hi all, we’ve just took delivery of 5 new SDC Mega’s, 28 palleters with the rear steering gear on the 3rd axle. haven’t had the pleasure of pulling one yet but someone said to me on the cpc yesterday that there is a locking pin that needs to be engaged before backing onto a bay? you need to drive forward in a straight line before the pin goes in? question is, does it lock in automatically or do you have to push a button in or something to lock it?
any help, thanks as i’m no wanting to look stupid backing onto a bay while scrubbing the tyres of it…
1- rear axle follows you as you drive then before you reverse get wheels straight and stay below a set speed and axle will lock automatically.
2- as above but you need to get wheels straight the hop out the cab and flick a switch ( normally near back of trailer) this locks axle. You can drive with axle locked but will increase tyre wear.
3- a bar is linked from axle to king pin. Rear axle will turn according to what you are doing in the unit. Including when going backwards. Strange to start but soon gets easy.
TIP- if this type make sure you always disconnect and connect unit while straight with trailer or you will incure problems with the 5th wheel wedge at the trailer pin.
thanks for the info mark, had a look under one on friday and it looked like an airbag in the middle of an a-frame with 2 x track rods to track-rod ends onto the hubs, couldn’t see a switch so hopefully option 1 ;
Sounds like option 1 or 2. They are easy once you have had a few goes with them. Just remember you are longer than everything else when backing on a bay or you end up hitting the loading ramp quite hard!! lol
