The Traffic Accident Reconstruction Origin -ARnews-

Re: Commercial Vehicle Rollovers

Bruno Schmidt (BFSchmidt@gnn.com)
Wed, 8 May 1996 23:30:04 -0400 (EDT)

The roll center is a distance up from the ground. It comes about because if we
would attach a large (imaginary) sheet of paper to the body of the trailer
there is one point on the paper that would not move if the trailer rolls over.
That point is generally located on the vehicle centerline at a height above the
ground where lateral forces are passed from the suspension system to the chassis.
Thus the height of the roll center depends upon the geometry of the trailer and
suspension system as well as the mechanical properties of the suspension system.
A good discussion of this with tables that show the height of the roll center
for various suspension systems is from the US Dept of Transportation report
DOT HS 807 125 by Fancher Ervin Winkler and Gillespie entitled A factbook
of the mechanical properties of the components for single unit and articulated
heavy trucks. It can be ordered from the National Technical Information
Service Springfield VA 22161. Although the heights can vary considerably a
range of 25 to 28 inches is pretty common.

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