Air Ride Equipped – Air Ride Suspension

An air ride suspension system is not as complicated as it might sound. Air ride suspension system simply replaces a standard steel spring with bladder or bag of compressed air. The resulting effect is a much higher shock absorbency ratio to provide a smoother ride to the truck and therefore the trailers cargo.

The trailers cargo actually floats on a cushion of air, nearly eliminating both compression damage and telescoping.

Therefore ensuring that your cargo is transported as safely as possible by minimizing any major shocks or excessive bumps that can potentially damage your fragile freight.

Whether you’re in the business of fragile products or not, you’re likely to encounter trailers equipped with air ride suspension with more and more frequency. There are also benefits to the actual tractor trailer, due to the reduced vibration and shock absorption the equipment lasts longer.

Air ride suspension is a good alternative to a standard suspension in many cases and sometimes required. Anything fragile or anything that becomes volatile when exposed to shock or sudden movements will require air ride transport, in addition to other more standard precautions. Some good examples of air ride freight are:

• Calibrated precision equipment
• Electronics that are fragile
• Fragile perishables, such as eggs
• Glass products or materials
• Hazardous materials.
• Highly pressurized gas containers
• Liquid containers

If you will ship some of these types of freight, or require air ride suspension, be sure to verify that the tractor trailer operator is using reputable, well maintained equipment. Also make certain that the tractor trailer operator intends to employ air ride suspension on both the tractor and the trailer. Air ride is an all or nothing scenario, and just the tractor or just the trailer having air ride, without the other will have almost no benefit to your shipment.

The air ride suspension can fail or malfunction, nor is it a complete solution for safe shipping of sensitive items. You should always take the standard precautions that would be used when shipping fragile goods:

• Pack your items or freight properly.
• When applicable, properly palletize your loads with shrink wrap.
• Use shipping blankets to cover any surface that can damaged or scratched.
• Always secure cargo with a cargo restraining system, such as e-track or load bars.

Be aware if you operate your own loading and unloading operations, you may or may not already know some of the special issues that air ride suspensions may create at the loading dock.

Air ride suspensions are very susceptible to “trailer walk”, this is the process of trailers moving away from docks during loading and unloading. This happens due to the air in the suspension that will compress as weight is added to the trailer. The up and down motion caused by the forklift operations can cause enough shifting to create a hazardous loading environment.

Normal “chock blocks” and trailer jacks are not meant to safely prevent “trailer walk” from occurring. The best way to prevent this is to make certain that the driver empties or bleeds the air suspension bladders before loading or unloading begins. Unfortunately this creates an additional issue, since the height of the trailer with an empty air suspension may be up to 8 inches lower in some cases. Take into consideration the needs for special dock modifications to address the issues of using air ride equipment.

Here at Great Western Transportation, we provide fully equipped air ride trailers, plus professional crews that will load your freight carefully and responsibly transport your freight. Call Great Western Transportation to transport your fragile items to their destination safely!