IRTE Forum

My company operates a large ammout of CF Dafs with the fully auto gearboxes,on several the 2nd steer axle stays down and cannot be kept in the raised position even when empty.this results in certain weather conditions with loss of traction pulling away from traffic lights,roundabouts etc.any one else suffer from this or is it as I suspect a fault?

John

I have several rear steer Daf cf vehicles the issue you have is a fault which can only be corrected by the system being reset by the Daf Davie diagnostic system, the vehicle is being told there is a load on therefore drop the axle.
Hope this helps.

Alex Gilroy

Resetting the system would not cure this fault John. In rare cases the mid lift axle bags can fully inflate and remove drive completely from the rear axle. The weight at which the axle drops can be altered such as royal mail vehicles. However, I would recommend taking to a DAF dealer ref possible pressure sensor fault which is located under the 5th wheel.

liam dickinson
current daf technician

This is an intersting discussion, though I would like to approach the topic from a different perspective.
I am resident in South Africa, and a number of Southern and Central African traffic authorities are considering the possibility of banning lift axles, as "they are used incorrectly". That is, it is claimed that some operators run the vehicles/trailers in the laden condition with the lift axle in the air.
Discounting the probable technical difficulties of doing this, what is the view of the UK road traffic authorities regarding the "correct" use of lift axles, accepting the obvious one of overloading of adjacent axles.
We have a number of OEMs offering lift tag axles as factory specified equipment and the legal implications of such a ban could be interesting.
Jim Campbell, Johannesburg

[Edited: 8th Jun 2012, 13:42:41]

[Edited: 6th Jul 2012, 07:28:28]

James
UK/Euro vehicles more often than not have autolower axles, where - even if the driver has the axle switch to up - the axle will drop once the weight of adjacent axles is at capacity on both tractor or trailer.