CONVERSIONS CASE STUDY 1

A popular installation in Ireland is the conversion from 8 x 2/4 rigid into 10 x 2/4 increasing the Gross Vehicle Mass from 32000kg to 36000kg dependent on wheelbase, resulting in 3200kg of additional payload.  This is mainly being fitted to recycling and refuse collection vehicles.

A Granning 700 Series Disc Braked axle is mounted in front of the rear bogie to form a Tridem rear bogie capable of carrying 24000kgs. The 700 series axle has an offset formed Drop Centre tube to ensure clearance from the propellor shaft and coupled with the Granning RME suspension is balanced to carry its proportion of the rear bogie load.

The Granning axle can be lifted when the rear bogie is unladen, to reduce tyre wear on this axle and to allow the drive axles greater traction. The axle will automatically lower when the original bogie load approaches its maximum plated mass, the axle can be lifted momentarily at low speeds in accordance with European ‘Masses and Dimensions’ regulations to Increase the loading and thus the traction of the rear bogie when off road or in low adhesion conditions.

The axle can also be manually lowered by the driver to prevent overloading of the front bogie.  A rear loading recycling or refuse collection vehicle will compact the load and push it forwards,  this can result in overloading the front axles.  Fitting a Granning mid axle in this configuration will carry some of this load and thus assist in preventing the front axles overloading.

The Granning mid axle brakes are controlled by an independent EBS system with redundancy built in to ensure that the original braking system of the vehicle is not compromised. All conversions are verified by an expert independent vehicle assessor to complete the process of plating the revised vehicle configuration with the RSA.

Granning disc braked and drop centred axles are manufactured at our facility in Naas and are fully proven to UN/ECE Reg 13 Annex 11 standards. We have been at the forefront of adding axles to heavy goods vehicles since the early 1980’s and will build to suit customer requirements to ensure that your vehicle meets your requirements and is suitable for its intended purpose.