I did a couple of shifts for Castle Cement out of their place off the A1 north of Stamford, pallet work, after they loaded me up in the shed, you go around a left hand up hill (ish) bend before straightening out, only doing about 5mph, my unit started to jack knife, Being my 1st experience I was shocked at the speed of it, I compensated and recovered thankfully, I did learn to go slower when wet when coming out of the shed.
So jack knifing is poss at speeds as low as 5 mph in my experience
what you describe is actually RSS as the lads have explained, an trailer anti roll system, which is a strange feeling at 1st, even at 30-35mph having the trailer slow down as you are trying to accelerate
Very common trailer stability system on skelly’s, and I quite like it to be honest.
Especially last year in the snow, could feel it a good few times when I thought I was driving sensible, then I’d hear on the radio that a truck had jacknifed where I felt it and thought hmmm maybe it was a bit slippier than I thought.
Still think I’d survive without it, I did before, but I’m not 1 for turning safety features away, job has enough dangers with the muppets on the roads.
Our walking floors have had the ESP you describe for probably 10 years now and agreed it can be a pain especially when your empty but once you get used to it you find that you can really get along without having to touch the middle pedal at all as the trailer will brake for you if your going too fast and if the trailer doesn’t brake you ain’t going fast enough
scanny77:
i noticed on my way to sunderland last week that the truck tried to put me through the windscreen every time i turned off a roundabout and thought it was a defect. i was informed today that its a safety feature that applies the brakes trailers to pull it straight as the unit accelerates to prevent a jack-knife. the general feeling between us was that it is a bit touchy which is causing problems when the truck suddenly brakes hard, not only for the poor unsuspecting sod driving it but also for any vehicle behind
just think what it would do if you with the Left foot light on the Brake,just that the ABS Computer knows about it.Normally,the Computer shall not do changes in your sugestion of Braking,as long as Wheel dont lock,but im not sure if they did think that far.
As its at moment it may avoid Jacknife,but if Heavy center of load is high you may overturn your trailer as Physic works that way.
On the other hand makes it no sence to Avoid Jacknife when driver falls from chair.
MikeCunn:
They’ve had them on Morrisons trailers for ages. Not as bad as you describe Scanny77 but you can feel it pulling you back. Supposed to stop you rolling over aswell.
Mad Si79:
Our walking floors have had the ESP you describe for probably 10 years now and agreed it can be a pain especially when your empty but once you get used to it you find that you can really get along without having to touch the middle pedal at all as the trailer will brake for you if your going too fast and if the trailer doesn’t brake you ain’t going fast enough
Simon
there is a bit of irish about you very annoying at the start what with slowing you down when you really need to keep that 65mph average up to catch a boat but then you master it and find the benefit is that it saves the rubber wearing off the sole of your shoe by cutting out the brake pedal.
ESP is a great extra to have, especially on a car, a front wheel car with ESP will handle a lot better than a 4 wheel drive car with out it on any surface including ice and snow.
weeto:
ESP is a great extra to have, especially on a car, a front wheel car with ESP will handle a lot better than a 4 wheel drive car with out it on any surface including ice and snow.
Most, if not all, of our skellies have it (Dennisons/SDCs). I’m not someone who goes tearing 'round corners so I very rarely feel it, even with a 20ft hicube, but one or two are a bit…frisky. I mean, slamming on as you potter around the sweeping bend on the terminal approach road at 20mph surely isn’t normal?
weeto:
ESP is a great extra to have, especially on a car, a front wheel car with ESP will handle a lot better than a 4 wheel drive car with out it on any surface including ice and snow.
very annoying at the start what with slowing you down when you really need to keep that 65mph average up to catch a boat but then you master it and find the benefit is that it saves the rubber wearing off the sole of your shoe by cutting out the brake pedal. 
