Development of tractors and trailers in accordance with the requirements of legal regulations

Abstract

Operation tasks of tractors and trailers in agriculture have changed considerably over the last decade. Today on the roads of Europe and the United States are tractors whose speed exceeds 50 km/h, even when fully loaded, which raises important issue of the effective stopping i.e. the quality of the braking system. Tractor trailers must correspond to the tractors with respect to size and weight, but must be capable of moving at speeds of towing vehicle. Their braking must be synchronized with the tractor and must not affect the deterioration of the operation quality of tractortrailer combination. Also important is their good maintenance to avoid problems with the braking of the towing vehicle. In order to address these issues, revised braking requirements will apply to all agricultural tractors and their trailers (both new and existing) from 1 January 2016. They will also apply to equipment such as slurry tankers, fertiliser or manure spreaders, grain chaser bins and so on.