New to this forum and will be posting a lot of questions to learn from everyone's experiences. Looking for our 1st caravan to start our retirement around Australia.
Only planning medium off road, nothing radical. What is best, independent suspension or the old style springs. A salesperson said independent suspension overheat during long journeys and leaf springs are easier to repair to get you to a service centre.
Dick0 said
10:01 AM Jun 10, 2024
Welcome Stephen,
Salespeople best stick with sales. Go to your local caravan Service Centre and ask them.
Safe travels when you get all set up.
Peter_n_Margaret said
11:41 AM Jun 10, 2024
In my view, there is no value in independent suspension on a trailer. Traditional leaf springs provide some damping that the shockers must perform with independent coils, so they need to do lots of work. My suggestion for the ideal suspension on a caravan would be single axle with longer than usual leaf springs plus dampers. OEM springs are almost always too short. My son has just modified his Jaco Expanda by fitting OME after market springs designed for the rear of a Toyota 79 series plus 17" wheels and tyres. It transformed the van. Cheers, Peter
-- Edited by Peter_n_Margaret on Monday 10th of June 2024 11:43:58 AM
Keggs1961 said
02:44 PM Jun 10, 2024
Cheers and thanks for the info.
Bow said
03:24 PM Jun 10, 2024
Air suspension
KJB said
03:46 PM Jun 10, 2024
Bow wrote:
Air suspension
Air Bag system incl. decent Shock Absorbers ..... Yes - beautiful, soft, compliant, controlled suspension travel..... no bouncing, harsh jarring etc.. looks after the van and everything in it. (no bouncing curtains... !)
Most people would be horrified if they went for a ride - inside a caravan - down an undulating sealed road or an average country gravel road and experienced the wild/harsh ride that a caravan is subjected to with many of the basic suspensions.
-- Edited by KJB on Monday 10th of June 2024 03:59:19 PM
Whenarewethere said
11:47 PM Jun 10, 2024
Don't forget to let all tyres down accordingly for second, third & fourth rate "roads".
It will save a lot of wear & tear on both "software" (people) & hardware (vehicle & trailer).
We have 3 compressors in parallel to avoid fluffing around airing up. 28 seconds a tyre 20psi to 35psi.
Amazing how reducing tyre pressure to suit road conditions saves long term expense, & simply makes said road quite bearable for "software" & "hardware"!
woolman said
08:21 AM Jun 11, 2024
My experience with decades of trailers and later years caravavns, I would only choose tandem rocker roller springs. This set up is load sharing, always same weight on each axle making for much more stable and smoother ride. The independent tandem suspension does not have even weight even spread.
Neil
Greg 1 said
06:52 PM Jun 11, 2024
X2 for tandem axle roller rocker leaf springs.
Many miles travelled across all types of roads with this sort of set up with 100% reliability.
The most you can do in really is a broken spring which is usually readily available in remote areas unlike bespoke suspension systems. Seen a number of independent system arms broken often due to poor design.
The old KISS principle. Keep It Simple Stupid.
Can't get more simple than the roller rocker system and it is load sharing which independent systems generally are not.
kgarnett said
09:38 AM Jun 12, 2024
My (old) Kedron has tandem independent load sharing leaf spring suspension with dampers. - A bit of everything !
-- Edited by kgarnett on Wednesday 12th of June 2024 09:44:18 AM
I too believe tandem rocker springs best for Australian conditions. They are certainly less prone to alignment problems experienced by many independent suspensions.
Welcome Stephen,
Salespeople best stick with sales. Go to your local caravan Service Centre and ask them.
Safe travels when you get all set up.
In my view, there is no value in independent suspension on a trailer.
Traditional leaf springs provide some damping that the shockers must perform with independent coils, so they need to do lots of work.
My suggestion for the ideal suspension on a caravan would be single axle with longer than usual leaf springs plus dampers. OEM springs are almost always too short.
My son has just modified his Jaco Expanda by fitting OME after market springs designed for the rear of a Toyota 79 series plus 17" wheels and tyres. It transformed the van.
Cheers,
Peter
-- Edited by Peter_n_Margaret on Monday 10th of June 2024 11:43:58 AM
Air suspension
Air Bag system incl. decent Shock Absorbers ..... Yes - beautiful, soft, compliant, controlled suspension travel..... no bouncing, harsh jarring etc.. looks after the van and everything in it. (no bouncing curtains... !)
Most people would be horrified if they went for a ride - inside a caravan - down an undulating sealed road or an average country gravel road and experienced the wild/harsh ride that a caravan is subjected to with many of the basic suspensions.
-- Edited by KJB on Monday 10th of June 2024 03:59:19 PM
Don't forget to let all tyres down accordingly for second, third & fourth rate "roads".
It will save a lot of wear & tear on both "software" (people) & hardware (vehicle & trailer).
We have 3 compressors in parallel to avoid fluffing around airing up. 28 seconds a tyre 20psi to 35psi.
Amazing how reducing tyre pressure to suit road conditions saves long term expense, & simply makes said road quite bearable for "software" & "hardware"!
My experience with decades of trailers and later years caravavns, I would only choose tandem rocker roller springs. This set up is load sharing, always same weight on each axle making for much more stable and smoother ride. The independent tandem suspension does not have even weight even spread.
Neil
My (old) Kedron has tandem independent load sharing leaf spring suspension with dampers. - A bit of everything !
-- Edited by kgarnett on Wednesday 12th of June 2024 09:44:18 AM