry just seeing it yup I do... my truck is 5522 always in the 1st bay say Hi sometime if you see me there. I generally do not go during the run but we run in multiple times a day 7 days a week. I pickup either vacation days or weekend work for it.

 

I'm at armstrong pretty often also lol... back at stop 3

 

If the drop axle is behind the steer and before the drive axle it is a tag or drop axle. It does not steer only follows behind the steer. Since it only tags or follows the steer axle it will not steer so when you go into reverse the axle should lift and when you go into gear it's on the ground. In NV they would only allow us to have control outside of the cab. So once you're loaded flip the switch to lower the axle. The switch is located on the battery box. We started using them in the late 80's and continued until the terminal shut down in 1997. We had no problems whatsoever. That tag axle that goes up and down connected to the ABS is wired wrong. That's my guess.

 

@GasHauler he is talking about a fixed lift axle on a trailer. Its wired correctly, as they use a constant power source, ABS in most cases, to provide the power to lift the axle automatically when the pressure in the suspension is low enough indicating that the trailer is ether empty or very lightly loaded.

 

No, I was talking about the tag right behind the engine in front of the drives. I'm sorry I did not specify that I was talking about a truck and trailer. Most all of the gas haulers out west run truck and trailers. You can carry more and they are easier to maneuver in the small stations. If you look at my icon picture that's a CA truck but it's a truck and trailer.

 

@GasHauler Im very familiar with what you are talking about I drove them and I currently drive 8 axle tractor/trailer setups in the northwest with a steerable lift on the truck one on the rear of the trailer and sometimes a non steer lift on the trailer as well. The OP was not asking about those steerable lift axles. He was asking if his non lift axle was working correctly and it is.

 

Empty, it rides like a donkey cart.

 

My bet is your blue wire/center pin on your pigtail is not getting power. That should be a keyed Constant power source to run your trailer abs system and bother 12 volt accessory’s like your lift axle valving.

When you turn the key on the trailer and light should light for a second, then go out. That’s the system self test. I bet yours doesn’t. If the light stays lit you have an abs fault.

The trailer abs system can also pull power from the brake light wire when the brakes are applied. This is a back up Incase the center pin is not working or you have an older truck that’s not wired this way. When you step on the brakes it’s back feeding to your lift axle system and everything works right until you let off the brakes, the valve loses power, and defaults to all axles down.

Notice in this diagram from Sealco that the pressure switch pulls power from the “ABS power tap” in the lower right hand corner.


TLR your ABS fuse on the tractor is probably blown.

EDIT: when I was proof reading I noticed that the Sealco valve only uses power to light an optional indicator light. It’s a “dumb” valve that can’t be integrated into other systems, such as stability control.

The Haldex ILAS-E valve is probably similar to what you have on those trailers.

ILAS®-E Valve

The Haldex ILAS®-E Air Suspension System Valve can control the position of the lift axles through an electrical connection. A 12V power supply is needed to keep the lift axles in the raised position. When power is removed, the lift axles will automatically be lowered. This can be simply controlled via an electrical switch.

When coupled with the Haldex TRS System, the lift axles can be controlled to raise and lower automatically as the air suspension reacts to changing loads in the trailer. The ILAS® E / TRS System can be adjusted to react at various pressure conditions making the system versatile for single or multiple lift axle trailers.