Stability of Car Trailer Systems With Special Regard to Trailer Design

Abstract

A linear stability analysis is performed on the articulated vehicle to provide information on the effects that various trailer parameters and variations in tire pressure have on the inherent towing stability of the typical car-trailer combination. Although certain portions of the mathematical model and solution techniques are similar to some previous efforts, the results are generalized to include a much larger class of vehicles than previously presented. The results indicate that hitch loading, trailer length, mass and moment of inertia, and fairly small variations in the car tire pressures can influence trailer towing stability.