Making its debut well ahead of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) deadline of March 1, 2001, Bendix Commercial Vehicle Systems rolled out its first trailer antilock braking system (ABS) with power line carrier (PLC) capability. The new line — MC-30 and EC-30 — satisfies the NHTSA trailer warning lamp requirement for ABS systems, while allowing for advanced communication between the tractor and trailer and total vehicle diagnostics, according to Bendix.
The industry standard requires the trailer ABS to contain a sender in its trailer electronic control unit (Bendix MC-30) and a receiver in the tractor unit (Bendix EC-30), allowing for signals to be transmitted via the ABS power wire. The EC-30 system, Bendix reports, controls the dash-mounted trailer ABS warning lamp without changing current wiring requirements of the ABS or tractor and trailer. It also allows for tractor-trailer combinations made up of old and new vehicles.
Advanced growth features provided with the Bendix units with PLC include five programmable trailer status inputs and two programmable output drivers.
The Bendix MC-30 features new configurations of 2S2M and 4S2M, in addition to 2S1M. The multi-channel systems are offered in side-by-side and axle-control versions to best accommodate different trailer configurations. Circle 314 on reply card
