| Air spring vs Hydro-pneumatic suspension [message #187625] |
Thu, 18 October 2012 21:43  |
bryant374
Messages: 563
Registered: May 2004
Location: Pleasant Valley, NY 12569
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There has been considerable discussion here about Citroen and hydropneumatic suspensions, here is how the GMC MH fits in here.
During the early development of the GMC Motorhome, the plan was to use leading/trailing suspension arms supported by a hydro-pneumatic cylinder. Al Carlson was a Buick Engineer that thought the Citroen system was an impressive design and could be adapted to the GMC MH. Ralph Merkle, the GMC MH chassis engineer, was the inventor of the leading/trailing arm suspension and he and Al Carlson put together a design that was used on the pie wagon, the initial demonstration vehicle of the GMC motorhome. The link below shows the chassis of this vehicle, there are other pictures of the completed vehicle in my History CD.
http://www.gmcmhphotos.com/photos/miscellaneous-bryant-stuff/p33070-early-gmc-hydropneumatic-rear-suspension.html
While this design worked very well, it was expensive to build and a cost reduced design was required.
An air spring (bag) was designed and with minor changes approved for manufacture. The rest is as they say, history.
The link below shows an early air bag.
http://www.gmcmhphotos.com/photos/miscellaneous-bryant-stuff/p33069-early-gmc-1st-design-a.html
Bill Bryant
PO 1976~PB (owned 34 years)
1914 Ford (owned 70 years)
1965 Corvette (owned 39 years)
GMC Motorhome History
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