CT suspension travel

Submitted: Friday, Apr 08, 2011 at 06:49

ThreadID: 85505 Views:2593 Replies:3 FollowUps:5

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cycadcenter

Hi Folks,

I'm working with a friend who is an engineer on some plans for an off-road camper trailer and we are up to designing the independentsuspension. We are looking at airbag or coils on a trailing arm with shocks.

As we are in the USA at the present time and don't have access to a camper to look at our question is :

What is the ideal suspension travel for the trailer starting out at loaded weight.

We were hoping to get around 150mm of travel which would determine the trailing arm length and spring rate and placement.

We will be fabricating the basic frame here in the USA and bring it over in a container when we come later in the year.

Thanks

Bruce
Fallbrook CA
Childers Qld

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Reply By: Member - Leigh (Vic) - Saturday, Apr 09, 2011 at 17:52

Saturday, Apr 09, 2011 at 17:52

Hi Bruce
Have you had a look at the Adventure trailers made in the USA? The design incorporates a swing arm suspension with air bag and internal shock. Perhaps not heavy duty enough for our purposes but worth a look for a few ideas. Happy to send you a few pictures that I have been collecting for my independent suspension if you have an email address. Cheers
Leigh

AnswerID: 450783

Follow Up By: cycadcenter - Monday, Apr 11, 2011 at 01:13

Monday, Apr 11, 2011 at 01:13

Thanks Leigh

I'm going to have a look at the Adventure trailers this week and see their Airshock setup. I priced out the Airshocks and they are $600.00 a set with 16 adjustable settings but rated at only 2500lbs or abt 1200kg they might be a bit on the light side for Oz conditions. Will have a look anyway.

My email is cycadcenter at msn.com

Thanks for your response.

Bruce

FollowupID: 723441

Reply By: Shaker - Saturday, Apr 09, 2011 at 21:56

Saturday, Apr 09, 2011 at 21:56

I believe that the Track MC2 suspension has 230mm travel & the Vista RV Crossover has 250mm, they would be 2 of the best suspension systems available.

AnswerID: 450807

Follow Up By: cycadcenter - Monday, Apr 11, 2011 at 01:17

Monday, Apr 11, 2011 at 01:17

Hi Shaker,

Yep I would have to agree that the Track MC2 suspension is pretty impressive in their videos. and the Vista is also impressive. If you were travelling constantly off road their systems would certainly be the best.

Thanks

Bruce

FollowupID: 723442

Reply By: Robin Miller - Sunday, Apr 10, 2011 at 18:34

Sunday, Apr 10, 2011 at 18:34

I would be looking for more than 150mm Bruce.

In my research which lead to me making a homemade trailer for all duties I decided independant suspension wasn't the way to go and instead put some effort into making a long travel leaf spring setup.

The trailer as a base weighed 300 kg and was designed to take max 700kg payload.

It was designed to deliver 125mm of upward movement with exactly that load.

I made it easy to change springs until I got the right bounce.

Some other commerical items had theoretically more but in practise actually delivered less because the final payloads often don't actually match the design.

Robin Miller

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AnswerID: 450862

Follow Up By: cycadcenter - Monday, Apr 11, 2011 at 01:27

Monday, Apr 11, 2011 at 01:27

Hi Robin,

Thanks for the input, I was trying to get away from an axle system and looked at the independent leaf spring setup Sir Kev has on his trailer.

I'm also going to have a look at a couple of Baja Desert Races and look at their setups as they are able to achieve 300-450mm of travel on their suspension systems at 160-180kph

Thanks

Bruce

FollowupID: 723443

Follow Up By: cycadcenter - Friday, Apr 15, 2011 at 12:41

Friday, Apr 15, 2011 at 12:41

Robin,

I went to a factory in Phoenix Arizona today called Airbagit and Chassis Tech, spent about three hours there and they were extremely helpful as they design and build specialised suspension components for every purpose you could thing of including an airsuspension that will bunny hop your care sideways.

They have a CAD design system so they played aroung with various trailing arm suspension designs and we ended up with one with a 9" or 225mm of travel using an airbag rated at 2400lbs abt 1100 kg each for a total capacity of 2200kg. this was matched to a Rancho adjustable shock so I'll see how it turns out.

Regards

Bruce

FollowupID: 723941

Follow Up By: Robin Miller - Friday, Apr 15, 2011 at 13:06

Friday, Apr 15, 2011 at 13:06

Sounds like you should end up with quite a trailer Bruce - gotta love those
modelling programs - I'm building another lightweight Towbar and have been able to reduce the steel tongue down to 10mm steel from usual 13mm based on autocad inventor.

You have given me an idea also - I have some worn adjustable shocks off a car and I might replace my fixed ones on trailer with them as weight of trailer changes a lot more than car anyway.

Good luck with it.

Robin Miller

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FollowupID: 723945