Air ride vs Spring on 53ft dry van

1 Jan 2013 - CARB law went into affect.

Might want to give this link.

http://truckinginfo.com/news/news-detail.asp?news_id=78306&news_category_id=154

 

Pretty soon no one will be willing to haul into CA.

But what does air vs. spring have to do with skirts and things?

 

You will hear people say that spring-ride vans are only good for storage or local heavy freight, etc... But, just remember we used to haul everything on spring ride. even eggs, etc... You may not even notice much of a difference pulling it, some of them ride like a Cadillac with about 45,000 on. I mean, did you ever ride on an old school bus when you were a kid ? Pretty bumpy if you had a seat right over the axle, but if you sat towards the front it wasn't bad. Same thing with a spring ride trailer and when they're loaded heavy they ride great !

 

Air ride is over rated .. always has been. I did an air ride to spring conversion on my mothers 1998 Lincoln Town Car... I also owned a spring ride cabover back in 1993 ... Moms Lincoln is just as silky smooth of a ride as it ever was with the spring conversion.. springs only ride rough when empty, when they are under a load, operating in the load range they were designed to they ride just fine and no airbags, leveling valves, shocks to go bad and dig into your wallet.

An empty dually or 3/4 truck rides rougher than an 18 wheeler spring ride truck that is loaded ... do what you got to do and don't worry about it.

 

And your air compressor won't need to cycle on as often increasing fuel mileage

 

You will probably never notice much of a difference. Just do it and haul the freight.

 

I disagree. You can absolutely feel the difference between an air trailer and a spring trailer IN THE CAB. And I can guarantee you, over time, will have more boxes end up on the floor with a spring trailer than with an air trailer. And if you end up with a bad tire on a spring trailer, you'll feel much more "bounce". Yes, air does have it's issues, especially those that dump every brake set, but OTR truckload companies have not spent millions more to move to air ride trailer fleets for no reason at all.

I know I'd never buy a spring trailer.

 

Unless the load required it, don't worry about it.

You might notice a difference in ride, but you shouldn't unless the roads are really tough. If you do, it's loaded tail heavy.

 

I noticed an ad in Truck Paper on some 2007 Wabash air rides, the description says a lot of fleets are going back to spring ride to avoid air leaks during roadside inspections. Is this true?

"Very clean, large group 53' x 102" dry van trailers with aluminum roofs, swing doors, and closed tandem slider spring ride suspensions. Logistic posts on 48” centers and smooth interior walls. Trailers are in D.O.T. plus condition and ready to go! Many fleets are moving back to spring ride suspension to avoid potential air ride issues. The new CSA safety laws mean officers will be looking and listening for air leaks during road side inspections. Leaks lead to violations and out of service penalties. These trailers will not be around long as they have been extremely well maintained and are in very good shape"

Here is the link: https://www.truckpaper.com/listingsdetail/detail.aspx?OHID=3910485