FRANKFURT SHOW
Page 58
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
continued from page 55
wanted to reduce costs and simplify maintenance.
Wheelbase, overhang, seating layout, window sizes, door opening positions, interior heights and windscreen type are specified; so are external access flaps to electrical components, air-braking equipment and the engine—among others.
Several people I spoke to doubted whether a finalized standard design would emerge. MAN, which would want to share this market, has not produced a prototype because it considers that VOV will make many changes. And the German market is not considered large enough to allow economic production of a vehicle that would not sell overseas.
Air suspension popular There seems no reason why air suspension should have regained its appeal after a gap of five or so years. But it has and about half the trailer exhibits are so equipped. BPW displays many new air-suspension designs and this make and SAP (Otto SaurAchsenfabrik) air-suspension designs are very popular with trailer makers.
SAF is licensed to make the American Neway which can have extensions to the trailing links with small air bags acting on them to raise one axle when required. And a new BPW design does the same thing with one air-spring acting on a lever system to the axle. Another BPW leaf-spring design gives automatic lifting of one axle of a tandem layout. This has damper /hydraulic ram units designed specially by the maker. They act as dampers under normal conditions but hydraulic pressure underneath the pistons is adjusted according to the load applied.
Frankfurt exhibitors are keenly interested in demountable body systems and a number of these use an aspect of air suspension for their operation. A good example is a Stradair on the Berliet stand. This model has as standard combined air and leaf-spring suspension and the example shown has an Ackermann-type body and support legs; and by over-pressurizing the air bags, the legs can be dropped to the ground, then pressure reduced and the vehicle driven away.
Another example on the Kassbohrer open-air stand is a Magirus-Deutz fourwheeler converted to rear air suspension and with a hydraulic ram and cable system connected to the front axle which can be used to compress the springs. Here the legs are first let down and then the front springs compressed and the air suspension exhausted to allow the vehicle to drive away and leave the body on its legs.
Various other types are to be seen including some with simple roller and inclined track systems and Ackermann also has a big display in the demonstration area.