Advanced crash avoidance technologies have the potential to address many of the high frequency crash scenarios involving heavy vehicles in the United States. For this paper, a heavy vehicle is defined as having a gross vehicle weight rating (GVWR) that exceeds 4536 kg (10,000 lb.). Test track research performed on heavy vehicles equipped with advanced crash avoidance technologies such as automatic emergency braking systems using real heavy trucks and buses is unavoidably limited by the dangers and expenses inherent in crash-imminent scenarios. High fidelity Hardware-in-the-Loop (HiL) simulation systems have the potential to enable safe, accurate, and repeatable laboratory testing that can provide performance data on heavy vehicle crash avoidance systems. This paper describes the setup and experimental validation of such a heavy vehicle HiL simulation system equipped with electronic stability control and automatic emergency braking systems.