Improving the Ride - Suspension

[Kylebetaclark]

I have air-ride on the back of my 2003 International full size bus, but am looking for ways to improve the ride up front, significantly...

Has anyone had luck with struts, weight or anything else to make the ride less "bouncy" (yes I have hair on my chest fellas, this is for my wife, my co-pilot...).

I've found plenty of places selling replacement stuff, but nothing that even claims to improve the ride.
School Bus Suspension Parts

Any help would be much appreciated!


-Kyle

[daddyoften]

Anything is possible but if it's feasible that's another story. You could change out the springs to air bags but that would be quite an undertaking. A better and easier thing would be to install two nice comfortable air ride seats.
Eric

[opus]

If you have a front engine bus, there isnt much you can do. Lower air pressure in tires maybe. Low air pressure in bags?

[turf]

thanks for that link.

my bus rides hard and i approached a spring specialist about softening the ride.

their response was that they wouldn't help. softening the springs involved removing a leaf, and then the suspension would no longer function to the weight stresses as intended.

so i'm looking at replacing motor mounts (that were in your link) to see if that will help the rattle.

good luck!

[Tango]

Does your rig have shocks on the rear (not all do)? If not, they help a lot.
Buses were engineered to provide a reasonable ride at max GVAW. Very few conversions ever come near the added weight of 60-70 passengers so the ride is indeed ...harsh. You can try removing a few leafs on the rear springs or get a lighter load set to match your finished weight. Coupled with good shocks, they can be made to ride MUCH better.

Personally, I have never liked the squishy ride air bags seem to provide.

[gbstewart]

check your tire pressures, have your bus weighed , and find the load range chart for your size and brand of tires, if you have to much air your ride will be harsh and bounce. I did mine and found out I could lower my pressures by 20lbs, made a big difference in ride, it mite put a bit more wear on the tires, but who cares, they will timex with age before mileage.
gbstewart

[Dragonpop]

Another option is to remove the one leaf from the front springs and
add in a small air bag to make up the difference for weight carrying
capacity. This would also allow a bit of adjustment to the suspension
height and weight capabilities.

[turf]

here is a previous thread on the topic....

http://www.skoolie.net/forums/f13/be...ide-11217.html

[2kool4skool]

Ours was porpoise - ing boingy boingy..


new front shocks helped a lot.

[Docsgsxr]

Why not try to just find another air ride seat out of a wrecked semi? If that doesn't work, I know a BUNCH of people in here use conversion van captain's chairs on their bus's.