Thread: Is it possible to make the ride smoother?

Mine rides like crap on full air, but the shocks are yet to be revalved to suit, hopefully in the next few weeks, paying jobs and new house/workshop have certainly got in the way

Mind you they are good, I had literally 3 ton of packing sand on the tray, had to drive home at 60 clicks as it was wobbly, but still level, one Exscavator on it's side, sand had to be pulled of the tray where I didn't want it......but that's another story

Originally Posted by isuzurover

I had thought it would be the other way around - air spring would increase in rate much more rapidly than a linear rate spring when compressed... However I based that on no calculations whatsowever which was of course silly.

On a related note, can you comment on how increasing the unsprung mass - e.g. by adding portals and/or bigger wheels would affect a coil vs an air suspension system?

The spring rate does change when compressed, but it is starting from a lower baseline. Also where not talking large articulation at crawl speed, when considering shockies and onroad handling.

Sorry I can't add anything useful in regard to increasing unsprung weight with air vs coil springs.

FWIW an air spring is an inherently rising rate spring, but obviously if you start with a very large volume of air this can be negated somewhat over the normal working range of the spring.

In the packaging sizes needed in race cars, gas springs were abandoned quickly, the rising rate being the killer compared to the preferred linear rate of a (conventionally wound) coil. (drivers tend not to cope too well with a non linear response)
Getting OT a little, torsion bars are now almost universally used in F1 due to lower friction (compared to a coil over shock spring) and better packaging thanks to the high rates used.


High(er) unsprung weight always adversely affects ride quality but I'm wondering if the lower initial rate of the air spring helps to reduce the effect ?
Just watching a truck with air suspension vs massive leaf springs the air suspended truck complies much better to road irregularities, particularly patter type bumps rather than bouncing across the tops of them.

Normally unsprung weight is controlled by the dampers and the greater the unsprung weight the more bump force that needs to be present in the damper to control it.
(The old rule of thumb with damping is that bump controls unsprung weight, rebound controls the chassis)