Dangerous Bobtail?

Yeah, that's way too much. Mine is on the verge of lockup at 25, especially bobtail. The smallest bumps will make the rear tires jump off the ground in a bobtail. Brakes either won't work or will magnify the effect. And just a tractor by itself still weighs over 4 times what a car does. It's easy to forget that after getting out from under the constant weight of a trailer.

 

Something's definetly wrong with the mans truck....

Your trailer lower your center of gravity? Do you pull a flatbed?
It'll give you more traction on your drive tires but a box trailer does not lower your center of gravity.

My tractor handles great bobtail. The 5th gear with a trailer thing is a little weird though.

But with three axles of well maintained brakes...It'll put your face into the windshield without much effort on dry pavement at realistic speeds.

 

Oh yeah, on a smooth surface it should handle like a corvette.

 

when you bobtail agin hook your air gladhand to each other and push your trailer brake in had a mack that did the same thang

 

@ injun - when i had the #2 drive axles shoes replaced, which was a couple of weeks ago. i havent been driving too much lately, so the adjustment cant be out too bad. this i will re-check and purge the air tanks and see what happens. thx.

@ tim33595 - i will give it a try. if the brakes work better doing this, what does it mean? thx.

Could a bad Bobtail Proportioning Valve cause the high applied pressure?

 

Factor in either wet roads, or winter driving conditions. The stopping distance dramatically increases. But, that doesn't stop other angry motorists from giving me the finger because I've delayed their trip by an entire 10 seconds.

 

Bobtail is very light, when you try to stop FAST you will slide, think of a pick up truck with ought your bed driving in the rain, and trying to stop fast. Same principle

 

I had someone try and feed this to me not that long ago.

I totally get what they are trying to say, and on paper it makes perfect sense. But I still find it hard to believe that an empty trailer, even if it starts hopping, will stop slower than an 80,000 pound combination.

 

Road tractors with twin screws aren't nearly as bad bobtail as a single screw city tractor. Now THAT can get really interesting on ice and snow, even on just wet roads. . .

 

The weight of the trailer helps hold the constant pressure on the brakes making the most of the stopping action.