Do you notice your vehicle bottoming out, for example when going over a speed bump? Heavy loads can cause your vehicle to run out of suspension spring travel. This can cause the bump stop – also known as spring travel limiter – to hit the chassis. This is not only bad for the driving characteristics of your vehicle, it is also harmful to your chassis.
It is possible to create more spring travel with most VB-Airsuspension products, including, for example, our coil springs (VB-CoilSpring) and our semi air suspension (VB-SemiAir).
If you always drive a heavily laden vehicle, VB-CoilSpring is a good solution. The coil spring reinforces the original suspension. As a result, you will have more spring travel and the driving characteristics of your vehicle will be improved. To find out more about VB-CoilSpring, take a look at the product leaflethere.
Do you occasionally drive with a heavily laden vehicle? Then VB-SemiAir is a good solution. The semi air suspension reinforces the original suspension, which means that you will have more spring travel again. When driving without heavy loads, change the pressure in the air spring. The semi air suspension improves the driving characteristics of your vehicle. To find out more about VB-SemiAir, take a look at the product leaflethere.
Want to know more about VB-Airsuspension products? CLICK HERE or get in touch with us by visiting our CONTACT US page.
Stef and I have been rolling with VB Air Suspension in our RV for over a month now, and there’s no going back. We’re hooked!
We made a before-and-after video right when we got it installed, and we both thought it improved the ride quality for us. But that was a pretty subjective test. Since I’m me, I had to go a little further with it. I wanted actual data to prove that things really were smoother. The result is this video:
To do this right, I needed three things:
A control rig and our rig, together on the same day
A bumpy road
A way to quantify ride quality
The first one was pretty easy. Right after we left Advanced RV, who had installed the VB Air Suspension on our ProMaster, we headed to Winnebago’s Grand National Rally. While we were parked there in a row of 40 or so nearly identical rigs, I realized I had found my control rig! I searched around the row until I found a similar Travato with stock suspension. Our RV is pretty unique, but the Soloway’s RV was as close as practical. They were nice enough to let us use their rig for our video.
Finding a bumpy road was also pretty easy. Stef and I led bike rides all throughout the rally. I just paid close attention and found a straight section of road with plenty of expansion joints, cracks, potholes, dips, and bumps. It didn’t take long to find our test track, just outside the rally grounds.
Finding a way to quantify ride quality took a little more thinking, but ultimately the answer was in my pocket. Modern smartphones have accelerometers in them. These are what lets the phone know if you tip it, shake it, whatever. So I found an app that tapped into the phone’s accelerometer data, and displayed that in a graph. In practice, it looks like a seismograph. The app I used is called “Vibration”, for the iPhone. The important thing here was that it let me export the data so I could look at it afterward.
Once I had those things in place, you can guess how the experiment worked. We drove each van, loaded with the same passengers (and same driver) over the same bumpy road at the same speed and recorded the data. We also had the Soloways give us their impressions of the ride quality. Since they hadn’t spent the money on an air suspension system, we figured their opinions were bound to be less biased than our own! And when we got back home, I took a long look at the data and produced the analysis you see in the video.
So now that you have the data, ask yourself, which van would you rather be riding in? I did ask myself that question! Not only do I ride in the van, but I have to work on a laptop on the dinette while Swervy McWhiplash (aka Stef) is driving. The end result of all this is that I’m convinced that the VB Air Suspension did indeed smooth out the ride. Stef and I felt it. Ms. Soloway certainly felt it. And now, I’ve got data that shows it.
I’m considering this case closed, and a verdict in favour of the VB Air Suspension.
VB Air Suspension, an official Van Partner of Mercedes-Benz has developed a new air suspension system for the Vito and V Class. The newly developed VB-FullAir 2C system delivers a constant ride height, increased comfort, optimum driveability, increased stability, reduced wear of tyres/brakes and lower CO2 emissions. The system also provides the option to lower the rear end of the vehicle: the so-called “kneeling function”.
Following on from the introduction of the VB-FullAir 2C, VB Air Suspension has also initiated the development of a VB-FullAir 4C system (air suspension on the front and rear axle) for the Mercedes-Benz Vito/V Class. The first prototype has already been installed on a Mercedes-Benz Vito/V Class 4×4.
Commenting on these exciting developments, Ryan Walker, Managing Director of Rosmia, the southeast’s accredited VB-Airsuspension service centre and dealership said:
“VB-Airsuspension complies with all relevant legislation including the requirements of VOSA and the VCA. It is an approved, tried and tested product that has been used by Mercedes-Benz for many years. We are looking forward to working with Mercedes-Benz dealerships in the Southeast and demonstrating our engineering and technical capability not to mention our passion for delivering exemplary customer service; something that Mercedes-Benz is renowned for.”
