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August 2004

Hard-working air springs perk up tired and troubled vehicles

A problem with tradesmen's vehicles is that they often carry irregular loads.

Yet the suspensions of their 4wds, utes and vans are expected to produce the same safe, stable and comfortable performance whether the vehicle is full, half full, empty - or with most of the weight on one side.

Not surprisingly, many fail the test and suffer both tyre and chassis damage as a result not to mention and uncomfortable ride and unsafe handling. This is particularly true where the vehicles are required to operate on rough roads or rough sites, such as mines, farms and building and construction sites.

One quarry operator who has found a way to eliminate the problem is Mr T.J. Bryant of Cowra, whose quarry and gravel washing plant delivers sand and metal to builders throughout South-Eastern NSW.

Faced with the problems created by carrying yards of sand and gravel over rough sites, he fitted his modified six-wheel Toyota Hilux with Ride-Rite air helper suspension operating between the rear leaf springs and the underside of the chassis.

Not only did the Ride-Rite air helper suspension system give better ride and handling these are the same Firestone springs often fitted to luxury 4wds and as original equipment to leading heavy truck brands but also the air springs could be inflated to different pressures to cope with uneven loads and varying weight distribution.

Mr Bryant also equipped his vehicle with an optional in-cab control system with on-board compressor, so he could vary the amount of air pressure going into each airbag without having to get out to adjust valving manually.

'When there s a load on, I might pump up the suspensions to 30 psi, then dump some air after we have done the delivery so the empty vehicle doesn t lose traction. If the load is uneven, I will use air pressure to level up the vehicle', said Mr Bryant.

Ride-Rite kits are provided in NSW by the sales, fitting service network of All Air Suspension, which works in conjunction with national air suspension specialist Airbag Man. In addition to providing Ride-Rite kits for most popular working vehicles with leaf springs, they provide coil spring kits and full air conversions. The airbags used in the Ride-Rite kits such as Mr Bryant s are fully adjustable. By simply adding or removing air they can maintain the same vehicle height under different load conditions. This gives ideal performance and safety from empty to full.

All Air Suspension spokesman Mr Simon Agar says Ride-Rite s air helper springs work with the existing suspension to re-level loaded vehicles to their ideal configuration, which is with frame and body parallel to the ground, as in an unloaded vehicle. He says Ride-Rite kits also have benefits when the vehicle is empty, because the air pressure takes the strain off existing leaf springs, preventing sagging and helping them to last longer.

Mr Bryant says his experience with the kit fitted to his Hilux was so good that he is having another Ride-Rite kit fitted to his new Landcruiser HJ 80 4wd with tipper tray, which has replaced the Hilux for deliveries to the rugged sites he frequently has to deal with.

'I bought the Land Cruiser because it is a bigger utility. I am not converting it to a six-wheeler, but I'm putting on the air bags as an added help because the vehicle will be carrying substantial weights'.

Because Cowra is a country town and many of his customers are out in the bush, Tom Bryant said he needed a 4wd that would go anywhere because we deliver anywhere.

'Some of these sites are quite steep and even a normal building site where a house is going up is as rough as guts. The new Toyota 4WD with Ride Rite air springs will go anywhere. You can deliver to the builder just where he wants it.'

Identical in construction to the rugged Firestone air springs used on 40-tonne semi-trailers, Ride-Rite springs are inflated by standard workshop compressors or optional onboard compressor systems. They can handle 0-7 bar (0-100 psi) and up to 1100kg each (subject to chassis gross vehicle weight limits).

Ride-Rite products and accessories include:

  • Basic Ride-Rite kits for different types of vehicles, including two air helper springs, air lines with separate tyre-type inflation valves, hardware for proper installation and step-by-step instructions to permit installation using simple hand tools
  • Ride-Rite Air Compressor Accessory kit, containing a 12-volt air compressor, 2.25 litre tank, pressure switch and tubing to inflate not only the air helper springs, but also tyres.
  • Ride-Rite Dual Cab Control Kit, Single Cab Control Kit, Automatic Control Kit and Level Command Kits. These can provide in-cab adjustment for unbalanced loads, including back-to-front and side-to-side loading problems.

For further information about this media release or the name of local fitting specialists throughout NSW, please contact All Air Suspensions, 137 Bowden St, Meadowbank, Sydney 2114 ph (02) 9807 7641, fax (02) 9807 7643 www.allair.com.au All Air can also supply contacts for national availability of the product.