A Great Ride – Loaded or Empty, on the Road or Off

If you operate your Volvo heavy-duty truck on a variety of surfaces – job sites and open highways, city streets and unpaved access roads – with loads ranging from empty to full, you need an innovative, progressive-load suspension that matches your truck’s high performance standards.

For tough applications like construction and refuse, consider a lightweight articulating system that can accommodate changing loads with maximum stability and handling. For example, your local Volvo dealership carries a variety of suspensions with features that include a unique system of bolster springs and auxiliary or progressive load springs.

Designed to give your trucks optimum ride quality whether empty, loaded or in between. When the truck is empty, the innovative bolster springs absorb vertical impact as well as fore-and-aft shock to provide outstanding ride quality.

Suspensions equipped with an improved-design progressive load spring (PLS) replacing the auxiliary load spring on both the driver and passenger sides automatically engages further as your payload increases, eliminating the need for manual adjustment. This helps to manage stress transfer to the bolster springs, resulting in longer service life.

Maintaining the progressive or auxiliary load springs is simple:

• Drivers and fleet service managers can easily inspect the PLS or auxiliary load spring by using a business-card-size gauge.
• A new PLS measures 4¼ inches. It should be replaced at 3½ inches.
• The auxiliary load spring’s normal, unloaded height is 3⅜ inches, and it should be replaced at 3 inches.
• Be sure to replace the springs on both sides at the same time.

You can upgrade the auxiliary springs to progressive springs, using kits available through your Volvo dealership. The new springs include easy-to-follow instructions, or the dealership’s certified technicians can install them for you in no time.

In a demanding application, you can benefit from a suspension that is the perfect combination of stability, comfort and weight savings. Suspensions with&