MATS, LOUISVILLE, KY -- The Bendix TABS-6 Advanced trailer roll stability system now offers automatic lift axle control, which can help reduce tire wear and fuel consumption by maintaining proper per-axle weight load.

When equipped on a trailer with a lift axle, TABS-6 Advanced monitors the load on the air bags and will raise or lower the axle as required, without needing driver input, based on the trailer’s suspension capacity and legal load limits.

“Bendix TABS-6 Advanced is the brains behind the lift axle, looking at the load and determining whether the weight warrants the use of both axles,” explained T.J. Thomas, Bendix director of marketing and customer solutions, Controls group, to reporters Wednesday, the day before the Mid-America Trucking Show. “It prevents the error of overloading a single axle and helps operators avoid the additional tire wear and fuel usage – and possibly extra tolls – associated with running a light load on both axles.”

The system’s automatic lift axle control is customizable and can be set to lower the axle automatically when the trailer is parked. This means that when the trailer is subsequently loaded, it is ready to handle its weight capacity.

Because the new automatic lift axle control functionality is part of the TABS-6 Advanced control software, it can be configured using Bendix AComdiagnostic software or at end-of-line installation. It can also be added to a retrofitted lift axle on a trailer already equipped with Bendix TABS-6.

The TABS-6 Advanced roll stability system combines antilock braking (ABS) with a set of trailer sensors, which monitor stability and can quickly and automatically trigger braking interventions when conditions that may lead to a rollover are detected.

The Bendix TABS-6 Advanced system can work with a variety of trailer electrical requirements, handling between 8 and 32 volts without a separate power converter.

Bendix has rounded out its full line of TABS-6 aftermarket and replacement kits, offering approximately 30 kits that can upgrade an existing Bendix ABS system to TABS-6 Advanced, replace another existing system with TABS-6 Advanced, or add it as a wholly new retrofit.