Tuesday, Jul 02, 2013 at 10:15
That would depend on the engineering and workmanship behind either system.
Unfortunately most beam axle and leaf spring systems on light trailers ( trailers under 4.5 tonnes) are less than
well set up.
The springs are mostly too short, cheap, off the shelf items and the spring rates are too stiff and the progression of that rate mostly does not enter the builders mind....As for things like shock absorbers and any other
suspension refinements they are mostly an afterthaught.
one big advantage most multiaxle leaf spring systems have is they are a load sharing
suspension with walking links between
the springs.
This means that each axle and each wheel continues to carry an equal share of the load.
As each wheel rides over a bump or obsticle, the links walk and each wheel continues to carry a more or less equal share of the load.
This has several implications.
Many multi axle independent systems are not load sharing.
There are some very nice independent
suspension systems available for light trailers, but there are also some that are ...
well....
As soon as you step away from single axle independent systems I believe the advantages of independent syspension deminish......certainly a better design is needed to have a good advantage.
One question to ask about any independent trailer
suspension is......who designed and built it.
There are trailer builders knocking up independent
suspension systems of their own in the back shed or even worse having them made in China.
On the other hand there are some major independent suppliers that make some very nice independent trailer suspensions.
Another question to ask about an independent
suspension is....are spare parts easily available.
I now a bloke who baught a very nice high end camper trailer with independent
suspension......unfortunately they hit a large pot hole at speed and ripped one side out from under the trailer.
The problem was ( among other drama) the trailer manufacturer while still in business had changed the
suspension system they where using and the manufacturer of who made the original was not in business any more.
This made things very complicated with the insurance.
If it was a supplier with good spares support they would have been able to get a trailing link assembly shipped to
Birdsville....have it fitted and tow the thing
home.
On the matter of load sharing and independent
suspension, As far as I can see the only way to have load sharing
suspension AND independent
suspension is to run an airbag system as a great many heavy vehicles and trailers run these days.
Now ground clearance
There is no way around it, more ground clearance means a higher centre of gravity and a higher roll centre.
In addition off road suspensions require more articulation, that means more height required to accomodate it.
Running off road will also require significantly larger wheels, again more height, higher centre of gravity and higher roll centre.
If the trailer is to be used only on road, the certain way of improveing trailer behaviour all round is to keep the wheel size as small as possible to support the load and keep the deck of the trailer as low as possible.
The smoother the road, the smaller the wheels can be and the lower the deck height can be
SO..do you realy want to off road this thing.
Beam axles and clearance.
If you are going off road, you probably want wheels the same size as the tow vehicle.....that will almost certainly be a beam axle vehicle.
The trailer has thinner axles and no diff, so where is the axle clearance problem.
Finally
While there are some very nice independent
suspension systems, it occurs to me that a great many of the independent systems are designed more for profit making than actual efectivness.
Bet ya the independent
suspension is considerably more expensive than the leaf sprung option.
AND is it the salesman that is talking to you about roll centre.
As you can see, there are a great many issues more important than roll centre on a trailer.
cheers
FollowupID:
793012