News Releases

April 2003

Industrial and commercial building cleaner rides safer on air helper suspension

Gunther's possum-spotting 4wd is no longer the terror of country roads.

An air-helper suspension system suitable for hard-working tradesmen's vehicles is giving hitherto unknown driving safety and comfort improvements for one specialist cleaning company.

Aqua Rotis Industrial Cleaning based in Maitland in the picturesque Hunter Valley region of NSW, uses Toyota Landcruiser 75s to transport its high-tech and high-pressure cleaning systems to a range of industrial and commercial sites across NSW and the Sydney Metropolitan area. The type of cleaning jobs the company performs range from cleaning down netball courts to scrubbing the floors of large factories and commercial premises.

Owner Gunther Vonbun, who has run the business for the past 4 years, says the type of bulky industrial cleaning equipment required varies from job to job, greatly varying the loads he has to carry on his 4wd.

'We do straight out high-pressure water cleaning, for example, and acid cleaning using a clean and capture system. It s quite a simple system, but one that requires a fair amount of heavy and expensive equipment.'

This equipment, says Mr Vonbun, can push the very limit of the Toyota's legal carrying and towing capacity. To counter problems he was experiencing, Mr Vobun installed a Ride-Rite helper air spring suspension system manufactured by Firestone and proven in service with some of the world's hardest-working vehicles.

The system, supplied by Hunter Valley truck and trailer engineering specialist Noal Steele of Town and Country Truck Service Centre, is distributed nationally by Airbag Man in association with Firestone industrial product supplier Air Springs Supply Pty Ltd.

Before installing the Airbag system between the vehicle s leaf springs and chassis, Mr Vonbun says he used to spend a lot of time ' spotting for possums.' By this he means that whilst driving along the road, if the load on the back of the Landcruiser was at the upper limit of the truck's carrying capacity, the front driving lights were occasionally pointing up into the trees. 'I used to get flashed a lot by other cars', he says.

Furthermore, Mr Vonbun says that the Toyota would suffer from oversteer and the overall handling could become 'very disappointing' if the load on his tray was heavy. There were also the safety concerns says Mr Vonbun. 'It was affecting the road handling at times when I needed it the most.'

He says that the business requires a fair amount of travel (up to 50000 kilometers per year) on varying types of roads and surfaces. Some roads, particularly in country and regional areas, were very testing for him before the installation of Ride-Rite.

To try to resolve safety and handling issues, Mr Vonbun installed the Ride-Rite system on one of his Landcruisers, a move he says has had 'brilliant results.' Before the Airbag system, he tried various other methods of enhancing his suspension, including extra leaf springs and different variations of air shock absorbers, all of which he says proved not to be ideal. 'On one occasion I was bouncing around like a jumping bean in the Toyota, with all these other suspension enhancements.'

After fitting the Airbag system, the results were 'instant and far beyond my wildest dreams. No matter how much equipment I have on the back of the truck, it remains level and the oversteering problem has gone away.' In fact says Mr Vonbun; the truck 'handles even better than it did when it was new.'

Mr Vonbun has installed the Airbags at a pressure rate of 70 psi to obtain the maximum in driving and carrying efficiency. 'I change the pressure according to my needs', he says. 'If I am going to carry a certain load that day, I just go into service station and adjust the airbag pressure up or down with compressed air. It s as simple as that.'

'And when I have a light or no load, I just let the air down to about 30 psi', he adds.

Mr Vonbun says when he is not using the Landcruiser for work, he uses it as a recreational vehicle. 'Before the airbags were fitted, I used to have a bit of trouble going over large sand dunes and other off-road obstacles whilst towing my jet ski, but now it s even improved my week-ends as well.'

Air Springs Supply says the Ride-Rite, Coil-Rite and Loadshare systems are designed to fit many of the world's leading work vehicles, including light, medium and heavy versions of the most popular models. Used internationally on utility trucks, buses, concrete mixers, dump trucks, refuse compactors and trucks equipped with lift axles, the tough fabric-reinforced air springs involved are identical in construction to the springs used in the most advanced pure air suspensions fitted in vehicles in Australia.

For further information about this media release, please contact sales at Airbag Man, 1/126 South Pine Road, Brendale, Queensland 4500, ph (07) 3889 6556, fax (07) 3889 6557. For product inquiries, please contact Technical Sales at the numbers above, or email info@airbagman.com.au For more information from Air Springs Supply Pty Ltd, please contact Air Springs Supply Pty Ltd, ph (02) 9807 4077, fax (02) 9807 6979, www.airsprings.com.au.