Abstract
Because the chassis, suspension and tyres of a tipping trailer unit are flexible, when standing on sloping ground, the body tilts more than the sideways slope of the ground on which it is standing. This changes the positions and directions of the resultant forces due to self-weight, payload and sideways wind relative to the hinge bar which allows the body to be tipped. These changes alter the magnitudes of the forces exerted on the chassis at the hinges and by the lifting ram; this changes the forces exerted through the air suspension on to the rear wheels. When the force exerted by a rear wheel becomes zero, rollover is imminent.
All of the above changes have highly non-linear effects. Further non-linearities are due to the operation of the airbag suspension. This paper defines these effects and describes iterative methods to predict the position of the body relative to the ground for any trailer unit under specified conditions and to predict the ram length at which rollover would occur.
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