Air ride suspension on a deuce

[maddawg308]

Wondering if anyone has ever gone to the trouble to install a big truck air ride suspension on their deuce. This would be the black balloon-looking air bags that are used on big rigs above the main springpacks to soften the ride.

 

[Angus1]

Ive been toying with the idea. I am in the middle of putting an air ride seat in from a big truck. I'll let you know what I dig up.

 

[yeager1]

Here's a factory 5 ton air suspension.
http://www.steelsoldiers.com/5-ton-up/30169-m932a2-new-owner.html

 

[Mbsk01]

While I am no authority, I do have a fair amount of experience w/air ride and air spring suspensions.

It seems to me that going to an aftermarket air-ride system on a deuce would severely limit the articulation of the rear axles. Keep in mind that air-ride systems use leveling valves to determine the amount of air pressure that is applied to each axle (though it is typically 1 valve per tandem). You could, in theory, install 1 leveling valve for each airbag, but then you would have to have a baseline for them to somehow know whether to inflate or deflate.

I'm not saying it's impossible, or even unreasonable, just that unless you want to sacrifice 6X6 action for a smooth highway ride, it may not be worth it.

BTW- I've been working for >5yrs in an 18-wheeler trailer repair facility.

 

[m16ty]

While I am no authority, I do have a fair amount of experience w/air ride and air spring suspensions.

It seems to me that going to an aftermarket air-ride system on a deuce would severely limit the articulation of the rear axles. Keep in mind that air-ride systems use leveling valves to determine the amount of air pressure that is applied to each axle (though it is typically 1 valve per tandem). You could, in theory, install 1 leveling valve for each airbag, but then you would have to have a baseline for them to somehow know whether to inflate or deflate.

I'm not saying it's impossible, or even unreasonable, just that unless you want to sacrifice 6X6 action for a smooth highway ride, it may not be worth it.

BTW- I've been working for >5yrs in an 18-wheeler trailer repair facility.

Air ride is great for on road but it doesn't work good off road. I'd still like to see somebody do it though .

My experience is it will help the ride some but not as much as you think. We had a '83 Frieghtliner with Rayco spring suspension on it that was very rough ridding. We aquired a air ride cut-off and installed it hoping it would give us a smooth ride. It does ride some better but it didn't help as much as you would think. Don't know if it helped enough to go through the trouble if I had it to do over. Most modern trucks have air ride cabs and I think that helps more than anything with the ride.

As I was typing this it got me to thinking . How about a air ride cab? I think that would be easier to fab up and you wouldn't loose off road capability.

 

[Angus1]

there is a lot more to air ride than jamming it under a truck. there is a lot of geometry to go along with it. I also dot think it will limit a truck with a live steering axle as much as a over the road truck. I have a lot of measuring to do yet.

 

[tm america]

you could do an air bag suspension to work off road but it wouldnt have much load capacity since you would need to mount the bag in a way that it would work on a lever with the right ratio to keep from over extending the bag while still giving you full travel of the suspension .like how the rear susension is on a dirt bike

 

[bigelk50]

I have thought about this too, but everyone is right about off road... So I was thinking of just putting the air ride cab unit on the cab of my 5 ton. The last guy I worked for had a off road dump truck with the air ride cab unit on it. It actually worked quite well.

 

[m16ty]

The easiest way to add a air ride is to find a cut-off from a wrecked truck and replace the axles with your deuce axles. Hendrickson does make a air ride that works similar to the deuce suspension. They are mostly found on dumptrucks but are somewhat complicated and pricey. I still think a air ride cab would be the best.

 

[bigelk50]

Today on my M818 I took the rear hard mounted rubber block off and put on a spring set up like the M35 has.

 

[Numbers]

They have been doing Air Bag suspensions in Iceland for quite some time with good success. Keep in mind its not always about articulation there but mostly about floating above the snow pack. Spent 7 years there and saw quite a few unique rigs.

The most unique thing was not the air bag suspension but a steering column setup that would steer based off of GPS input. Once again these are things that you can get away with in Iceland because there are no trees (ha ha ha) to run into.

 

[iwantmud]

I have been toying around with the idea of air bags on my bobbed deuce. I was mainly doing it for the lift part of it, not so much as the ride. The rear would be easy to do but there is not alot of room under the front.

 

[usmc deuce cpl]

I own a Kenworth with the 8 bag kw airride suspension. They ride good but they are not good offroad. Airride suspension would work much better on a bobbed deuce though. Peterbilt and some others have toyed with front airride but it is a hybrid setup. they use a single leaf spring to locate the axle then add 1 or 2 airbags to up the capacity if the suspension.
I think that my deuce rides better than my airride truck. it is a little rough on some of the big bumps when empty, but thats the tradoff with an offroad suspension. The biggest improvement on a deuce ride would be an airride seat. If setup right they ride much better than the springride seats.
Hope this answers most questions. this is also much cheeper than changing out the suspension.