Regulating Air Pressure for Ride Control

[Gary Winzenburger]

I recently talked to a truck driver friend who asked if I had air pressure regulators on the air bags of my 1997 Beaver. We were discussing how good of a ride we have on our Gillig chassis when the pavement is good, but can be extremely rough on bad pavement. He thinks regulating air in these bags will help the ride. Apparantly this can be done on tractor/trailers. Has anyone explored, or installed pressure regulators on the ride bags? Just curious. I don't think the shocks are bad since they're not leaking nor bottoming out, but the ride can be hard on the bladder on lots of expansion joints and pot holes! I have 102 lbs of air in front tires and 100 lbs on the rears.

Thanks for your input.

[Gerald Farris]

Gary,
The air pressure in your air bags is controlled by the height sensors. There is no way to reduce the the air pressure in your suspension air bags without lowering the coach ride height. Lowering the ride height will cause ride and handling problems as well it will change the driveshaft angle. Changing the drive shaft angle can cause driveshaft vibration as well as premature failure.

In other words, if your coach is sitting at the right ride height, the pressure in the air bags is correct and should not be changed. However you can install ping tanks between the height sensor valve and the air bag with large short lines between the tank and air bag to effectively increase the volume in the air bag to soften your ride.

Gerald

[Gary Winzenburger]

Thanks Gerald
I think I'll leave everything as they are on this one. Good information though!

Gary