Bus suspension

[GoinBush]

Should we be looking for a bus with airbag suspension? My mate the driver, says we do, but I keep finding suitable buses without it. I care more about the kitchen and the colour scheme
Can we talk suspension please?

[BruceS]

Depends on price range and size of the bus.
Thousands of school buses do millions of KM's on ordinary spring suspension without damaging kids!!
Airbags need a compressor. A compressor usually means air brakes. (getting into expensive stuff now!)

[GoinBush]

We think thirty feet now Bruce and would like to spend around seventy. Less if we can of course.

[bagmaker]

Bags are handy because they adjust to the weight of the load that is carried.
Standard springs are set to the maximum carry capacity of the vehicle.
So bags are going to be sweeter on a lightly loaded motorhome bus conversion.
Providing -of course- that its lightly loaded compared to original, some smaller units are going to be up there anyways.
Both still need shocks.
Some folks have modified their air suspension to allow for self levelling in a campsite but IMHO doesnt work so well, especially long term.

[native pepper]

You can always get a spring bus and add airbags afterwards, there are a few who have done that and have thought of it myself, but most decent spring buses have pretty good suspension anyway, so they ride pretty well. Mine is a 12m, 78 Bedford and very comfortable on the road, was going to put air over the springs because it's a mid mount bus and pretty low, but yet to get round to it, haven't come across anywhere it was to low to get over, so far.

[Noggins]

If you fitted air bags after with individual air lines you could use them to level up the bus .

I did a similar thing on my old Bedford Many years ago, except I used a PTO from the gearbox to small hydraulic rams over the axles to give me the lift at the required corners.
Air bags would be much cheaper way these days


Ron

[T1 Terry]

Air bag suspension adds a whole new mess of complication and potential problems. Snag an airline or damage an air bag and that's it as far as travelling till you fix it, levelling valves are prone to damage and failure resulting in either one end a different height to what it should be or one side drops. Not a simple fix type of thing so again, no more travelling till you get it fixed. No problems if you are still in a major city centre, but a real problem if you are out on the road and even worse if you are on a back road. A newer air bag system that leans the vehicle into a turn are great.... while they are working, a nightmare to sort when it all goes pear-shaped.
Springs ride rough when under loaded as has been said, but a converted bus won't be empty, you will be walking the fine line to keep it at the legal max weight so the springs will be working at their designed carrying capacity and will give a relatively smooth ride. If you do still find it too rough you can add airbags over the springs to carry just a little of the load.

T1 Terry

[bagmaker]

Depends on the bus though..........
Mine is rated to 21.5 tonne, gonna take a lot of wine bottles to bring it up to that again

[Barboots]

I carry a schrader (?) valve to airline fitting so I can cope with a damaged airline on the Jeep... but thinking about it again I probably should have 4 of them.

I have no idea whether a typical air compressor could manage the pressures required for a bus... just thought I'd put the idea into the mix.

Cheers,
Steve

[native pepper]

The bus compressor should handle air bags, have a friend who has a bedford a couple of years younger than mine and he has air over springs running from the bus compressor, all I have is air horns.