Air leaf to Air trac

[SoCal79]

This may sound odd but bear with me. I bought a 99 Pete 378 dump truck that is basically speced for the road. I have a great deal of dump truck exp. and know that Hendrickson is the best for them but I am stuck with low air leaf and it stinks in the dirt. I found a guy parting out an 03 with air trac and 3.90 locking differentials. My question is how different are the frame mounting points and brackets between air trac & low air leaf? I get stuck quite easily due to the small amount of suspension travel on the air leaf, lots of guys run air trac with good results and I figure the lockers are good insurance. Help me out is it a bolt up deal or will I be drilling the frame?

[Kranky]

If you're gonna change the suspension, just switch it over to a Hendrickson spring ride and put an end to your air ride misery.

.

[Part Time Dweller]

Don't listen to Kranky, he's an old school Cheesehead, if it ain't Mack, it ain't ****! Grandaddy and Daddy didn't do it that way, so it can't be good..

We have two Pete's, one one dump and one tractor with Air Trac and full locking diff's. Our T800 4 axle lowboy is on air with full lock rears. They do just fine off road. As a matter of fact, the majority of dumps around here run air ride.
The key is the locking diff's, which I suspect Kranky never had, so he is basing his opinion on old technology. Why anyone would want to beat their ass to death on Hendrickson is beyond me. That crap went out 10 years ago.

[Kranky]

Now PTD, you know we have air ride on our IH tractors where I work and for that it works fine as we do have the full locking rears.

The dump trucks are all on Hendrickson or Chalmers spring or rubber cushion suspensions, and we have full locking rears on those too.

Funny thing is, those Paystar tractors pulling air ride lowboys ride just as rough as the dump trucks on springs. On a rough road they'll launch your head into the ceiling.

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[SoCal79]

I swear by Hendrickson on a dump but in this situation the change would be too costly. I need to know how much work would be involved in swapping Low air leaf to air trac. Mainly thinking about the frame brackets and air bag mounting as this guy has a complete cut off so I will use those axles. Just thinking it would be fairly easy to swap on the idea that Pete used the same frame hole mounting pattern for the different air ride suspensions.

[Part Time Dweller]

Now PTD, you know we have air ride on our IH tractors where I work and for that it works fine as we do have the full locking rears.

The dump trucks are all on Hendrickson or Chalmers spring or rubber cushion suspensions, and we have full locking rears on those too.

Funny thing is, those Paystar tractors pulling air ride lowboys ride just as rough as the dump trucks on springs. On a rough road they'll launch your head into the ceiling.

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Just razzin you Kranky.

Have you checked the ride height on the Paystar air ride? I know on the Pete's if it is too high they ride rough. BTW, what air ride does IH use anyways?

[Part Time Dweller]

I swear by Hendrickson on a dump but in this situation the change would be too costly. I need to know how much work would be involved in swapping Low air leaf to air trac. Mainly thinking about the frame brackets and air bag mounting as this guy has a complete cut off so I will use those axles. Just thinking it would be fairly easy to swap on the idea that Pete used the same frame hole mounting pattern for the different air ride suspensions.

The easiest thing to do is drive your truck to where the air trac setup is and take measurements of the bolt and bracket spacings. Pete might use the same frame brackets for both, if so it would be a direct swap.

If your truck has huck bolts, those will need to be cut off and replaced with either huck bolts, which needs a special tool to install, or good quality grade 8 bolts. Don't use cheap hardware store fasteners.

[Kranky]

Just razzin you Kranky.

Have you checked the ride height on the Paystar air ride? I know on the Pete's if it is too high they ride rough.

Yup, it's right on.

BTW, what air ride does IH use anyways?

On the heavy haul tractors it's Neway, on the lighter tractor (40k rears) it's a Hendrickson air ride, looks identical to the Mack air rides except the pieces don't all have bulldogs stamped or cast on them.

BTW, you're probly right about that "old school" sh*t, and just remember, I'm not a native "cheesehead".

.

[Part Time Dweller]

.............and just remember, I'm not a native "cheesehead".

Ya hey dere!

My brother isn't native either, but to a flatlander just being a long time WI resident qualifies one to being a Cheesehead.

[SoCal79]

So a Pete showed up at our yard equipped with air trac, same year as mine and the frame brackets mount differently. I did not have enough time to look at the axle mounting end of it but it looked very similliar at a glance. Using a set of full lockers would solve my problem and the 3.90 would improve my performance so I may just rty to score the axles instead of the entire cut off.