Air ride suspension

[Eastern Front]

Has anyone here actually installed a airbag system?
I have a 925, drove it from the everglades to SC, hit some real bad roads at one point almost lost control after being launched in the air.. 55mph isn't a big deal really until you hit crappy roads!
Would love to get rid of these springs and go to bags...

 

[canadacountry]

i don't have anything specific to say about suspensions but i'll note that in at least one type of suspension you still have the classic leafs but then at one of either end of the leaf is an airbag setup instead of direct leaf-to-chassis shackle attachment

 

[Eastern Front]

i don't have anything specific to say about suspensions but i'll note that in at least one type of suspension you still have the classic leafs but then at one of either end of the leaf is an airbag setup instead of direct leaf-to-chassis shackle attachment

I have no idea what you are talking about....

 

[Eastern Front]

I do know about air ride suspensions by Hendricksen etc, need to know if anyone has gone that far...

 

[US6x4]

The only one I've seen was an M818 show truck called "Double-Duece" that had bagged suspension and only on the rear

 

[Eastern Front]

Nice!

 

[Lukes_deuce]

From my research, there i no direct air bag replacement for the suspension on our trucks. I dont see how the geometry would work out. An air bag set up with need to be custom, like the above black truck, or replace with a commercial variant. Ive seen a proto-type 931a2 with a factory air bag system. I think they only made a few to test and then did not make it to production.

 

[Eastern Front]

There are a few guys that did it on their 939 class trucks.. I think Hendrickson has a system, the 5 tons are not unique in the suspension, alot of commercial trucks have the same thing, just a question of which...

 

[tobyS]

I would not go full air bag. I'd use springs (lighter and different mounting) and air bags for load adjustment.

 

[US6x4]

This truck also has bags on the end of a spring pack:

https://surplusmilitarydepot.com/crew-cab-m923-a2-5-ton-4x4-military-truck/

 

[Eastern Front]

This truck also has bags on the end of a spring pack:

https://surplusmilitarydepot.com/crew-cab-m923-a2-5-ton-4x4-military-truck/

Thats a great find, the exact air ride system I was looking at, never seen one installed on a 5 ton, so this helps alot!
Thanks

 

[264charlie]

I'd assume any of the OTR setups would work. I am unsure if it would perform as well offroad without the walking beam setup, as an understood walking beam suspension provides greater roll stability and traction on uneven ground. I don’t know, though, and I don’t want to propagate information I am not well versed in. I do know Hendrickson makes an air walking beam setup, which seems like a good middle ground for trucks that spend a lot of time on the road unloaded.

It struck me that an air progressive bump stop could potentially make a significant difference in extreme travel situations. I’m just sharing some of my thoughts about my trucks, hoping to spark a discussion.

 

[canadacountry]

@264charlie I haven't exactly seen a lot of everyday news (versus test drives near the workshop etc) but even although its a different category of suspension you could maybe nevertheless compare up to https://www.edisonmotors.ca/lseries as they apparently have choose to use this type https://www.hendrickson-intl.com/products/primaax/primaax-ex-air-suspension-system for seriousoffroad-ability uses

 

[264charlie]

@264charlie I haven't exactly seen a lot of everyday news (versus test drives near the workshop etc) but even although its a different category of suspension you could maybe nevertheless compare up to https://www.edisonmotors.ca/lseries as they apparently have choose to use this type https://www.hendrickson-intl.com/products/primaax/primaax-ex-air-suspension-system for seriousoffroad-ability uses

That's a neat truck. It seems like it's a heavy-haul setup. I reached out to Hendrickson for a recommendation on my BC-225 resto. I wanted something stable offroad, with good ride quality, loaded or not, and they recommended the AR2. I have an M51A2 and plan to keep it and use it as a dump. I've talked to several of the operators that run dumps, and all of them said they did not like the traditional Airliner air ride for dumps and prefer either the Walking beam or camelback setups. I think I see more camelback setups than anything around me. I've since decided to go single axle on my BC-225, so I don't have the weight distribution issues to think about.

I suspect it's all tradeoffs and no answer that is best for everyone.