Hendrickson Trailer Commercial Vehicle Systems has announced its next-generation tire pressure control system, TireMaax Pro-LB, which the company says will be available for purchase in the second half of 2021. This system builds on the technology of TireMaax Pro which inflates, relieves and equalizes tire pressures across all wheel positions with the added benefit of load-based pressure adjustments.
“The consensus in the market is that most trailer tires are inflated to a pressure greater than necessary for the typical load. The cold tire target pressure setting is often selected based on a maximum expected load, which may only occur occasionally,” says Matt Wilson, general manager of Hendrickson’s Trailer Controls business unit. “A load-based tire pressure control system will allow for an optimal tire pressure, providing the opportunity to reduce tire wear without negatively affecting fuel economy.”
Commercial vehicles experience significant changes in overall vehicle weight between the loaded and unloaded conditions. The change is so significant that the optimum air pressure for the tires is different for laden versus unladen vehicles, and tire manufacturers provide charts to calculate the tire pressure required for a specific axle load. Hendrickson says the TireMaax Pro-LB helps eliminate the guesswork of tire pressure management by monitoring the pressure in the air springs and reacting to changing loads automatically.
