The paper presents a model of an articulated vehicle with a flexible frame of a semi-trailer. The rigid finite element method in a modified formulation is used for discretisation of the frame. In order to carry out effective numerical simulation, a reduced model with a considerably smaller number of degrees of freedom is proposed. The parameters of the reduced model are chosen in an optimization process by using a genetic algorithm. To this end, it is assumed that the full and reduced model have to be similar in the range of static deflections and frequencies of free vibrations. Numerical simulations are concerned with the influence of the flexibility of the frame on the motion of the articulated vehicle during an overtaking maneuver. Results are presented and discussed.