JP4654420B2 - Trailer snakeing prevention method and system - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention is a travel trailer, a leisure boat trailer, etc., for example, when traveling downhill, a difference in acceleration between both vehicles occurs due to the difference in braking performance between the towing vehicle and the trailer and the action of the engine braking on the towing vehicle. Then, it is related with the method and system which prevent the snake phenomenon which a trailer pushes a tow vehicle and run becomes unstable.

  Conventionally, when braking a trailer equipped with electromagnetic brake, monitoring the acceleration on the towing vehicle side and stepping on the brake pedal on the towing vehicle has controlled the electromagnetic brake on the trailer side according to the acceleration decelerated on the towing vehicle side In the deceleration of the engine brake on the tow vehicle side, the electromagnetic brake on the trailer side did not operate, and there was a time difference between the deceleration on the tow vehicle side and the deceleration on the trailer side. As a result, braking is difficult to control, and the snake often pushes the towing vehicle from behind to cause a snake phenomenon that makes running unstable.

Patent Document 1 (Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 8-169325) discloses the following trailer braking force total control device.
An air brake system that supplies air pressure from an air tank to a brake chamber of each wheel of the tractor and trailer in conjunction with an operation of a brake pedal provided on a tractor that pulls the trailer. A solenoid valve provided in each pneumatic piping; a speed sensor that detects the speed of each wheel of the tractor and trailer; a displacement sensor that detects the displacement of the brake pedal of the tractor; an acceleration sensor provided in the tractor; The load sensor, speed sensor, displacement sensor, acceleration sensor and load sensor signals are input, the brake torque of each wheel of the tractor and trailer is calculated, the signal is output to each solenoid valve, and the brake chamber of each wheel is set. And a control device to be operated.

However, this is mainly intended for large trailer vehicles that use air brakes and control and brake electromagnetic valves.
In addition, it is intended to comprehensively control the braking force of both the tractor and the trailer based on various variable factors using various sensors when the engine is braked and when the brake is operated by the foot brake pedal. It becomes an expensive device.
JP-A-8-169325

  The subject of the present invention is for the case where a relatively light trailer such as a travel trailer is towed by a private car, and the snakeing phenomenon is prevented by applying braking force to the trailer only with the electromagnetic brake only during engine braking on the towing vehicle side. As a result, the distance required until the driver of the towing vehicle steps on the brake pedal is shortened, and the desired braking control for preventing the snake phenomenon is made by using the existing braking device for the towing vehicle and the trailer as they are. Is to make it easy to implement.

  According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method for preventing a snakeing phenomenon, wherein a tow vehicle-side acceleration sensor and a trailer-side acceleration sensor for detecting respective accelerations are mounted on a tow vehicle and a trailer to be pulled by the tow vehicle, respectively. In FIG. 5, whether the brake operation by the brake pedal is performed or not, and when the brake operation is not performed, the tow vehicle acceleration sensor detected by the tow vehicle side acceleration sensor and the trailer side acceleration sensor detect the brake operation. When the latter acceleration is greater than the former acceleration, the trailer is braked by operating an electromagnetic brake mounted on the trailer.

  The invention according to claim 2, which is a specific form of the invention, from when the acceleration of the trailer detected by the trailer side acceleration sensor becomes larger than the acceleration of the tow vehicle detected by the tow vehicle side acceleration sensor until it becomes smaller. Activate the electromagnetic brake.

  According to a third aspect of the present invention, there is provided a snaking phenomenon prevention system including a tow vehicle side acceleration sensor that is mounted on a tow vehicle and detects the acceleration thereof, and a trailer side acceleration that is mounted on a trailer towed by the tow vehicle and detects the acceleration thereof. A sensor, a brake pedal operation detecting means mounted on the towing vehicle for detecting the presence or absence of a brake operation by the brake pedal, and when the brake pedal operation detecting means detects that the brake operation is not performed, Compared to the tow vehicle acceleration detected by the tow vehicle side acceleration sensor and the trailer acceleration detected by the trailer side acceleration sensor, if the latter acceleration is greater than the former acceleration, it is mounted on the trailer. And control means for operating the electromagnetic brake.

  In the invention according to claim 4 which is a specific form thereof, the control means is configured such that the acceleration of the trailer detected by the trailer side acceleration sensor becomes larger than the acceleration of the tow vehicle detected by the tow vehicle side acceleration sensor. Operate the electromagnetic brake until it becomes smaller.

  Similarly, in the invention according to claim 5, the control means takes out the difference between the output corresponding to the acceleration from the tow vehicle side acceleration sensor and the output corresponding to the acceleration from the trailer side acceleration sensor by performing pulse width modulation.

  According to the present invention, the acceleration of the tow vehicle detected by the tow vehicle side acceleration sensor and the acceleration of the trailer detected by the trailer side acceleration sensor when the brake operation by the brake pedal is not performed on the tow vehicle side. In comparison, when the latter acceleration is greater than the former acceleration, the trailer is braked by operating the electromagnetic brake mounted on the trailer. To prevent the snakeing phenomenon by applying power to reduce the mileage until the driver of the tow truck steps on the brake pedal and using the existing braking device on the towing car and trailer as it is. The desired braking control can be easily realized.

  In the inventions according to claim 2 and claim 4, from the time when the acceleration of the trailer detected by the trailer side acceleration sensor becomes larger than the acceleration of the tow vehicle detected by the tow vehicle side acceleration sensor, the electromagnetic wave is reduced. Since the brake is operated, the snakeing phenomenon can be prevented more reliably.

  According to the invention which concerns on Claim 5, the acceleration difference of a tow vehicle and a trailer can be detected easily.

  Next, embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.

1 and 2 show the overall configuration of the snakeing phenomenon prevention system according to the present invention, which combines the configuration on the side of the towing vehicle 1 and the configuration on the side of the trailer 2 to be pulled by this.
The tow vehicle 1 is equipped with a brake controller 13 including a tow vehicle side acceleration sensor 11 and a microcomputer (microcomputer) 12 for detecting the acceleration. The brake controller 13 is connected to a stop light switch 15 that is turned on and off by operating the brake pedal 14 of the towing vehicle 1 on the towing vehicle 1, and the brake controller 13 connects the stop light switch 15 to the brake pedal operation detecting means. Then, it is determined whether or not the brake operation by the brake pedal 14 has been performed.

  On the other hand, in addition to the electromagnetic brake 21 that brakes the wheels, the trailer 2 is equipped with a trailer side acceleration sensor 22 that detects the acceleration of the trailer 2, and these are connected to the brake controller 13 on the towing vehicle 1 side.

  The microcomputer 12 is a control means for comparing the accelerations of the tow vehicle side acceleration sensor 11 and the trailer side acceleration sensor 22 according to the signal from the stoplight switch 15 and controlling the electromagnetic brake 21 based on the result, and the CPU , A memory (ROM and RAM), an input / output interface, and the like.

  In the electromagnetic brake 21, the electromagnet 211 presses the brake shoe 212 against the brake drum 213 via a cam arm (not shown), and brakes the wheels of the trailer 2 by friction between the brake shoe 212 and the brake drum 213.

Next, the operation of each component will be described in detail with reference to FIG.
The stop light switch 15 is switched on when the brake pedal 14 of the tow vehicle 1 is activated, and is switched off when the brake pedal 14 is not activated. The stop light switch 15 generates a pulse proportional to the ON / OFF time and transmits the signal to the microcomputer 12.

The tow vehicle side acceleration sensor 11 detects the acceleration on the tow vehicle 1 side and passes data to the microcomputer 12.
The trailer side acceleration sensor 22 detects the acceleration on the trailer 2 side and passes the data to the microcomputer 12.
The microcomputer 12 compares the acceleration of the tow vehicle 1 detected by the tow vehicle side acceleration sensor 11 with the acceleration of the trailer 2 detected by the trailer side acceleration sensor 22 when the brake pedal 14 of the tow vehicle 1 is switched off. .

  The brake controller 13 compares the accelerations of the two acceleration sensors 11 and 22 when the brake pedal 14 of the tow vehicle 1 is switched off. As a result, if the trailer 2 exceeds the minus acceleration than the tow vehicle 1, the minus acceleration is obtained. A pulse called pulse width modulation corresponding to the frequency is generated and the signal is transmitted to the electromagnetic brake 21 to operate the electromagnetic brake 21.

  FIG. 3 is a graph showing the transition of acceleration of the towing vehicle and the trailer, the pulse width modulation operation, and the operation of the electromagnetic brake controlled by the pulse width modulation. The graph of A in the figure shows the transition of acceleration of the towing vehicle and the trailer, the vertical axis represents speed (V), and the horizontal axis represents time (S). The broken line A1 is the acceleration of the towing vehicle 1, and the broken line A2 is the acceleration of the trailer 2. The broken line increases in speed, and when the acceleration increases, the broken line rises to the right. Also, when the acceleration decreases due to the engine brake, it falls to the right. In the graph B, the brake controller 13 performs pulse width modulation on the difference in acceleration between the towing vehicle 1 and the trailer 2. The graph of C is an operating state of the electromagnetic brake 21 that is operated by a pulse generated by pulse width modulation.

  Next, a series of operations of the present embodiment will be described with reference to the graph of FIG. 3 and the flowchart of FIG. Steps a1 to a5 in the flowchart of FIG. 4 correspond to the time points a1 to a5 in the graph of FIG.

  When the vehicle decelerates at any timing such as slope, traffic jam or curve, it is first detected by the stoplight switch 15 whether the brake pedal 14 is operating. When the stop light switch 15 is ON, the electromagnetic brake 21 is operated by the brake controller 13 via the microcomputer 12. (Step a1).

When the stoplight switch 15 is OFF, the microcomputer 12 calculates the difference between the acceleration of the tow vehicle 1 detected by the tow vehicle side acceleration sensor 11 and the acceleration of the trailer 2 detected by the trailer side acceleration sensor 22. (Step a2)
If the acceleration of the tow vehicle side acceleration sensor 11 does not exceed the acceleration of the trailer side acceleration sensor 22, the process returns to step a1. (Step a3).

  On the other hand, when the acceleration of the trailer 2 detected by the trailer side acceleration sensor 22 exceeds the acceleration of the tow vehicle 1 detected by the tow vehicle side acceleration sensor 11, the electromagnetic brake 21 is actuated by the brake controller 13 via the microcomputer 12 (step). a4). The microcomputer 12 repeats the above operation until the acceleration of the trailer side acceleration sensor 22 falls below the acceleration of the tow vehicle side acceleration sensor 11. (Step a5)

It is a schematic diagram of the snakeing phenomenon prevention system by this invention. It is a block diagram which shows the structure. It is the graph showing transition of the acceleration of a tow vehicle and a trailer, operation | movement of the electromagnetic brake controlled by pulse width modulation operation | movement, and pulse width modulation. It is a flowchart which shows a series of operation | movement.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Towing vehicle 2 Trailer 11 Towing vehicle side acceleration sensor 12 Microcomputer 13 Brake controller 14 Brake pedal 15 Stoplight switch 21 Electromagnetic brake 22 Trailer side acceleration sensor 211 Electromagnet 212 Brake shoe 213 Brake drum

Claims (5)

  The tow vehicle and the trailer to be pulled by this are equipped with a tow vehicle side acceleration sensor and a trailer side acceleration sensor for detecting the respective accelerations, and whether or not the brake operation by the brake pedal has been performed on the tow vehicle side. The latter acceleration is detected by comparing the tow vehicle acceleration detected by the tow vehicle side acceleration sensor with the trailer acceleration detected by the trailer side acceleration sensor when the brake operation is not performed. A trailer snakeing phenomenon prevention method characterized by operating an electromagnetic brake mounted on the trailer to brake the trailer when the acceleration is larger than the former acceleration.   The electromagnetic brake is operated until the acceleration of the trailer detected by the trailer side acceleration sensor becomes larger than the acceleration of the tow vehicle detected by the tow vehicle side acceleration sensor until it becomes smaller. Trailer snake phenomenon prevention method described in 2.   A tow vehicle-side acceleration sensor that is mounted on a tow vehicle and detects its acceleration, a trailer-side acceleration sensor that is mounted on a trailer to be pulled by a tow vehicle and detects its acceleration, and a tow vehicle that is mounted on a tow vehicle by its brake pedal Brake pedal operation detection means for detecting the presence or absence of a brake operation, and the tow vehicle detected by the tow vehicle side acceleration sensor when the brake pedal operation detection means detects that the brake operation is not performed. And a control means for operating an electromagnetic brake mounted on the trailer when the acceleration of the trailer is compared with the acceleration of the trailer detected by the trailer side acceleration sensor and the latter acceleration is greater than the former acceleration. Trailer snakeing phenomenon prevention system characterized by.   The control means operates the electromagnetic brake until the acceleration of the trailer detected by the trailer side acceleration sensor becomes larger than the acceleration of the tow vehicle detected by the tow vehicle side acceleration sensor until it becomes smaller. The trailer snakeing prevention system according to claim 3.   5. The control means according to claim 4, wherein the difference between the output corresponding to the acceleration from the tow vehicle side acceleration sensor and the output corresponding to the acceleration from the trailer side acceleration sensor is extracted by pulse width modulation. Trailer snakeing prevention system.

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