Journal Entry Air suspension

[SpeedyBilluk]

Hello, I have a Fiat Ducato with a Ace body, I have just found out that it has air suspension on it, can anyone tell me what should the pressure be (psi or bar) when traveling and on sight as this is not a factory fitted system. I have watch some videos on youtube but they say between 1 and 2 bar but hardly seems to inflate the air bags so I'm not sure.

 

[Sue and Rick]

The idea is not to really lift the van just to make the suspension “stiffer” to stop the bouncing about and help when side winds prevail.
2 bar ours is set at. You can let down a side if you need to for levelling up.
Unless of course you have full air not just air assist.
That I know nothing about.

 

[busbuddy]

My swift 630g has air assist on the rear, I can definitely see the rear lift when I inflate to 30psi
Normal run at 30-40psi for a weekend away but 55psi when I'm fully loaded

 

[OldAgeTravellers]

In my experience it totally depends on the vehicle. I had some of the early Airides on my first van about thirty years ago, a Swift coach-built which I moved to my “A”-Class Le Voyager. Both needed different pressures and depended on the loading. The best way to find out is to just try different pressures and see how the handling changes when loaded for a standard trip. I found on the Swift it could quickly change from under-steer to over-steer with a sweet spot in between which also dramatically reduced body roll. On the Le Voyageur it didn’t change the handling much but I used quite a high pressure to reduce roll and helped when overtaken by trucks. The first was front wheel drive the second rear wheel drive. Mine used a single inflator and very small bore pipes so the air didn’t transfer quickly between bags. Latterly they have twin inflators and large bore pipes and some have on-bord pumps which make inflating while on the move much easier. I had to use a foot pump. So no real answer just suck it and see just don’t under inflate because it can damage the bags.

 

[stuartholmes]

Hello, I have a Fiat Ducato with a Ace body, I have just found out that it has air suspension on it, can anyone tell me what should the pressure be (psi or bar) when traveling and on sight as this is not a factory fitted system. I have watch some videos on youtube but they say between 1 and 2 bar but hardly seems to inflate the air bags so I'm not sure.

Do you mean full air suspension on all four wheels or air assistance, which is a couple of bags between the rear axle cart springs and vehicle body.
If the latter it's what we have, the bags in themselves don't really look to get noticably bigger if you increase pressure, they just become stiffer - although at the extremes there is a visible ride height difference.
We had ours fitted by Air Ride in Norwich & the guy there said start with them about 80 psi & gradually reduce until the ride is how you like it.
I just got an MoT test failure warning for taking it with them on 25psi (they constantly need checking & pumping up a bit like tyres used to) so I guess that's about the bottom limit.
(Incidentally, I recommend keeping a cheap cordless rechargable pump in the door pocket - you can spend squillions on them but mine was about £25 on ebay & works fine )

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[BouncyBoatFolk]

Do you mean full air suspension on all four wheels or air assistance, which is a couple of bags between the rear axle cart springs and vehicle body.
If the latter it's what we have, the bags in themselves don't really look to get noticably bigger if you increase pressure, they just become stiffer - although at the extremes there is a visible ride height difference.
We had ours fitted by Air Ride in Norwich & the guy there said start with them about 80 psi & gradually reduce until the ride is how you like it.
I just got an MoT test failure warning for taking it with them on 25psi (they constantly need checking & pumping up a bit like tyres used to) so I guess that's about the bottom limit.
(Incidentally, I recommend keeping a cheap cordless rechargable pump in the door pocket - you can spend squillions on them but mine was about £25 on ebay & works fine )

Check the air bags being used, 80psi would be to high for some air assist bags.
Mike.

 

[stuartholmes]

It was a bit firm but that's what the company boss said! We settled on about 40 but it'll obviously not be right for everyone depending on load & preference.

 

[Guigsy]

It massively depends on the weight of the vehicle and the make of the airbags. Our previous van only needed about 30-40psi (about 2-2.5 bar). Any more just made the ride harsh and jiggly without any benefits.

 

[SpeedyBilluk]

The idea is not to really lift the van just to make the suspension “stiffer” to stop the bouncing about and help when side winds prevail.
2 bar ours is set at. You can let down a side if you need to for levelling up.
Unless of course you have full air not just air assist.
That I know nothing about.

Thanks for your reply, it's got air assist, I've got it set at 4 bar at the moment just trying it out.

 

[SpeedyBilluk]

Do you mean full air suspension on all four wheels or air assistance, which is a couple of bags between the rear axle cart springs and vehicle body.
If the latter it's what we have, the bags in themselves don't really look to get noticably bigger if you increase pressure, they just become stiffer - although at the extremes there is a visible ride height difference.
We had ours fitted by Air Ride in Norwich & the guy there said start with them about 80 psi & gradually reduce until the ride is how you like it.
I just got an MoT test failure warning for taking it with them on 25psi (they constantly need checking & pumping up a bit like tyres used to) so I guess that's about the bottom limit.
(Incidentally, I recommend keeping a cheap cordless rechargable pump in the door pocket - you can spend squillions on them but mine was about £25 on ebay & works fine )

mine are air assist, i'm a bit shock at your mot fail as I took mine for it's mot before I knew it had air assist and they were flat no air in them at all and past.

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[stuartholmes]

mine are air assist, i'm a bit shock at your mot fail as I took mine for it's mot before I knew it had air assist and they were flat no air in them at all and past.

I did think they were being a bit picky but it was deemed still adequate & an alert not a fail so didn't worry. Useful reminder though as it had obviously gone down slowly without being noticed so I pumped it up straight away!

At previous MoT one side was working but the other bag was perished which is kind of worse but wasn't commented on at all. We'd just bought the vehicle from a dealer on condition of new MoT & only discovered the faulty airbag later when we tried adjusting & found it wouldn't stay blown up. Got the whole system replaced under warranty but as mentioned above, it still needs monitoring.

 

[SpeedyBilluk]

I did think they were being a bit picky but it was deemed still adequate & an alert not a fail so didn't worry. Useful reminder though as it had obviously gone down slowly without being noticed so I pumped it up straight away!

At previous MoT one side was working but the other bag was perished which is kind of worse but wasn't commented on at all. We'd just bought the vehicle from a dealer on condition of new MoT & only discovered the faulty airbag later when we tried adjusting & found it wouldn't stay blown up. Got the whole system replaced under warranty but as mentioned above, it still needs monitoring.

Well that was a bit of good fortune, normally you find these things after your warranty has finished, I only found out about having mine when I broke the Grey water waist pipe off backing onto the drive as it stuck out a few inches from the side of the MH and caught the gate post.

 

[stuartholmes]

Well that was a bit of good fortune, normally you find these things after your warranty has finished, I only found out about having mine when I broke the Grey water waist pipe off backing onto the drive as it stuck out a few inches from the side of the MH and caught the gate post.

Share your thoughts on the grey pipe, I reversed mine into an earth bank. Fortunately didn't actually break but don't know why the designers couldn't make it end somewhere out of danger under the bodywork like my previous 'van.
On the warranty issue, in case anyone attaches that to a criticism of the air ride, it was the warranty provided by company I bought the 'van from that paid - they had clearly sold me something with a brand new MoT that wouldn't have passed MoT where I took it a year later...

 

[Bessy765]

A possible starting point is empty the van of all the must haves and anything that is easily removed empty water waste etc and let the air out of the bags. Measure the height of the van between the rear places that you would put the jack and the ground. Put everything back in the van as if you were going away, then pump the bags up to get the height the same as when empty. A lot of facing about but you need only do it once.

 

[SpeedyBilluk]

A possible starting point is empty the van of all the must haves and anything that is easily removed empty water waste etc and let the air out of the bags. Measure the height of the van between the rear places that you would put the jack and the ground. Put everything back in the van as if you were going away, then pump the bags up to get the height the same as when empty. A lot of facing about but you need only do it once.

Thanks good idea will give it a go

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[Bessy765]

One thing to point out never drive with no air in the bags at least 0.5 bar or 7.5 psi. Damage can be caused to the bags otherwise.

 

[Chris51]

My rear airbags set at 1 bar and have lifted van so the single leaf spring is now curved again .

 

[stuartholmes]

My rear airbags set at 1 bar and have lifted van so the single leaf spring is now curved again .

I hope you actually have two leaf springs!!