Southworth's air drive
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• Vehicle converter Southworth Chassis Engineering has launched a range of drive-axle air suspension, designed to suit rigid and articulated trucks.
The Southworth air suspension comprises a trailer arm and bellows located through a front mounting bracket specially designed for each vehicle. The front mounting bracket design does away with the need for a transverse connecting rod, although, to increase torsional stiffness on the chassis, Southworth normally adds their own chassis cross-members.
Applications covered so far range from a 6.5-tonne capacity axle to a full 10.5-tonne artic-unit drive axle. Operators can specify the air suspensioin conversion with a raise/lower option, and if a third axle is fitted at the same time there is a price concession.
Southworth claims that its air suspension conversion is proving particularly popular for demount operations. Conversion time is around three days, and the cost of a standard air suspension conversion on a Iveco Ford Cargo 1315 rigid is approximately 22,500.
The Southworth conversion uses a variety of proprietary components on its air suspension conversion. It has just completed an order for 12 lyeco Ford Cargos for JET dealer Harper Golden Trucks.