PMC Posted January 6 Share Posted January 6 I have a RWS that came from the factory with Reyco 102 spring. Its pretty well worn out and i am looking to make the move to air ride. I have been looking for a Reyco 102 Air ride setup as that would keep it somewhat original but have had difficulty locating one in the northeast. Anything out there? Thoughts on 102Air? or should i just hunt down some Neway or Mack/Hendrickson... the marketplace seems to have options there. Thanks PMC Quote Link to comment https://www.bigmacktrucks.com/topic/74953-reyco-air-ride/ Share on other sites More sharing options...
Geoff Weeks Posted January 6 Share Posted January 6 (edited) The Hendrickson, and the various OEM clones are about the best out there for most applications. Neway is expensive and difficult to maintain and need brackets welded onto the axle housings. Neway might be worth it for heavy haul. Easier to align than Neway. Rayco is fine for 4 spring, and it is almost always cheaper to fix what you have then start over. 4 spring isn't so good off highway, but properly loaded, you'd be hard pressed to tell it from air ride on highway. I ran both, 4 spring and IHC (Hendrickson) air ride. What ever you do, run away from a Neway ARDAB suspension. No parts, expensive and always need bushings. Edited January 6 by Geoff Weeks Quote Link to comment https://www.bigmacktrucks.com/topic/74953-reyco-air-ride/#findComment-565630 Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lmackattack Posted January 7 Share Posted January 7 I was one to always say keep it original and such but now im 20 years older and I feel that is not always the best advice anymore. These days I would recommend a air ride that is tried and proven. If a hobby truck Airliner is one of those options many have looked too simply for cost to buy used and cost of repair. Parts are easy to come by and the ride quality is good. only thing I would say is to make sure it has locking rears for when you are off road. If this is a dump truck you may look at Hendrickson HAS40K air ride for heavier speced axles I use to swear by camelback until I drove a properly speced air ride dump truck. The pete I was driving with air track / Locking rears was much better than the camelback I was use to. sure you could louse traction if you did not put the power divider in but if you locked in it would just walk thru just about anything. With macks auto power divider you never knew if the power divider was truly working or not and you still did not have a rear axle lock so at best you had 2 wheel power and 2 wheels spinning. with manual power divider and locking rears you have 3 wheels of power and only 1 can slip. But im getting off topic now. What ever you chouse just make sure you know what your buying but I suspect anything air ride will be better than the ryco spring suspension Quote Link to comment https://www.bigmacktrucks.com/topic/74953-reyco-air-ride/#findComment-565641 Share on other sites More sharing options...
PMC Posted January 7 Author Share Posted January 7 To clarify use: Its a 200 WB tractor (350 Mack/ 15speed eaton/Rockwell 370 rears) with a 40'' bunk.... Its used sparingly to drag a 35ton detachable around with some John Deere tractors/Mack trucks/equivalent rusting bones around. Thanks for the feedback. Quote Link to comment https://www.bigmacktrucks.com/topic/74953-reyco-air-ride/#findComment-565651 Share on other sites More sharing options...
Geoff Weeks Posted January 7 Share Posted January 7 (edited) If mechanical RGN, then yeah, air ride is helpful with the gooseneck, being able to drop the suspension and lift back up helps. It should be fairly easy to find Hendrickson housings with the torque arm weldment on top. Do you have SQHP, or SQHD's? By the time SQ100's came out I think the ratio switched to 3.73. The reason I ask, is the rear, rear is Amboid (pinion enters above the axle centerline) on the SQHP and the housing is different then the later SQ100 (which is hypoid) essentially the rear-rear housing is "upside down". I may have the bracket weldments off a IHC Airride, but will have to look, then getting them from Omaha to NH would be the biggest problem. That way you could use your housings and weld on the bracket. They may have got tossed in my last clean up. Edited January 7 by Geoff Weeks Quote Link to comment https://www.bigmacktrucks.com/topic/74953-reyco-air-ride/#findComment-565666 Share on other sites More sharing options...
PMC Posted January 8 Author Share Posted January 8 Front diff is tagged QHR. Quote Link to comment https://www.bigmacktrucks.com/topic/74953-reyco-air-ride/#findComment-565734 Share on other sites More sharing options...
Geoff Weeks Posted January 8 Share Posted January 8 31 minutes ago, PMC said: Front diff is tagged QHR. Does it have an oil filter can sticking off the front? That "R" may be a "P" Quote Link to comment https://www.bigmacktrucks.com/topic/74953-reyco-air-ride/#findComment-565739 Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joseph Cummings Posted January 8 Share Posted January 8 Some reason you don't want to put a set of 38 or 44s on camelback under it. If you are not going to be bobtailing a lot, they don't ride that bad. Air ride cabs work great too. Personally I've never had an air ride I liked. Compared to a camelback, they get stuck in spit. And if you are going to run a dump, camelbacks, Hendrickson. or some other single point suspension is really the only thing I trust to be stable Quote Link to comment https://www.bigmacktrucks.com/topic/74953-reyco-air-ride/#findComment-565740 Share on other sites More sharing options...
Geoff Weeks Posted January 8 Share Posted January 8 Mechanical RGN with any spring ride is more trouble than air ride. Walking beam Hendrickson is a great suspension, but starting from where he is starting from, either Rayco/graining air ride or Hendrickson or one of the corp clones would be the easiest. I don't think he is planning to put a cut-off on. Quote Link to comment https://www.bigmacktrucks.com/topic/74953-reyco-air-ride/#findComment-565741 Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joseph Cummings Posted January 8 Share Posted January 8 3 minutes ago, Geoff Weeks said: Mechanical RGN with any spring ride is more trouble than air ride. Walking beam Hendrickson is a great suspension, but starting from where he is starting from, either Rayco/graining air ride or Hendrickson or one of the corp clones would be the easiest. I don't think he is planning to put a cut-off on. I didn't know he was running a mechanical detach Quote Link to comment https://www.bigmacktrucks.com/topic/74953-reyco-air-ride/#findComment-565742 Share on other sites More sharing options...
Geoff Weeks Posted January 8 Share Posted January 8 Not sure he is, just said detach, but if mechanical, air ride has an advantage. Quote Link to comment https://www.bigmacktrucks.com/topic/74953-reyco-air-ride/#findComment-565756 Share on other sites More sharing options...
PMC Posted January 8 Author Share Posted January 8 (edited) No oil filter. Pretty sure is QHR. Trailer is a ground bearing eager beaver 35 ton with a hydraulic removable neck. I also move a pintle hitch tag trailer at times. I intend to keep the original frame/wheelbase and change suspension or suspension+axles by drilling new holes/welding old ones. Looked at a airliner yesterday that the frame rails were about an 3/4 inch narrower. My truck is 34.25 outside/outside and the cutoff was 33.5 Edited January 8 by PMC Quote Link to comment https://www.bigmacktrucks.com/topic/74953-reyco-air-ride/#findComment-565760 Share on other sites More sharing options...
Geoff Weeks Posted January 8 Share Posted January 8 Hyd detach, if ground bearing or not, spring is fine. Nothing wrong with the Rayco air, it looks like a Hendrichson clone. just hard to find I suspect. One thing to be careful about, if the mounts need to be moved, so does the crossmember. If only moved a small bit, it means holes welded and new holes in a limited area and that can weaken the frame. Personally, I don't think the change is worth the trouble. 4 spring is simple and has few wearing parts. Not the best suspension, I'll agree but dead simple, doesn't need bushed torque rods, which are always a maintance problem on all air suspensions. People over estimate air suspension comfort. All trucks have air bags between them and the road, they are called tires and you can see how well they do! If the issue is my comfort, air suspended cab will do much more for ride comfort than air truck suspension. I had a short wheelbase tractor on walking beam, mechanical T bar drivers seat, but suspended cab (coil spring cab suspension) and it was very livable. If the wheel base was longer, it would make far bigger difference than if the rear axles were on air. Quote Link to comment https://www.bigmacktrucks.com/topic/74953-reyco-air-ride/#findComment-565762 Share on other sites More sharing options...
Geoff Weeks Posted January 8 Share Posted January 8 That tag must be off the rear-rear not the front? Quote Link to comment https://www.bigmacktrucks.com/topic/74953-reyco-air-ride/#findComment-565766 Share on other sites More sharing options...
PMC Posted January 8 Author Share Posted January 8 13 hours ago, Joseph Cummings said: Some reason you don't want to put a set of 38 or 44s on camelback under it. If you are not going to be bobtailing a lot, they don't ride that bad. Air ride cabs work great too. Personally I've never had an air ride I liked. Compared to a camelback, they get stuck in spit. And if you are going to run a dump, camelbacks, Hendrickson. or some other single point suspension is really the only thing I trust to be stable Camel back is a great option but i figure if I am going to go through all the work, I might as well go for the best ride for a highway truck. Cab already has air ride. Quote Link to comment https://www.bigmacktrucks.com/topic/74953-reyco-air-ride/#findComment-565788 Share on other sites More sharing options...
PMC Posted January 8 Author Share Posted January 8 2 hours ago, Geoff Weeks said: That tag must be off the rear-rear not the front? You are correct. I just cleaned the front tag and it’s stamped QHD. Good catch and thanks for the chart. Quote Link to comment https://www.bigmacktrucks.com/topic/74953-reyco-air-ride/#findComment-565789 Share on other sites More sharing options...
Geoff Weeks Posted January 8 Share Posted January 8 (edited) SQHD's don't have the best reputation, I know one guy who calls the "sure-quitter's". They have an idler gear between the power divider and the front pinion. Later SQHP's and SQ100's don't. They beefed up the powerdivider section and eliminated the idler gear. They are way obsolete, Heck, the SQHP and SQ100's are obsolete. The 3.70 gear ratio is also not made anymore, they went from a 40-10 (40 tooth ring gear, 10 tooth pinion) to 41-11 for 3.73 ratio so finding gearsets (should they be needed) may be a problem. Before making one big change that would require a lot, it may be time to re-assess and decide if you want to stay with that model and ratio or if you want a whole new cut-off, or just repair what you have. Later SQ100 housings will not be right either I don't think, so you'll be needed SQHD housings unless you weld brackets to what you have now. The SQHD's both pinions turn the same direction and are on the same side of the ring gear (front and back) SQHP, and SQ100's the front pinion turns the opposite driveshaft rotation on the front and are on the opposite side of the ring gear. SQHP rear-rear is amboid (essentially turned upside down) with the pinion above the centerline, SQ100, they went back to the lower hypoid gearset with the rear-rear pinion below the center-line. All this means is although all the models are related, the housings can be different for the different models. edit: Hadn't had my coffee when I posted the teeth count! 3.70 is 37-10 Edited January 8 by Geoff Weeks correct tooth count Quote Link to comment https://www.bigmacktrucks.com/topic/74953-reyco-air-ride/#findComment-565792 Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joseph Cummings Posted January 8 Share Posted January 8 32 minutes ago, Geoff Weeks said: a whole new cut-off That is what I always did when changing suspension types. That way you have everything you need. Quote Link to comment https://www.bigmacktrucks.com/topic/74953-reyco-air-ride/#findComment-565799 Share on other sites More sharing options...
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