Tag axle unit advice

Its pretty likely im gonna get a tag axle unit soon, just wanted to know if theirs anything to be aware of when driving one compared to a midlift, someone told me with the tag up theirs loads of over hang and its easy to get hooked up on stuff?

Any advice and words of wisdom would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers. Simon.

If you dump the axle when loaded to get more traction
on an incline you can pull a wheelie.

PS. It looks great but you cant steer, so easy on the throttle.

oatcake1967:
If you dump the axle when loaded to get more traction
on an incline you can pull a wheelie.

PS. It looks great but you cant steer, so easy on the throttle.

Nice one cheers, i’ll take it steady the first few times… :confused: lol

As said they understeer quite badly, you can dump the air from the tag to reduce this, but that takes weight from the steer axle, so you’re back to where you started. The older ones were really bad for this, but the newer air suspended ones I’ve driven don’t seem as bad, the problem still exists though :wink:

Watch out for mudflaps on kerbs as you reverse, the back wheels stick out a fair bit and you can easily rip the mudgauards off, the same applies to the back lights on posts and things. Also remember there’s more chance of clattering into the trailer legs, so pay attention when coupling to a different trailer :wink:

Oh and they wobble around a bit when the tag is off the ground, you soon get used to it, but they are very twitchy, that’s the downside, the upside is they then have a very short wheelbase and are very manouverable. You can solve some of the twitchiness and understeer problems with 5th wheel positioning, ideally the centreline (pivot point) of the 5th wheel needs to be on, or slightly in front of the centre line of the drive axle, this eliminates the see saw effect, but it isn’t always possible due to clearance issues with the back of the cab/front of the trailer, or the landing legs, you also have to watch you don’t go over on the front axle :wink:

I drove a Foden 4380 with a tag back in the day… Nothing to it really, only thing is she was a bit of a [zb]er for dishing out “Kangaroo Juice” when bobtailing with the axle lifted due to the short wheelbase. Bearing in mind they’re were no seatbelts fitted you had to be a bit careful on a rough road or when going over speed bumps. Don’t think you’ll have many problems at all though…