The effects of vehicle load on driving characteristics

Many traffic accidents are due to an incorrect assessment of the current situation by the driver of the vehicle. With correct assessment of the situation, the driver has also to take into account a number of other factors. This article focuses on some of these factors such as the vehicle load, vehicle speed and curve radius. The first part of the article deals with the position of the vehicle center of gravity (CG), which has a major impact on the driving characteritics of the vehicle. The paper demonstrates the calculation of the maximum speed of a car model and truck model (without load and with load) when cornering. The center of gravity has an effect on the vehicle axles load distribution, and thereby on braking forces. This issue is dealt with in the second part of the paper. In the last part the calculation of the braking force as a function of the adhesion coefficient of the tires depending on the road surface is mentioned. The importance of the contribution consists in quantifying the impact of vehicle load on its driving characteristics.