Originally Posted by Redline

What suspension does the chassis have? Leaf springs (stiff?) or some type of air suspension? Are you thinking of changing or modifying what it has?

James

The suspension was actually one of our first challenges. I had posted a thread about it here back in July.

My original intention had been to go with leaf springs all around. Stiff, but simple and reliable. There’s not much that can wrong with a leaf spring, and if they do, there’s mechanics around the world who can fix a stack for you.

However, the candidate trucks that we found had air suspension in the rear, and leafs up front. I asked around (including on ExPo) and decided that it was still ok, and we went ahead with it.

The choice then was to swap out the front leafs with airbags? We decided not to, as the same ‘ride’ benefits could be accomplished by putting airbags under the cab, and if necessary under the seats. This keeps the easily damaged bags up and out of harms way. Also, if they fail, it’s not such a big deal as you’re still riding on the base leaf suspension.

The only other choice was whether or not to convert the rear back to a leaf. I think for the moment, we’ll carry on with the air suspension – which rides nicer anyhow – can be aired down if we want to – and is fairly cheap to just carry one spare bag in case of a tear.

Here’s what the rear looks like…