Liquid Springs

Has anybody ordered Liquid Springs on a Phoenix Cruiser.  Lots of great reviews, but a considerable chunk of change.

From what I have read, those who installed this upgrade were impressed with the suspension improvements.  Particularly in being able to select the suspension characteristics due to road condition or driving style.   But the price -- ouch.  To justify such cost one would have to spend considerable time in their RV and/or have an unusually large pile of cash.  However, the upgrade might be almost affordable were such included during the production of the unit.

Hope you will post your experience.  That is, if you decide on this mod.

Although we have not experienced liquid springs, there was a very good article in the July 2017 Motorhome magazine about them.  In the article, they retrofitted a class A on a Ford F-53 chassis with them.  It allowed them to compare how the motorhome performed before and after their installation.  One of the problems apparent to that size of motorhome on that chassis is that it tends to oscillate/rock back and forth several times whenever it experienced an uneven road surface or a quick turn and with the liquid springs, it didn't.  The reviewers said that they were definitely worth installing.  One feature that could be handy to have is that liquid springs allow the driver to raise the chassis 4" if desired which could help when pulling into steep driveways.

We did not order liquid springs on our 3100 which is being built at this time, because we are planning on installing supplemental air bags instead because of the entrance to our driveway which is quite steep.  We can do that for under $800 (I am installing them myself) and feel that they will do what we need.  Hopefully, if you can find the article, it may answer questions you have on the liquid springs.

Gary

Free2,which system are you installing?  A bit over a year ago I rode in a freightliner flat bed tow truck (blown tire on my motorcycle) and that truck which was a diesel was so incredibly quiet I was amazed. It also had an air suspension that  rode every bit as smooth as my ford Sedan.  It was one year old with right around 100,000 miles. I was impressed to say the least.

We are going to go with either Air Lift or Firestone for the air bags.  If we go with Air Lift, we would go with their 57242 part number, which sells for around $280 from SD Truck Springs.  For the compressor set up, we are probably going to go with the Air Lift #72000 which is wireless and sells for $380 from SD Truck, and allows for setting the pressures on each side independently.  It also allows for two preset pressures so you can just push the button on the remote and the compressor automatically inflates or deflates the bags to the preset pressure.  I thought that having one of the presets for the maximum or near the maximum amount of air pressure (100#) would allow for a quick change in ride height if needed to pull into a driveway that might otherwise cause the rear hitch to bottom out.  The other preset would be whatever pressure we find gives a comfortable ride on the road.

We used to pull our fifth wheel with a Freightliner business class tractor which had air suspension and we really liked the ride we got from the air suspension.  It was also nice for hooking up and unhooking because you could just dump the air in the suspension and it dropped the bed of the truck close to 6".  Our current motorhome, a 38' Holiday Rambler has air bag suspension front and rear and it gives a very smooth and quiet ride.  Going to spring suspension will be a little bit of an adjustment for us.

Gary

Thanks everyone for the replies.  We will be going from a diesel pusher so want the ride to be somewhat smooth on a PC.  My pusher is my third motorhome, with the first two being gassers.  There is a guy on a Tiffin Facebook page who had Liquid Springs installed on his class "A" gasser.  He is very pleased.  In fact, he wrote a three part BLOG about them.  We will be touring in the PC factory in mid to late April.  Really looking forward to seeing one of these "thangs" instead of pictures.

Well which ever way you go be it liquid or air don’t get sold a bill of goods on Koni shocks being all that. Stay the course on liquid or air.  I (although I know better) was sold a bill of goods on how great the Koni shocks are. Well they were great at making me waste money. I was stupido stupido stupido. If a person is going to stay with standard suspension then save your money and go with  Bilstein. What a waste of money the Koni shocks were.

Well which ever way you go be it liquid or air don’t get sold a bill of goods on Koni shocks being all that. Stay the course on liquid or air.  I (although I know better) was sold a bill of goods on how great the Koni shocks are. Well they were great at making me waste money. I was stupido stupido stupido. If a person is going to stay with standard suspension then save your money and go with  Bilstein. What a waste of money the Koni shocks were.

I was gonna pull the trigger on Koni's several years ago on my pusher.  I was on a Yahoo group and everyone was praising them.  Another guy said there was no need to spend that much on Koni's.  He went on to say that Bilstein had a premium shock that was considerable cheaper than Koni's.  I bought some and had them installed and was very happy.  Sorry to hear of your misfortune.

Townes, no-misfortune really. The Koni’s are fine, just not superior to Bilsteins in my opinion.  I just wouldn’t recommend spending the considerable extra amount of money for Koni.

Use it on gasoline instead

Free2RV, with your previous air experience, could you tell me in what circumstances you would need to be able to adjust each side individually?
Doug

Agree.  Bilsteins are excellent, especially for their less-than-outrageous price.

Biglegmax,

With our Freightliner and our Holiday Rambler, there was/is no side to side option for "leveling" the units.  You only have the option of full air or a complete dump of the air from the air bags.  With the Air Lift wireless compressor that we are going to install, the operator has the ability to adjust the pressure with the remote to each side individually if desired.  At this time, I don't plan on using that feature on a regular basis, but wanted to point out that that option was available if a person chose to use it.  Some compressor systems don't allow for individual bag inflation so both bags share the same total air pressure.  If you were to drive on a road with a significant crown to it, the pressure of the lean on the low side could cause that bag's pressure to drop, and thereby causing the lean to be even worse.  With the individual pressuring of each bag, air can't be pushed out of one and into the other side's bag.  A person could if desired when driving on a road with a significant crown, increase the pressure on the low side some to help offset the lean slightly.  Hope this answers your question.
Gary

Thanks for that Gary. I have encountered campers that have actually used their air bags to help Level at a camping spot.
Does that particular compressor have an external fitting for being able to air up tires?
Doug

Doug,
That unit doesn't come with a fitting for airing up tires.  It would seem that a person could put a T in one of the lines and run that to a fitting for doing that. 
Gary