Consequences of load distribution in selected vehicles in the context of changing the position of the vehicle’s centre of gravity

Abstract

The position of the vehicle’s centre of gravity has an impact on its driving performances, and it also affects the vehicle’s impact on its surroundings. Therefore, the study pays attention to the change in the centre of gravity’s position due to different load distribution. The research was performed by wide-ranging experimental measurements with three different vehicles, i.e. with a passenger car, a van and a truck. The measurement results and their analysis point to the rate of change in the centre of gravity’s position due to different load distribution, and to the fact that a vehicle axle can be overloaded even when the vehicle load capacity is not used completely. In addition, the contribution of the study is a database which can be used for other research via modelling.