Axle Weight Calculator now even easier to use
Axle Weight Calculator now even easier to use https://truckscience.com/wp-content/uploads/Axle-Weight-Calculator-1024x604.png 1024 604 TruckScience https://truckscience.com/wp-content/uploads/Axle-Weight-Calculator-1024x604.png“Don’t Make Me Think”
Steve Krug’s famous first law of usability, “Don’t Make Me Think”, informs every decision we make when we’ve got our design hats on at TruckScience. Our mission is to make the app so easy to use, and everything you need in it so easy to find, that you never find yourself scratching your head.
Huge usability improvements
We released another update to the Axle Weight Calculator today. For the past month, we’ve been fully focussed on improving the usability of the app. We hope these changes will make your experience infinitely more enjoyable, and that you’ll find something even more enjoyable to do with the milliseconds of thinking time that you get back 🙂
Click to Edit
We noticed that it wasn’t apparent to everyone where to edit the wheelbase of a vehicle, or where to override the default payload value. Now you can click on the drawing, the dimensions around the drawing or the highlighted values in the Weights Table, to jump to the point in the menu where you can edit those values. All of this month’s improvements make life easier, but we think you’re going to love this one especially!
Weights Table
The primary purpose of the table of weights below the drawing is to demonstrate whether your configuration is legal. Legal configuration is denoted by green highlighting of the total and individual axle weights in the ‘Total Gross’ row. If anything is highlighted in red, you’ve got cause for concern, either due to overloading or underloading of an individual axle or the total allowable weight (GVW).
The maximum Payload achievable with your design is highlighted in blue, as well as the Unused Capacity of the axle that’s at full capacity when you’re carrying that Payload.
We’ve revamped the layout of this table to help you to understand where we’re getting all of these values from. In a nutshell, Permissible Maximum – Total Gross = Unused Capacity. The maximum Payload is reached when the Unused Capacity of one of the axles – or indeed the total – is zero.
To achieve a higher Payload, you can try modifying the wheelbase or moving the body or the center of gravity of the payload, to distribute more of the weight on to the axle with the most unused capacity.
Notes & Warnings
To make more space for the improved Weights Table, we’ve moved the Notes and Warnings behind a Warning icon on the right of the drawing. You will be notified of new Notes & Warnings by a number on the icon.
Bodies & Equipment
You can now search for bodies and equipment by name.
If you’re looking for a crane or any other equipment that’s not yet in our library, just request us to add it for you.
Body Weight as an absolute value
When specifying the weight of your body, you can now do so in absolute terms, that is kg or lb, as well as in kg per metre or lb per inch.
Reuse calculations
We’ve added a ‘Save As’ option to allow you to reuse some of your previous hard work without overwriting it.
Google Sign-in
If you have a Google account, you can save time and reduce the number of passwords you need to remember by signing in with your Google account.
What would make the Axle Weight Calculator even easier to use?
We’ve made these changes in response to user feedback, as well as our own assumptions about what would make life easier for you. We would love to hear about any other changes that would make the app easier to use. Please pop open the chat window within the app to share your ideas with us at any time.
Have a go!
If you’re not already using the Axle Weight Calculator, just click ‘GET STARTED‘ to try it out now. No credit card or complicated installation… Just provide your name, email address & country, choose a new password, and you’ll be straight into the app.
