Springs vs Airbag suspension

really I can see no reason for full air suspention of Highway trucktor. I'd say the optimal is rear air ride only to keep clearance the same.

The only truck that need full air suspention is European BDF/20'' container truck. Totally different weight distribution and ECAS for load/unload operations.

 

Mate I have 9 agi's, 3 on rubber block, 2 on 6-rod and the rest on air bags. They all have their pluses, but we spec all of our trucks with air bags now.
Rubber block are good because nothing goes wrong with it but they are as ruff as guts. 6 rod also good but have a tendency to break springs and can also be a bit ruff. Air bags articulate very well, they ride better than any other suspentions and are the lightest and like the poster above rear only, you loose too much feel in the steering with air bag front.
The only real down sides to air bags is they lean through corners more. Just make sure you have duel ride height control valves fitted. Also when empty they can get hung up a sometimes waiting for the shock absorbers to drop and you either have to wait for the shocks to let the axel drop or put the power divider in, also make sure you have diff locks on both axels.
Really unless price is a factor I wouldn't have anything else.
What truck are you thinking about buying?

 

Cascadia is offered with full air suspention becouse they wanna install ECAS with anty sway system later.

They test this system on MP4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-JznGAIyrf0

Whnen you turn steering wheel in right sharp turn, stabilisation system inflates left air bags.

 

The freightliner isn't a bad truck but they are built to a price. I havnt had much to do with the latest model but the I ones I have looked at didn't really impress me.
I drove a brand new one and the dash ratteled already, they arn't that easy to see out of down the left hand side with the wide cab and bonnet, the cab skin panels on the back of the cab were all wavy where they are riveted. Also the air bags only have 1/4" lines where the Kenworth A/G 400 run 1" lines.
To me I just think they are going to be like the sterlings, just a truck you get rid of after 5 years before stuff starts to break, there is a reason they have the nick name freight shaker, and traditionally freightliners don't have the good resale.
We run kenworths for our 8x4 and isuzu's for 6x4's. I don't just look at the purchase price to make my decision, I look at the whole of life cost. It costs me alot more to have a truck off the road for a day for repaires than a few hundred more in repayments a month plus the better resale of the kw.
But for the price they are giving them away for at the moment it makes them worth considering.

 

If i am right in australia you need to have load sharing between front axles to be able to load 11ton .,if yes than you might have front air suspension....as much i know only volvo and mercedes have front load sharing device on springs ...and also both dont have front air suspension for trucks with 2front axles

 

Not many trucks in Australia that don't have load sharing twin steer suspension only the older ones. Only one came out with air bag front end Mack quantum very smooth ride but probably no good for agi sways around a bit. A lot of Agi I see have airbag rears now

 

Yes we do need load share on the twin steers. KW, Iveco and Freightliner all use spring setups of similar design, 2 spring packs with a rocker box in-between them, except Iveco use normal spring packs and the others parabolic. Mack use the Volvo load share suspension. Iveco also offer air bag front, only because that is the only way you can make them barable to sit in.

I didn't know Freightliner offered air bag fronts?

No one runs european trucks in agitators over here because they are too heavy as we can only run up to 12 ton on the fronts and 17 ton on the duels, but only a total of 28.5 ton GVM.

 

what is point about acco truck? why iveco dont offer you normal eurotrakker truck i dont have trust for american components and off road , i dont consider iveco as something comfortable and nice but it is some kind of joke but it is sturdy truck for work ...i want to say i like big hub reduction axles , i like big springs not air suspension or other things present on US trucks, i was looking at some kenworth trucks with some weird suspension with limited axle walk (dont know how do you call it but) , i am not confident about non syncro transmissions while offroad , syncro offers you much more in tricky situations