HANDLING INVESTIGATION OF DOUBLE DECK BUS WITH THREE WHEEL AXLES IN THAILAND

摘要

For many years, Ratchaburi province has been known for the place where quality passenger buses are built. Its design and manufacturing are based on technician experiences and trial-error experiments. In addition, double deck buses three wheel axles are commonly used in Thailand as the way of inter-city transportation. Therefore, most of these buses are designed in Ratchaburi without automotive engineering knowledge. Some original parts of bus structure in Japan are used such as engine, drive train and the serial number of original structure part. With transportation department regulations, these buses can be registered as modified double deck buses. This is because it simply controls bus dimension and weight of wheel axle. For these reasons, this research will investigate bus handling together with steering behavior as cornering in term of neutral steer, understeer and oversteer. Furthermore, the quality of three wheel axle buses in Thailand is evaluated.