No snow, just a bit wet, 40-odd ton on so tag axle down, coming up to a road junction. Wishing to turn right. In order to stop her bucking like a demented Wildebeest which should I use the ‘transfer weight to drive axle’ button or the difflock (I had a Scania in mind)?
Snow (as experienced this week). Not heavily bogged down just a grip problem… What should you do if moderate weight. Tag axle up or down? Which switch? I tried every sodding combination and the best for me was tag axle up, no diff lock, no load transfer axle switch. Seems odd but I thought Scania was Swedish and I thought Sweden got snow.
If it would let me post some video some nice lads assisted when the car muppets got stuck on a slight hill causing me to lose momentum. Remembering highest possible gear lowest possible revs from my learning days I tried but got stuck. So along came a Land Rover and a Defender and together they provided as they say in railway parlance ‘banking assistance’. Cool shots two cars both towing you at the same time. Was fun but a 14 hour shift!
Tag up or trasfer the weight if it won’t lift. It depends on what your lift is set to, some won’t go up with as little as 9 ton, others can be unlimited.
I’ve only ever bothered with the diff once and that was on a steep hill covered in snow. Tag up, hit the diff, take her steady and she went up when all the losers in their DAFs sat at the bottom
If you want to make a turn at a junction, then absolutely no diff lock please. If you used it in conjuction with tag up or weight transfer active, you’d only go one way, straight ahead!
Not many trucks with tags will lift off the ground when loaded, but the weight transfer on Volvos and Scanias I know will put between thirteen and fifteen tons on the drive axle when fully freighted
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The Scania I have at the moment won’t transfer if the speed is more than twenty mph, however, if you’re facing a slippy climb which has no tight corners, get in a gear that you know will take you all the way up, toggle the diff lock, operate the transfer, keep her just under twenty and it’s amazing where you can go.
On a long climb I often put it on cruise control which gives very smooth power delivery.
The Norwegians don’t have any of these restrictive rules on axle lift or weight transfer speeds, but then, they’re not in the EU.
There are people in this country who will alter the settings for you, but they tend to be known best to loggers and other heroes of that ilk!!
Brought a fully freighted tag axle scania out of the wood once with a blown tyre on the tag. Lower suspension down to the stops, hit the tag lift button and wait til it does its thing then hit suspension re-set button, voila!,tag axle clear of the ground and drove it for 15miles like that til I could get a phone signal. Was about 18ton on drive axle tho
