Fleetco Air Suspension Saga

[Rick T]

I've posted earlier under the "trailhorserider" id and thought I would spend a few minutes closing out the Fleetco Air Suspension story.

Had this system installed last July. The hardware is reasonably stout and a normal installation (once a dealer has done a few) should not take more than a day. There is quite a bit of plumbing and I experienced an initial leak with the dump valve (possibly debris), but the system continued to bleed down overnight even after the initial leak was addressed.

To complicate matters Fleetco went out of business about 1 day after the dealer performed the install. I had a local place troubleshoot for leaks and they determined that at least one of the air bags had a leak. For the Chevy installation Fleetco had switch from Firestone to Phoenix AG (German co.) air bags. Of course I have no warrantee and of course the air bags are not really available in the US. I bought replacement Firestones at my installing dealer's cost and he installed same gratis.

The system now works quite well, I can unhitch bumper pull and GN trailers with almost no cranking and the empty ride is greatly improved. The truck stance is unchanged regardless of load and i've lost no load carrying capacity. I'll have to deal with component replacement (mainly the compressor) as these things arise.

I'd be glad to answer any questions via e-mail.

Rick T

[TxDoc]

"The system now works quite well"

I am glad that is the final result. Even though you have had "problems", it sounds like you have solved them. Post some pics if you can.

[chevmeister]

who owns the design now?
and id love to see some pics.
My email is My member name @hotmail.com
anything like this?
http://www.stengelbros.com/ReycoGranning.htm

[ 02-26-2003: Message edited by: chevmeister ]</p>

[Rick T]

Fleetco literally disappeared overnight; no phone, fax or web site. My first thought was that someone would take over the design, if not the warantee, and I would be in good shape as far as spares. No such luck. I'll try to take a few pictures this weekend. Don't know how they will come out without the truck being on a lift.

BTW, I had hoped that the truck would level out completely. The air suspension came very close to doing just this, but in the end the axle to frame clearance in conjunction with the length of the air bags causes the Dee Zee running boards to have about a 1" rake front to rear. Once I've let down the jack on my gooseneck horse trailer I only need to dump a bit or air before driving out from under the trailer. Definitely speeds up hitching/unhitching even with an electric jack.

I don't know how the ride in the trailer compares to a setup using one of the air ride hitches, but in my case I need all of the truck bed for bales of hay and such: the air hitches appear to be fairly large. With air suspension becoming the standard for larger trucks I sure would like to see the big three offer this as an option in their HD trucks oriented toward towing large RVs.

Rick T

[SoMnDMAX]

What about Kelderman? May be another option for those who are interested in adding an air ride setup.

www.kelderman.com

[Rick T]

At the time I looked for an air suspension Kelderman did not support the rated GVW. This may have changed. My trailer pin weight (empty) is &gt;3100 pounds and I could not afford to give up any suspension capacity.

Rick T

[Nevada Hauler]

Rick, You said that you felt the ride had improved with the Fleetco air supsension and I was wondering how it rode on sections of concrete
freeway that were bad with the stock springs. I
also am curious if you changed shocks as was
suggested by Fleetco and if so, what shocks did you go with? I was in the process of getting the exhaust modified to install the Fleetco last July and was shocked and suprised to learn of their departure. I hope somebody comes out with something as good as the Fleetco promised to be. Thanks in advance for your feedback.

[mdadgar]

I recently installed a Kelderman air suspension on my truck. One of these days I'll write it up, as it was quite an interesting saga.

Great product, though, and absolutely incredible support from Kelderman.

- Mark