Carrying Out Construction Work

Posted on: 7 March 2018

The most sophisticated and expensive truck on the market is utterly useless if its driver is too tired and uncomfortable to function, and the seat inside your truck's cab is just as important to your profit margins as the engine under its bonnet and the trailer it is towing. As such, many truck drivers and operators spare no expense to ensure their truck is as comfortable as possible to drive, and installing a truck seat with air suspension can be a tremendous boon.

While the vast majority of truck seats feature some kind of suspension to smooth out a bumpy ride, most are suspended via mechanical means, such as springs and shock absorbers. Air suspension seats use pneumatic pistons to keep the driver level and absorb shocks and bumps, and have a number of advantages over their less sophisticated cousins. However, there are also a couple of disadvantages to using air suspension seats in trucks, so you should make sure this investment is worth it before you lay down your cash.

What are the advantages of installing an air suspension seat in your truck?

Increased comfort

Mechanical suspension seats do a reasonable job of ameliorating bumps, jolts and vibrations during long drives, but they are far from perfect, and a certain amount of unwanted movement is still able to affect the driver's comfort and stability. Air suspension seats are the latest work in truck driver comfort and are capable of absorbing extremely bumpy rides before they reach the driver. They are especially useful for trucks that frequently travel off-road, such as loading trucks working in quarries.

Easily adjusted

Adjusting the default driving position of a conventional, mechanically suspended truck seat can be a challenge, as the springs and shock absorbers contained within the seat have to be manually adjusted with fiddly hand tools. Air suspension seats are far easier to adjust, as the driving position can be adjusted by simply adding or removing air from the seat's pneumatic pistons; some seats can achieve this using built-in electronic air pumps, while others use simple valves and manual pumps. 

Increased weight capacity

As a general rule, air suspension seats are also better at operating under heavier loads than mechanical suspension seats, as the pistons are capable of absorbing far greater loads without losing their ability to guard against shocks and bumps. They are therefore ideal for larger truck drivers.

What are the disadvantages of installing an air suspension seat in your truck?

Pricey

Air suspension seats aren't just considered an upgrade over mechanical suspension seats for their improved comfort; they also tend to be significantly more expensive. Outfitting an entire fleet with air suspension seats may be prohibitively expensive for smaller operations.

Difficult to repair

While mechanical suspension seats are far from simple, faults can generally be repaired with simple hand tools and a little knowhow. Air suspension seats are much more difficult to repair if they malfunction and will generally require professional servicing before they can be used safely.