Brake Chambers

[Joe Cannarozzi]

I was startled when I found Prevo wants something like 150 bucks for a 30/30 maxi chamber. They price other suspension components like air bags, ride height valves and shocks very competitively.

This price for this component is a rip.

Last time I bought one (been a year or so) I think I gave 45 or 50 bucks, Orren what do you give for them?

[Orren Zook]

Joe,

I think 3030 piggyback runs around $33 & 3030 completes are in the $39 range. I'll check in the AM when I get to work and give you the exact pricing. I don't thing its worth messing with the piggyback vs the complete chamber - after all what are you saving maybe $5 after replacing the diaphragm and you still have used parts (spring, rod and clevis) in the service chamber side.

Most of my stuff is so heavy that shipping any distance is almost cost prohibitive. Give me a buzz at work 8-5 MF and 8-12 Sat @ 800-321-2058 or on my cell 330-727-2711 if I can help you on any thing you need.

[Joe Cannarozzi]

Thanks Orren. I called my parts guy and he is getting 47 for one complete and if he is paying your price IMO that is an acceptable sale price.

Unfortunatly Warren already got them:(

The money we could have saved him on just 2 of these could have darn near covered my airfair.

I think I will be hauling some of these down to Florida with me in January.

I know they are a couple of pounds but at your price even if they needed to be shipped (ground) they would still be 100 bucks less a piece!

Some guys got 4 of um.

[Jon Wehrenberg]

From experience as Joe said Prevost is competitive on some items. Air bags in particular and especially if you buy a large quantity. At 16 airbags I was able to get about $20 off the price of each when Roger and I replaced ours.

But I cannot get brake chambers from them competitively despite bitching to Guy French in Canada about the outrageous pricing. Buy them locally whenever possible. Last prices I recall for my coach were about $35 for the 30s on the front, and somewhere in the neighborhood of $115 to $120 for the 16/24's on the tag and 30/36s on the drive.

Check your parts list because not all of our coaches use the same chambers.

[Joe Cannarozzi]

Jon it looks like I am comparing apples to oranges. On our bus we only have maxis on the drives I have not had to replace them and in my defence the 30/30 and 30/36's are very close in size from a glance.:o Very diplomatic of you to reply as you did:o

So maybe that price is still high but not as much as I thought it was. I will check again tomorrow with Orren on a good cost for the correct #'s.

Going deeper those #'s - 30/30 or 30/36, those are the circumfrence of the 2 diaphrams or the surface area of them in square inches, correct? So the 30/36's on the bus have bigger parking diaphrams or bigger service brake diaphrams?

[Orren Zook]

The 30/36 would have a 8" diaphram on the service side and 9" diaphragm on the parking side. This would contribute a great deal to the increased cost as it is not a popular size.

I wonder why Prevost would use the smaller size to apply brake pressure to slow you down from highway speed and then use a bigger chamber size to hold the emergency brake on after the coach is stopped.

Is there a clearance issue on the multi-size chambers? Mack and some Hendrickson suspension applications use 24/30 chambers while probably 99% of the late model highway trucks use 30/30 for their braking needs, with newer vehicles going to a long stroke chamber vs a short stroke chamber.

Maybe it's to give Prevost a proprietary item for their parts departments to sell.

[Joe Cannarozzi]

I thought it might be that since there is only one axle with a emergency brake for a 50000lb vehicle but then again the brakes themselves are not exactly the same components either. Like the way the drum attatches to the hub.

It's just those cooky Canadians:)

Orren, Mac also uses those internal vents. Supposidly this will extend the life by keeping out potential contaminants. Think there is any merrit to that. They offer the 30/36 in that configuration too I think. I suppose this would be designed for off road but if it works I do not see any reason not to run them other than cost.

What can you tell me about the introduction of the long stroke chamber.

[Jon Wehrenberg]

I can only speculate as to why they use the 30/36.

When you are braking, you have all three axles applying brakes. When you use the parking brake you only have the drive on some coaches. I can tell you the brake would not hold on my driveway, but with my 45 with emergency brakes on the tag and drive it holds very well.

The size of the emergency brake diaphragm is not an indicator of its braking force, but the force required to retract the spring, which likely exceeds it braking force.

[Orren Zook]

Joe,

I'm in NY this weekend - I'll post some pictures and detailed description on the chamber differences Monday morning when I get home.