So the TGX I drive has two midlift buttons, one with a solid white arrow and one with a hollow arrow.
From my experience with it so far, the solid white arrow only allows the midlift to operate so long as the remaining two axles will remain within their weight limits. The hollow arrow appears to override this and ‘force raise’ the wheel regardless of the weight.
Is this thinking correct and if so, is it good procedure to hit the solid white arrow button after every change in weight to benefit from the increased fuel economy and reduced tyre wear?
Secondly, this is a bit of a n00b question, but I bought an air duster for the truck and want to confirm, before I commit to anything, that I have to cut the air line behind the driver’s seat, and the two ends (standard size/about 3-4 mm o/d) will crimp nicely into the ends of the T-piece?
Yes one of the buttons lifts the axle clear of the ground when travelling under 30kph. It will drop automatically once you go over 30kph. I always used it on my MAN as like you say it reduces tyre wear and also improves traction.
1- I leave mine up 90% of the time, it will sense the weight & come down automatically if it needs to, if I’ve got a heavy load & it doesn’t lower, but handles funny, I’ll drop it.
2- Yes, cut the airline & use the correct sized T-Piece, they’re usually just push fit, no need to Crimp 'em (not very high pressure)
If you change vehicles like I did last year, just put a straight connector on, when you take the Air Duster out.
martinviking:
if I’ve got a heavy load & it doesn’t lower, but handles funny, I’ll drop it.
The 5th wheel may be in the wrong place if it is handling funny with it raised, the imposed weight on the 2 axles can have an adverse effect on handling if there is to much on the front and not enough on the drive.
Or there could be something wrong with the vehicle.
martinviking:
if I’ve got a heavy load & it doesn’t lower, but handles funny, I’ll drop it.
The 5th wheel may be in the wrong place if it is handling funny with it raised, the imposed weight on the 2 axles can have an adverse effect on handling if there is to much on the front and not enough on the drive.
Or there could be something wrong with the vehicle.
I’ve got it set in the middle, with 7 teeth showing in front, same as my 13 plate was, giving me plenty of room to play with the Suzies. I might try it a couple of teeth further back.
Awesome, thanks for the informative replies, really useful
As an aside, there’s a thread floating around slating people for asking ‘simple’ questions on here as opposed to asking another driver/the office, etc. I think this is an example of why it’s good to ask somewhere like here; not only did I get all the info I needed, but it’s now freely available to anyone who searches either of these things in future.
Second button lifts axle temporary ideal for reversing when heavy as no steer on middle axle. Yes cut the air pipe for seat to connect air duster to it and it won’t mess up height adjustment either
waynedl:
The 2nd button you speak of is for when you’re struggling for traction but are heavy.
+1
waynedl:
It’s not there to be used regularly…
Disagree. It’s the most worn button in my unit. Can’t even see the symbol anymore.
I’m a tipper driver though so I always raise the midlift on roundabouts to keep the powerslide manageable.
Yep i dump the mid lift air for all manoeuvers and tight work, saves a lot of tyre wear, difference between wheelspin and no wheelspin on wet junctions too when i’m racing antique milk floats…
Attn Martin Viking.
I spent a lot of time getting the fifth wheel in the right place when i got mine, mine has the small mid lift wheels and the plated weight of that axle is surprisingly low, something like 5.2 tons, if the fifth wheel is too far back its easy to exceed that, luckily i use an axle weigher regularly so was able to fine tune it over the course of a few max weight loads, mine sits about the half way mark, with the front of the fifth wheel just in front of (one click) the join in the slider.
I’ve driven others with small mid lift that have the fifth wheel fully back (default position for those who don’t give a tuppeny ■■■■), very unpleasant handling.
waynedl:
The 2nd button you speak of is for when you’re struggling for traction but are heavy.
+1
waynedl:
It’s not there to be used regularly…
Disagree. It’s the most worn button in my unit. Can’t even see the symbol anymore.
I’m a tipper driver though so I always raise the midlift on roundabouts to keep the powerslide manageable.
Yep i dump the mid lift air for all manoeuvers and tight work, saves a lot of tyre wear, difference between wheelspin and no wheelspin on wet junctions too when i’m racing antique milk floats…
Attn Martin Viking.
I spent a lot of time getting the fifth wheel in the right place when i got mine, mine has the small mid lift wheels and the plated weight of that axle is surprisingly low, something like 5.2 tons, if the fifth wheel is too far back its easy to exceed that, luckily i use an axle weigher regularly so was able to fine tune it over the course of a few max weight loads, mine sits about the half way mark, with the front of the fifth wheel just in front of (one click) the join in the slider.
I’ve driven others with small mid lift that have the fifth wheel fully back (default position for those who don’t give a tuppeny ■■■■), very unpleasant handling.
As I said, I’ve got it set in the same position as my old 13 plate, in the middle of the slider, that used to feel ok, whatever I had on board, but this newer ‘Fleet Spec’ [emoji57] TGX just feels a bit different sometimes. We run light a lot of the time, a lot of loads are between 5-10 tons so the axle stays up, it’s only when I start putting 15-20 tons on that she starts messing around (understandingly) the axle doesn’t drop, so if it feels heavy on the steering I’ll over ride it & drop it, the next day I’ll put the same sort of weight on & it’ll feel fine with the axle up, obviously the weight is distributed in different places.
I was told by MAN Profidrive Trainers that we don’t have to worry about overriding the lift axle, because it’ll only drop at (I think) 10/11 tons on the pin, so you can’t (knowingly) overload the tractor’s rear axle.
waynedl:
The 2nd button you speak of is for when you’re struggling for traction but are heavy.
+1
waynedl:
It’s not there to be used regularly…
Disagree. It’s the most worn button in my unit. Can’t even see the symbol anymore.
I’m a tipper driver though so I always raise the midlift on roundabouts to keep the powerslide manageable.
Yep i dump the mid lift air for all manoeuvers and tight work, saves a lot of tyre wear, difference between wheelspin and no wheelspin on wet junctions too when i’m racing antique milk floats…
Attn Martin Viking.
I spent a lot of time getting the fifth wheel in the right place when i got mine, mine has the small mid lift wheels and the plated weight of that axle is surprisingly low, something like 5.2 tons, if the fifth wheel is too far back its easy to exceed that, luckily i use an axle weigher regularly so was able to fine tune it over the course of a few max weight loads, mine sits about the half way mark, with the front of the fifth wheel just in front of (one click) the join in the slider.
I’ve driven others with small mid lift that have the fifth wheel fully back (default position for those who don’t give a tuppeny ■■■■), very unpleasant handling.
As I said, I’ve got it set in the same position as my old 13 plate, in the middle of the slider, that used to feel ok, whatever I had on board, but this newer ‘Fleet Spec’ [emoji57] TGX just feels a bit different sometimes. We run light a lot of the time, a lot of loads are between 5-10 tons so the axle stays up, it’s only when I start putting 15-20 tons on that she starts messing around (understandingly) the axle doesn’t drop, so if it feels heavy on the steering I’ll over ride it & drop it, the next day I’ll put the same sort of weight on & it’ll feel fine with the axle up, obviously the weight is distributed in different places.
I was told by MAN Profidrive Trainers that we don’t have to worry about overriding the lift axle, because it’ll only drop at (I think) 10/11 tons on the pin, so you can’t (knowingly) overload the tractor’s rear axle.
You could over load either the front, or the rear axle if the fifth wheel isn’t positioned correctly.
The way most drivers would load say20 tonnes is from the headboard, and not spread evenly from the centre of the trailer like it should be, as in 20 tonnes would be, 10 tonnes in front of and 10 tonnes behind the trailer centre, which would = a balanced load on 6 axles, with no detrimental effect on the unit.
