Right and wrong

By Colin Windell

There is a huge difference between being able to drive and knowing how to drive and, with its first Offroad & Traction training course, MAN ProfiDrive has added a further module to its newly designed training courses for specific sectors – this aimed at drivers of all-terrain MAN Construction Trucks.

With five different MAN tipper vehicles – a TGS 35.460 8x6 HydroDrive, a TGS 26.460 6x6, two TGM 18.340 4x4, a TGM 13.290 4x4 – and three MAN ProfiDrive trainers, participants on the pilot training course learned how to correctly operate and use the various MAN drive functions during practical driving exercises in a quarry that is currently out of use in Simmelsdorf, Franconia.

The location with its specific characteristics was ideal for training the professional drivers from the Bärnreuther+Deuerlein quarry, since it was their employer that made the site available for the event. MAN ProfiDrive will be using the location for other offroad training courses in the future.

MAN ProfiDrive has designed its training courses to be precisely tailored to the needs of each customer. A theoretical module supplemented the practical part. In addition, experts from the testing department at the tipper manufacturer Meiller brushed up participants’ practical knowledge in terms of dangers when tipping with two other vehicles from MAN.

“With these events, we want to demonstrate to our customers what MAN vehicles can do and how they can be best deployed for their highly specific sector requirements,” says ProfiDrive trainer Markus Ulbricht.

He led a group of participants in their vehicles up and down different gradients on the various levels of the quarry, pointed out problem areas and gave both positive and negative examples of driving manoeuvres, which the participants were then able to carry out and compare for themselves to see the difference between ‘Do’ and ‘Don’t’.

With the help of eight axle scales using a 4-axle MAN TGS 35.500 and a MAN TGX 18.500 semitrailer truck with a large tipping trough, Meiller's tipping experts showed the third group how drastically wheel loads change during the tipping process. A laser gauge showed just how much the superstructures twist. They also explained to participants how a tipper's uneven position and uneven loading could lead to unintentional ‘tipping’.