Al-ko air suspension!!!!!

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Deleted member 3181

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Why is it so expensive for air suspension kit for an al-ko chassis!
Leaf sprung, £250
Al-ko, £1,875
Anyone got a second hand one.
Rant over
 
Presumably you do know the technical reasons and are just bemoaning the fact that you have the benefit of a lower floor and a much better suspension system.
 
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If that is a Compass Castaway in your avatar then i have the same model.

I had air suspension fitted in 2012 and it totally transformed the driving experience and was worth every penny of the £1600 is cost fitted.

It is not a quick job because all the rear wheels, brakes, hubs etc. have to be removed before they can start fitting.

I had mine fitted at AS Air Suspension at Warrington, it took them most of the day and is probably the best investment i`ve done.
 
Hi. I struck lucky as I had my airbags new £195 of eBay,, £100 fitting. So my autotrail must be non alko. Curiosity. How does one know if it is alko or not. I know my old kontiki was alko. The book said so. But this autotrail does not say. Cheers brian/Jenny
 
Carrotts said:
Hi. I struck lucky as I had my airbags new £195 of eBay,, £100 fitting. So my autotrail must be non alko. Curiosity. How does one know if it is alko or not. I know my old kontiki was alko. The book said so. But this autotrail does not say. Cheers brian/Jenny
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By looking underneath,.

If it`s an ALKO chassis you`ll see where the original chassis was cut off and the ALKO one bolted on just behind the cab doors.
 
Also the suspension is very different, a normal suspension has leaf springs and the airbags fit on them, the al-ko chassis has no springs, just a big bar going from one wheel to the other through the chassis.
 
The " big bar " you mention is just the central tube which the torsion bars sit inside independent of each other and they are the suspension.

The majority of them have grease nipples and have to be greased yearly with the wheels lifted off the ground so the grease gets right inside

ALKO air suspension is virtually identical to the suspension you see on wagon trailers on the rear axles.
 
Torsion bars sometime breaking on older vans , even when well maintained ,their has been threads posted on the issue.
 
I'm considering getting air assist suspension to increase the capacity of my rear axle.
I guess there air 3 main contenders - GlideRite, SAP and AS.
I've ruled out Marcie as they are very reluctant.
Are they all much of a muchness or does any one stand out in terms of quality, performance, longevity or warranty?
 
Markd said:
I'm considering getting air assist suspension to increase the capacity of my rear axle.
I guess there air 3 main contenders - GlideRite, SAP and AS.
I've ruled out Marcie as they are very reluctant.
Are they all much of a muchness or does any one stand out in terms of quality, performance, longevity or warranty?
Click to expand...
We used glide rite and they did a great job on our Bailey fitting air on the rear.
 
Thanks for your comments.
The original plate on my Ducato maxi with 16" wheels is 3850 kg with the axle total being 3970kg. I've had this capacity realised already - desperately needed because with an empty front axle of 1600 kg the combined weight of the two if us and our retriever take this up to 1850 meaning that there was no payload available for the rear axle!
I've already put tyres with 118 load rating = 1320kg each on the rear axle.
I've been told that air assist will take the rear axle to 2250kg and with the front at 1850kg I'll have 4.1T gross.
The brakes on a Ducato are good for 3850kg van plus 750kg unbraked so trading trailed load for integral gives the up rate.
Yes the kit weighs c30kg but nearly 200kg net is a decent improvement.
As it happens my van rides pretty well - roll is well controlled because the Alko chassis sets the roll point much wider than the cart springs on standard chassis'.
Ride height is fine also - amazingly the chassis is parallel to the ground and it looks level. But I'd like to be legal.
 
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