Airide

[Lucas]

Hi

I have a 2003 Autotrail Cheyenne on a sprinter chassis.

Does anyone know anything about this Airide system?

I am not sure if it is working.

If I turn the values off nothing changes, and the PSI gauge doesn’t seem

to be reading anything.

Should I be able to adjust the height of the suspension from this?

 

Thanks

[Guest pelmetman]

Lucas - 2018-05-07 7:54 PM

 

Hi

I have a 2003 Autotrail Cheyenne on a sprinter chassis.

Does anyone know anything about this Airide system?

I am not sure if it is working.

If I turn the values off nothing changes, and the PSI gauge doesn’t seem

to be reading anything.

Should I be able to adjust the height of the suspension from this?

 

Thanks

 

Have you tried attaching a footpump to your nipple? .........and pumping up your posh airbags as it appears you have a gauge and Port and Starboard valves 8-) ............

 

 

[Lucas]

I haven’t tried anything as I don’t have a clue what I am doing (lol)

I thought you needed a compressor, but if I can use a foot pump that’s great.

Do you have any idea if you turn the values to the off or on position when pumping up?

 

Thanks

[Keithl]

Hi,

 

I have a very similar system manufactured by Dunlop on our Sprinter based Autotrail.

 

Turn on both valves, inflate to approx 40 psi using a compressor, foot pump or even a bicycle track pump (actually works very well). You only need a very small amount of air as the system is actually quite small. Far, far smaller volume than a car tyre.

 

Then most importantly SHUT BOTH VALVES!

 

Do NOT use the system with both valves open as when you corner air will be forced from one side to the other and will actually make your handling worse.

 

You can play with the actual pressure until you find something that works for you. The Dunlop system says minimum pressure 0.5 bar (7 psi) and maximum 7.0 bar (101 psi) so I guess the Airide will be similar?

 

Let us know how you get on when you inflate the air bags.

 

Keith.

[Lucas]

Cheers Keith, that helps a lot.

 

Both valves have been open since I brought it last year.

I just hope they have not been damaged now.

 

I will post how I get on :-D

[Derek Uzzell]

The Airide website still seems to be alive and kicking

 

http://www.airide.co.uk/index.php

 

but the “Download the Airide Operating Instructions Document” link on the website’s PRODUCT webpage does not function.

 

Fortunately Airide Operating Instructions are still available here

 

http://manualzz.com/doc/7444022/the-airide-operating-instructions-document

 

You’ll note that - contrary to Keith’s advice - Airide suggest that normal practice would be to leave both taps in the open position so that both airbags are linked through the gauge-unit.

 

However, if the system were being used to address a problem where one airbag needed a different inflation-pressure to the other (say to counteract a motorhome being ‘heavy’ on one side, or to side-to-side level the motorhome on a slope) it would be necessary to isolate the airbags fom each other by closing one (or both) taps.

 

There are several motorhome-suitable airbag-type systems marketed in the UK and some of these have no gauge and each airbag is inflated individually. Obviously, with such an arrangement, when the motorhome is being cornered and there is weight transfer to the vehicle’s outer side, there can be no movement of air from the outer airbag to the inner airbag.

 

I’d want to prevent airbag-to-airbag air-movement when cornering, as I’d want to to counter weight-transfer-induced roll by ‘leaning’ hard on the outer airbag. But I’m not wholly convinced that airbag-to-airbag air-movement actually would always worsen a motorhome’s handling (though it might with Sprinter-based motorhomes). Airide’s own instructions suggest that the airbags remain linked when driving and, although some systems’ airbags can be inflated individually and cannot be linked, other systems have linked airbags that cannot be ‘unlinked’ without the system being modified to allow this.

[Brian Kirby]

Derek Uzzell - 2018-05-08 8:09 AM.......................I’d want to prevent airbag-to-airbag air-movement when cornering, as I’d want to to counter weight-transfer-induced roll by ‘leaning’ hard on the outer airbag. ...................

Based on experience of a simple system with no linkage between air assisters on a FWD Transit based (Armstrong Drive Rite), I agree with the above.

 

I can't comment on whether my experience would have been different had the two sides been linked, but with a tallish, narrowish, van with a longish rear overhang, I can say that the air assistance without left/right linkage considerably improved straight line stability, reduced sensitivity to cross winds and HGV slipstreams, and reduced cornering roll.

 

As you have the facility to open or close the left/right linkage at will, I would definitely try both options to see if you find open, or closed, the most advantageous. I suspect the Transit track may have been a little wider than the Sprinter, and I would therefore imagine that with a Sprinter base, de-linking the two air assisters would be noticeably beneficial.

[Lucas]

Thank you for the link to the manual Derek, good find :-D

 

I used a bicycle track pump to pump up the airbags with no problems.

Just need to take it out for a test drive now with the bags linked and unlinked to see what handles better.

 

Cheers :-D

[Lucas]

Thanks for your input Brian :-D

[blaven]

I have the Dunlop system, basically exactly the same as Airide. I always have my valves shut so that air cannot be transferred from one side to the other. I haven’t tried driving with them open, but can only assume there’d be a degree of wallowing upon cornering. With the valves open you’ve got different damper characteristics on either side, maybe potentially dangerous?

Always remember to reduce the air pressure inside the rubber bags to almost nothing before jacking the rear up to change tyres or brake maintenance etc. It’ll prevent any risk of damage. Garages won’t know to do this so you’ll have to remember.

[Derek Uzzell]

Plenty of the ‘semi-air’ systems that are retrofitted do not have the capability to isolate individual airbags, but I’ve yet to read complaints that this lack harms the vehicle’s on-road behaviour.

 

If it’s only possible to inflate both airbags to the same pressure, it obviously won’t be practicable to use the system to level the vehicle side-to-side when parked on a slope or when the vehicle is heavier on one side than the other. Nevertheless, the Airide operatng instructions clearly anticipate that a vehicle fitted with their system will be driven with both rear airbags ‘linked’ and there are no caveats that this might negatively affect the vehicle’s handling.

 

When airbags are ‘linked’ and extra weight is placed on the airbag on one side and compresses it, this will increase the pressure in that airbag and air will begin to transfer to the other airbag. However, the tubing used in an airbag system is narrow-bore and I suspect that, in reality and normal use, there will be insufficient time for the air-transfer to matter or to be noticed.

 

Where one might (or should) notice a difference between a ‘linked’ and ’non-linked’ system is if the vehicle were driven so that extra weight remained on one airbag for long enough for a lot of air to transfer to the other airbag. For example, if one drove quickly in a circle so that the vehicle kept leaning to the outside, I’d expect a comparison to show less lean occurring with a ’non-linked’ airbag system than with a ‘linked’ one, but this is test-track experimentation and not the way (most) motorcaravanners drive.

[Brian Kirby]

True, although I have encountered a few long curves with adverse cambers here and there in normal driving, which might provoke a significant transfer between sides. But, as Lucas has the ability to select/de-select the left-right linkage at will, he can experiment to see which works best for him. At least he can be satisfied that both sides are initially inflated to the same pressure, which is a useful simplification, even if he eventually decides to close the linkage while driving. Be interesting to hear from him in due coures as to how he finds it works in practice.

[Derek Uzzell]

This March 2018 MHFun discussion may be of interest

 

https://www.motorhomefun.co.uk/forum/threads/fitted-semi-air-suspension.171861/

 

As will be seen from the video-clip on this link

 

https://www.sospensionieasytop.it/en/catalogue/2~fiat/fiat-ducato-x250-dal-2006-al-2016-iii-serie.html

 

fitting of the EasyTOP product is (in principle at least) very straightforward for a Ducato ‘X250’ and - unlike some kits - the air-tubing connects to the top of the air-bellows from which the tubing can be led to the dial-gauge unit more easily.

 

(I understand that the Ducato X250 chassis differs slightly from the currrent X290 chassis near the rear bump-stop position and that a couple of brackets on the X290 chassis may need to be bent to gain clearance when certain airbag kits are installed.)