Hendrickson AR2 Conversion

I currently have Hendrickson RS (Rubber load cushion) walking beam suspension on an 89 Pete 378 that we use pulling a 50 ton lowboy. It rides terrible empty, but it is real nice with about 50K on the drivers, and I like the walking beam for off road construction sites.

I am considering a conversion kit that Hendrickson has (AR2 air over walking beam). This conversion utilizes the existing walking beam, but replaces everything above that with an air suspension utilizing two bags per side. It appears as if it would be fairly straightforward to do the conversion. The existing longitudinal torque rods are used, but we would need to add a transverse torque rod for each axle, which would require drilling/mounting a frame bracket and welding a bracket to each axle housing. I would also re-bush the walking beam when doing the conversion.

Hendrickson has an Application Approval Request Form that I am filling out to obtain the correct conversion kit, at which time I need to contact a Hendrickson Dealer to obtain pricing.

My question is: Does anyone have any experience with this conversion, and if so would you recommend it? I am curious as to how much improvement there is in the ride characteristics.
Here is a link to a youtube video on the conversion kit:

 

Hendrickson got back to me and approved my application, but said it would be five weeks before they send me the kit number. After that I guess I go to a local Hendrickson dealer with the kit number and obtain pricing/order the kit. I don't know how long it will be before I can actually get it in my position, if the price doesn't scare me too much that is. Anybody make a guess on cost? All of 5k I would guess.

 

That's a bit more than I had in mind. We'll have to see what the kit costs without labor.

We don't spend all the time off road, but most every load gets picked up or delivered on a construction site. I really like our rubber pad suspension for that, and it rides OK when loaded, but empty on a washboard gravel road is brutal.

I would imagine that we would have at least 12 grand into getting a Neway cutoff installed, as I wouldn't have the confidence to do that work myself. We have d461p 2 speed rears that I want to keep, so there would be a lot of work changing out the axle mounts to a different suspension, which is why this conversion is appealing.

We'll see what the price of the kit comes in at and go from there.

We only run around 20 thousand miles a year, so I can't justify too much into this. I am rebuilding the engine and updating the RTOF 15618 to 18918, and would love to do the rear suspension at the same time, but we'll have to wait and see. It's hard to put 30K into a 15K truck, but it will last us forever, and I like it.