air ride question

[clslandscape]

just a thought....

i have a non-air ride cab with non-air ride sleeper. sleeper is mounted via rubber seal. when driving the sleeper flexes, moves independently of the cab. My idea, I havent found many posts about this, is has anyone had experience with ADDING air bags to a sleeper to give it an air ride suspension?

[geofkaye]

...what kinda truck...some you can and some ya can't...goefkaye

[clslandscape]

the truck is a FL-70 with 6' sleeper attached via accordion boot. the truck has air-ride sus. and seats, but the cab and sleeper are attached via rubber mounts. My idea is to change the rubber mounts to airbags so that the ride in the sleeper is sfter and less damaging to the rooftop air, tv, family, etc. I know this will allow the sleeper to move more, but with the accordion boot, I figure that would be alright.

[geofkaye]

.....problem is is that the sleeper must be tied to the frame in the front and supported by bags in back....ya can't just sit it on 4 bags and let it float-won't work.....maybe you want to consider having it slide up and down on posts with bags as springs....I'd have to fool around with the idea some....just pooped into the brain. Might be a problem with side to side movements.......might be easier to get another truck also now that the prices have flat lined....geofkaye

[clslandscape]

yes, this makes sense.......in a way im sorry i asked...it wasn't exactly the answer I was looking for. For some reason, I thought I had finally come up with a simple way out...after many hours of design and thought of how to do it, I thought I had come around to a simple basic method. If i were to just put 2 on the back mounts and leave the front two rubber bushings, would I accomplish anything? Also, I have just completed a renovation on the sleeper. I stripped out the vinyl padded walls, installed rv paneling, hardwood floors, jack-knife sofa, etc. Now that I learned how, I want to build another one. But first I want to re-do the one i just did (different color scheme....i know just like a woman) anyway, I got all my stuff from rv surplus and salvage in Elkhart...a long drive. But I would like to find a light gray color wallboard.one without the color flexs in it. any idea where i could pick this up? also, any fixes on the curvature of the sleeper? it is a double bunk, but not a flat one, so where the roof curves down and in towards the front, it is impossible to make the wallboard co-operate. the seam or edge is hideous. I covered it up with matching tape but it looks bad. any idea what im talking about?

[geofkaye]

....USE an 1/8" pad of foam and cover it with cloth of your choosing....I'd suggest using 3/16" hardboard or maybe even a backer board[cheap blond hardboard] available at a upholstery shop for $15 for a 4X8' sheet...I paint it with a varnish first[waterproofing for cleaning with an extractor] and glue the foam to it-wrapping the corners over about 2'' on the back....then stretch the cloth over the foam covered board.....glue the back side edge.....fasten it in place with covered screws and snap on caps to cover the screw heads....wood paneling in a tractor will squeak after time so use a piece of hard foam as a stand off to keep the pressure off the edges and where the board is attached to the frame.....use cardboard to make a template first so you won't have to do the job twice.....geofkaye

[jeffp1167]

I've seen old Mack cabovers that had 4 air bag cabs but used like dogbones to control side to side and front to back movement.