Acceleration rates for tractor-trailer rigs?

[brian]

April 6, 2010: Q: Where can i find data on the acceleration rates of tractor-trailer rigs?
A: A couple of SAE papers (available at http://www.sae.org the site appears to be down today for upgrades) may provide some baseline data:
SAE 2000-01-0470, Grimes & Dickerson
Low-speed acceleration of a Kenworth T2000 tractor- truck with autoshift transmission
Abstract: The time/distance relationship for a heavy truck starting from a stopped position is often needed to accurately assess the events leading up to a collision. A series of tests were conducted to document the low-speed acceleration performance of a Kenworth T2000 tractor-truck equipped with an autoshift transmission. The tests included several load configurations and acceleration rates. The vehicle was instrumented with a DATRON speed sensor to measure time, distance and speed. This paper presents data from these tests and discusses low-speed acceleration profiles of heavy trucks.

1999-01-0092, Grimes & Dickerson
Low speed acceleration of the Freightliner FLD-120 tractor truck
Abstract:The time/distance relationship for a heavy truck starting from a stopped position is often needed to accurately assess the events leading up to a collision. A series of tests were conducted to document the low speed acceleration performance of a Freightliner FLD-120 tractor truck. The tests including several load configurations and acceleration rates. The vehicle was instrumented with a DATRON speed sensor and the engine RPM was also documented. This paper presents data from these tests and discusses low speed acceleration profiles of heavy trucks.

SAE paper 980366, Claar, Lukowski, Fiedler
Low-speed acceleration of the Kenworth T600 tractor truck
Abstract: The time/distance relationship for heavy trucks starting from a stopped position is often needed to accurately assess the events leading up to a collision. A series of tests were conducted to document tractor/trailer low-speed acceleration performance. The vehicles were instrumented with a DATRON speed sensor and engine RPM was also documented. This paper presents the data from these tests and discusses the acceleration profile of heavy trucks in general.