Trailer Air Ride Suspension

I have an appointment with Mor Ryde to change over to IS in November but still not convinced that is what I want.

I came across this set up.
http://ridesti.com/

Anyone have experience with this or this company?? I think everyone knows the benefits of air and I am surprised that I can only find one comapny making true air ride for the RV industry.

We have had our Mor-Ryde IS on our Landmark for over 2 years and love it. We have had no problems with it. My friend (who has passed) had the IS on his SOB and traveled many miles and never had an issue with his. You will notice a difference. BTW you may consider adding the disc brakes and never lube bearings while you are at it. We love ours.

I have no doubt the IS would be a huge improvemnet. Anything that is independent is better than a live axle.. but is am still not convinced that it is the best (at least with in an affordable realm) system out there.

Air ride is a dominant suspension in the trucking world. at least for OTR trucks. Get off road and you do see alot of rubber/brass bushing suspensions.

As far as disc brakes...you are dead on, that is going to happen this winter, whether I do it myself or have Mor Ryde do it if I go that route. I am looking forward to all the positive aspects of that changeover.

I dont know much about the Never Lube hubs. I know we had a lot of problems with sealed hubs when we ran Dodges in our business. We would get about 45 or 50k miles out of them and they would have to be replaced. Not sure if any of that experience would apply in this case.

Hey Larry; Just take a ride to Mor-ryde or Trail-Air and look in the junk pile there are looks of never-lube failures in the pile. And when it does happen it junks the axle. JON

The choices of a Trailing Arm Air Ride Trailer Suspension I located on the Internet are as follows, STI LBS Air Suspension, Independent Torsion Air Suspension, Price $ 7,005. Kelderman Air Suspension, Independent Torsion Air Suspension, Price $ 5,900. Lippert/Trailerflex, Solid Axle Air Suspension, Price $ 5,300.

About six weeks ago I had Lippert install their Lippert/Trailerflex, Solid Axle Air Suspension and I am very happy with the ride and results. In the next few days I plan to post detailed information about the install and the ride improvement. The suspension I am talking about is a bolt on version of the Trailerflex suspension Jim Beletti has on his current Landmark, details in this Post. If you are Interested or would like additional details please contact Andrew Pocock with Lippert at 574-535-1125.

I would pass on the never lube. As Jon mentioned there is a pallet full of failed bearings at MorRyde.

Somewhere on the forum I have a crude graphic of the bearings and my reasoning for not using them. Anyone know where to look for uploaded pictures?

Terry H said:

The choices of a Trailing Arm Air Ride Trailer Suspension I located on the Internet are as follows, STI LBS Air Suspension, Independent Torsion Air Suspension, Price $ 7,005. Kelderman Air Suspension, Independent Torsion Air Suspension, Price $ 5,900. Lippert/Trailflex, Solid Axle Air Suspension, Price $ 5,300.

About six weeks ago I had Lippert install their Lippert/Trailflex, Solid Axle Air Suspension and I am very happy with the ride and results. In the next few days I plan to post detailed information about the install and the ride improvement. The suspension I am talking about is a bolt on version of the Trailflex suspension Jim Beletti has on his current Landmark, details in this Post. If you are Interested or would like additional details please contact Andrew Pocock with Lippert at 574-535-1125.

Click to expand...

Thanks Terry, with pricing info that is more information than I had. Looking forward to update on your system.

I did some research a while back and these are some options that are available.

First, the system that Jim has is the Trailer Flex system. it appears to be designed by LBC Trailer out of Ontario, Canada.

I found that PJ Trailers is a distributor of the systems, so that might be a good option for those of us in the US.

Next, another member found the Standen's system. They are out of Calgary, Alberta.

Dexter Axle also offers their own air suspension. It is using a shorter swing arm with a bag in front of the axle.

the makers of the popular truck stabilizers Timberns offers a similar system under the name Dakota Air.

Finally Kelderman Air-Ride offers two air suspension options. the first is similar to the Trailer-Flex and the Standen's. The torsion axle replaces the leaf spring with a steel swing arm.

The other is the Leaf Spring system, which retains the leaf springs, but suspends the spring equalizer on a bar supported by a pair of air-bags.

There are probably more options out there, but I thought this was a pretty good list to start.

In the future IF our trailer suspension starts to give us trouble, I believe that one of these air systems will be our solution of choice.

We also have the Mor-ryde IS. Very happy so far but I am concerned over the need to get the weight off of the tires for adequate lubrication.
I also agree with the comments on never lube bearings. I did see many failed bearings/axles at Mor-ryde's facility.

Kodiak offers the Pro-Lube XL which is an oil bath setup for the trailer hubs. Henderson Lineup was showing them off at the OR rally.

http://www.kodiaktrailer.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=27&Itemid=81

I don't know if/when they will have them for 7000# systems, but Hendersons seemed to think they were ready to go.

OK I found my crude graphic of why I don't like the never lube.

Never lube is on the left, conventional "you grease 'em" on the right.

For me it is the loading on the spindle.

Oil bath for Kodiak, will have to look into that.

Trail Air does have their full air ride. The owner showed me the patents and design that was done 7 years ago. Don't know why they never marketed it.