#Kingpin truck trailer iso#

SAE once had a committee that considered heavy-duty coupling standards, but members decided to defer to the ISO and European numbers. Interestingly, there is no federal government strength requirement, such as from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, or even from the Society of Automotive Engineers, Moulton said. Fontaine has additional internal tests that go beyond the international standards.” Since we all supply fifth wheels to those markets, I believe we all build and test to them. “There are ISO standards, 8717, and European Union standards, ECE-55. “Those standards were set through the marketplace in general,” he said. A fifth wheel for a road tractor is tested to withstand 150,000 pounds of drawbar force, said Greg Laarman, Jost's vice president of engineering. If it’s just a matter of supporting the tractor weighing maybe 20,000 pounds, that’s well within the ratings of its coupling mechanisms. That depends, according to experts at two companies that make fifth wheels, Fontaine and Jost International. They are very strong, so of course the two vehicles would hold together, right? That was my first reaction, too, but then I thought about the strength built into fifth wheels and trailer kingpins. To Joe Public it’s probably amazing that the tractor stayed hanging there instead of breaking loose and falling onto the street. The images were so compelling that ABC put them on its World News Tonight show the evening of Memorial Day. Whoa, look at this! A big rig skidded and slipped partly off the edge of a bridge on the Cross-Bronx Expressway in New York City, leaving the reefer trailer on its side still on the span, and the tractor dangling with its nose facing the street below.