ABOUT THE INFLUENCE OF TRADITIONAL STRUCTURES OF TRACTION AND COUPLING DEVICES ON THE PERFORMANCE PROPERTIES OF TIMBER ROAD TRUCKS

A description of the consequences of the dete-rioration of the operational properties of logging trucks with trailers during their unsteady movement along insufficiently equipped logging roads is given. The negative impact exerted by traditional designs of traction-coupling devices on the operational properties of timber road trains is listed. The dependences of the change in fuel consumption, load capacity and speed of the road train on the uneven resistance to movement are considered. The dependences of the change in the force in the towing device of the road train and the stock of transverse sta-bility on the mass of the trailer are presented. The dependences of the change in the magnitude of the force in the coupling device of the road train during braking with the brake system of the trailer turned off and on, with a change in the damping coefficient, with a change in the speed of the road train and the type of supporting surface of the road, with a change in the rigidity of the elastic coupling, are analyzed. The dependences of the change in efforts in the traction-coupling device of a road train on the size of the gap in the coupling and the rate of engagement of the clutch, the value of the coef-ficient of the weight characteristics of the road train are considered. The dependences of the change in longitudinal forces in the traction-coupling device of the road train on the quality of the road surface, on the stiffness coefficient are given. The necessity of development and practical use of new designs of traction-coupling devices with the possibility of continuous control of their characteristics depending on the conditions of the movement of a timber road train, damping and energy recovery of the working fluid is substantiated.