Spring ride for general freight?

When I was hauling new trailers, of all kinds, the overwhelming majority of them were air ride.
Vans were the highest percentage, probably 80%+
But even stuff like tankers, which will not make any difference to the freight, or flatbeds were mostly air ride.

Air ride costs a premium, to buy and maintain, although I don't know how much compared to a spring ride trailer.
But there has to a sound engineering reason for it. I am not an engineer, but IMHO it has to do with the total amount of shock/vibration transmitted not only to the trailer but through the pin to the tractor. I knew in 1 mile when I had a spring ride trailer behind me because of the difference in ride. At least empty or lightly loaded. Fully loaded, made almost no difference.

Management personnel who spec trailers are the cheapest SOB's in the business. To this day only about 40% of dry vans have skirts because the bean counters have determined they cost more to maintain than they save in fuel. But the same group of people will pay the air ride premium.

 

Schneider runs a lot of spring suspension trailers. So it must really not matter that much.

 

My Trailers the same way. I added 4 cross beams between the sagging ones. 3 up front, and 1 near the back. It worked. Might be a short term fix. They cost about $60, Stoughton brand. They have universal ones that need the brackets to be welded. I got ones with brackets already in place. Used a 1/4” shim on each side. Depending on how they match up in length. Only had to drill the aluminum side rails. Use aluminum stock for shims. Easy drilling. Trailer shop even sold proper drill bits. Real good quality at cheap price. Pace Trailer Supply in Michigan.

 

And the last company to give up Cab Over tractors in quantity.
You know where their head is at.

 

If your luck is anything like mine. The very first load you book with the trailer they will all of a sudden care about it being spring ride... Lol

 

Had it happen one time about 10+ years ago where they asked and it had to be air ride. The broker was Averitt Express. It was robot machines from a machine shop that built them that had some electronics on them for the production line in an oem auto parts place. Light weight and spring ride trailer would have bounced around too much damaging delicate electronics. The shipper actually came out and checked the trailer. For spot world 99.9% spring ride is good for everything. No air bags to fail and no air leaks that's why megas love em, very low maintenance costs. Springs will last forever unless you're constantly overloading.

 

the last employer i worked at when i retired, all trailers were air ride, as well as air ride rear suspension tractors.

we hauled electronics, and electronic components for a supply warehouse...

other jobs i had, companies had a mix of suspensions.

i really liked the air ride trailers, pull the red knob, and the trailer bags deflated and the trailer lowered and parked itself on the subframe, making for no "bouncy-bouncy", when the fork lift drivers entered or exited.

 

Air ride is better for the freight and better for the driver. You should be able to find a nice one for a good price these days.