O.T. Air ride seat in truck

My son is driving a Freightliner straight cargo truck with an air ride seat. He said it rides much rougher than the similar one he had been driving. (he is new to driving truck) He said that this one beats the he!! out of him. He is only about 170# so I wonder if he is too light to let it flex/float as it should. I asked if there was adjustment on the seat. He indicated that the only adjustment he knew of was forward and up and down. Is there a pressure regulator to accomodate the weight of the driver? Otherwise, how does it work?
Thanks, Roy

I'm not sure how they adjust for weight or even if they do ?

From my days at the truck parts sales I remember guys saying some of those seats floated up and down and back and forth and some guys did not like all that motion ! Some just do up and down.

I think some said the additional back and forth really tore their back up.

He should bottom out the seat with no air,then put enough air in it to lift it off the frame and not bottom out on a bump. There are little shocks in there that wear out or the bolts fall out. In my travels most have the seat aired to the max so they can see over the wheel and hood. I got in to one as a mechanic [ 6'2" 300 lbs] and hit the seat and never moved ! Driver was 150 lbs 5'5' woman and was in for rough ride. Ended up putting a sub frame under the seat to raise it so she could see when the seat was aired properly.

There should be a couple switches on the left side of the seat. Mounted to seat frame below the cushion. One controls air pressure for weight adjustment and as many as 4 for lumbar support. There should also be a seat isolator lock out on the right side or sometimes built into the froward adjust lever. That lets the seat glide on the track a couple inches fore and aft to take out some of the pounding. If it is a Bostrom seat, they have a very hard cushion. I drive Freightshaker semi and finaly got a National seat put in after 400,000 in the original Bostrom. Much nicer!

The company that I drove for had one Freightliner straight truck and it was a rough rider and it had air ride seat. You could do all the adjusting you wanted to seat and it still rode rough and the truck was a new truck.

I drive a FL106 Freightliner with a service bed on it. That said one of his big problems is that the trucks suspension is designed to handle X amount of weight, and if he"s not loaded enough there isn"t enough weight to cause the suspension to actually "bend" and do it"s job. The result is that it feels like your riding on a solid block of steel rather than a sprung frame. Ask him if it rides any better with a load than it does unleaded. I know my truck basically rides around with a full load all the time and it rides pretty good.

As far as the seat goes, like others have said, tell him to let all the air out and then add it back until it picks him up and feel like it has a bit of bounce to it. I weigh in around 175 to 180 so his weight, or lack of, shouldn"t make that much difference as he isn"t far off from me. Too tell him that it may take a bit of getting used to, but if his seat is designed with a glide (floats front to back) setting, that it makes a world of difference in the ride if it"s unlocked and allowed to glide. It took me a bit of getting used to it, but now I can tell in a heartbeat if the lever gets moved and locks it back in.

Beyond that, it isn"t rocket science, so his best bet will be to just play with the seat controls until he finds the setup that works the best for him.

Sounds like the shock/s worn out.

I drive an FL70 Freightliner mechanics truck on spring suspension with an air ride seat. Short wheelbase so it does ride pretty rough even though it is heavy. It does ride better with 4 or 5 thousand more in the bed. I put a Bostrom low ride seat with armrests, had to be a low ride style due to the hump in the cab under the seat. The other guys are spot on on the adjustment, shock under the seat failure, etc. The replacement seat helped a lot, even though the factory seat was also air ride, the armrests are a plus, and the replacement seat has more padding and more and better adjustments.

We have one truck that does not have a float in it, beats the crap out of you. My Business Class air ride Freightliner, rides better than my Chevy PU.

As others have said he probably has it too high. Tell him that his knee joints should be higher than his hip joints in order to avoid spine problems. The Petercar drivers like to keep the seat pretty much right on the floor so that they look out through the wheel.

There's a reason they're called "freightshakers"