Link’s plan is to offer the new Cabmate ROI through truckmakers as an option to the standard cab suspension, which is – most often – a Cabmate air-ride....

to gain the much higher performance and driver preference of the Cabmate ROI cab suspension.

To demonstrate the level of improvement offered by the new cab suspension system, Link sets up a ride ‘n’ drive adjacent to its Sioux Centre, Iowa, production plant.

Included in the relatively short route are four or five extremely rough railway crossings and we careen across them at speeds no driver would contemplate – first with the existing Cabmate on a 579 Peterbilt that’s Link’s test mule…..

Then again with the same truck – but with the new system having been installed during a lunch break. The difference is extraordinary. On one particularly rough crossing, the earlier Cabmate suspension bottoms out….then tops out in a bounce that causes the driver’s seat to go from full deflection downwards to full extension upwards. Riders in the sleeper are tossed about unmercifully.

The Cabmate ROI excels in eliminating the upward travel after the crossing – making a major improvement to the experience.

Some expansion-strip concrete pavement and repaired asphalt roadway also show off a significant performance improvement for the new product.

During a laboratory tour we see a neat confirmation of the realworld demonstrations we’ve experienced: Test fixtures pounding the suspensions on the bench are switched off and on to demonstrate the difference in the amplitude of the motion of the cab. Over simulated regular road surface, the cab doesn’t move at all.

Link also takes the opportunity during the press visit to show some of the other products in its suspensions range, including the unique 6x2 setup developed with Volvo and currently available on Volvo VN and Mack Anthem highway models in North America. Unlike the usual 6x2 with a lifting third (tag) axle, the Link/Volvo design lifts the second axle, thus leaving the rear axle as the driver.

Joel Morrow has been involved in the development of this configuration as Ploger has been running 6x2s since 1968 – albeit with lifting tags, until Volvo introduced the unique drive back in 2014.

Morrow says that done right, the Link/Volvo 6x2 involves no compromises, but delivers savings of 300 to 400 pounds (136-181 kilograms) in weight, plus low maintenance and superior traction through electronic controls than a 6x4. It is 3-5% more fuel efficient and also more stable in poor weather conditions, since lifting the mid-axle stretches the wheelbase out.

Morrow also says that tyre wear is lower with this configuration, with savings on the lifting axle and the steer axle, as the tyre is more often working at its design load.

Another highlight of the show and tell is the tandem walking beam suspension, which can be specified up to 85,000 pounds (38.5 tonne). Its advantage is that it has the ruggedness and roll resistance of a traditional walking beam.....with the soft ride of an air spring.

For truckers demanding the ultimate off-highway suspension, Link also offers its Triton axle suspension – a tri-axle suspension able to support 105,000 pounds (48 tonnes). The Triton can be found working in the Alaskan Baffin Island iron ore mines. The axles are unique, with either Meritor or Sisu planetary axles. The suspension has plus or minus four inches (10.16 centimetres) of travel and can be used as a trailer suspension. T&D