Heavy Duty Trucking, September 2019
HDT SEPTEMBER 2019 46 WWW TRUCKINGINFO COM hen was the last time you heard a driver say something positive about a trailer suspension Most drivers are barely aware that their trailers even have suspensions but a design innovation from Hendrickson has actually prompted drivers to call the company asking what type of suspension they were pulling They wanted to urge their bosses to spec the same suspension on future trailer orders That innovation called Zero Maintenance Damping began life about 10 years ago and was originally conceived as a maintenancesaving idea It first appeared on the Ultraa K suspensions in 2014 on which its now standard Its also available currently on select Vantraax and Intraax systems There are about 150000 Ultraa K suspensions in service now and nearly a million ZMD air springs out there says Scott Fulton director of product development at Hendrickson Trailer Commercial Vehicle Systems We really expected it to be just an improvement to the lifecycle cost of an air suspension but the volumes of positive feedback we have received suggest its much more than that Fulton says they didnt understand at first what was going on so they took a few trailers instrumented them up and began studying A trailer suspension that drivers love Hendricksons Zero Maintenance Damping system looks much like any other air suspension except it has no shock absorbers A down stop to prevent over extension now occupies that space Hendricksons Zero Maintenance Damping system was designed to save fleets a few hundred dollars in trailer lifecycle costs Its also proving to be a great driver recruiting and retention tool what was going on We soon found that the ZMD suspension system reduced certain forces that are transmitted to the trailer and that it did improve the ride in ways we could document and understand All about damping The design intent with what became the ZMD was to reduce the total life cycle cost of air suspensions They looked at various components and their life expectancy and decided the shock absorbers had to go But shock absorbers provide the necessary damping in an air ride suspension All suspensions require some form of By Jim Park Equipment Editor jpark@ truckinginfo com TEST DRIVE W PHOTO JIM PARK
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