Not sure how the connection is made where airbags do not control body roll or sway, I believe everyone on this forum who use air bags could confirm air bags do indeed.

Do you not also consider it a leap to imply the tragic accident that befell your friends family would been prevented with Roadmasters installed?

How many extended van owners on this forum have driven hundreds of thousands of miles without Roadmasters product and have not rolled our vans.

 

If you know my history with these large vans, you would understand I'm not just talking from just implying information. I've been a GM Engineer for over 15 years dealing with this stuff in the fleet vehicles category. The vehicle in question was signed out by the co-worker to put miles on the van and in various traffic scenarios. Each GM fleet vehicle has an on-board diagnostic computer that the typical public vehicles do not have. These vehicles have 4-times the sensors as well. The co-worker had accepted the Director of Engineering at GM. This was a high up position. So, he took the family on a vacation before making the transition to the new job. The accident then happened. It was a traumatic time at our division. From this tragedy, many of us pushed harder to finish the stabilitrak technology now found on many of the larger vehicles. We have volumes of data with many of the existing technologies (the RoadMaster, airbags and other crazy things under the sun) out there jointly with Calspan Safety Research Center in Buffalo, NY. http://www.calspan.com/transportation/safety-research

Interesting how a typical forum like this can show how the average Joe here can have a career in automotive. I've been doing this for nearly 30 years now. Seen all kinds of things that would excite you or frighten you. For the most part, you can find automotive techies, hobbyist, engineers, vehicle scientists and garage mechanics around here.

I own a Chrysler because my father was a Chrysler engineer. We had Dodges, Plymouths, Jeeps, AMCs and such in the family for years. After college I tried to get into Chrysler, but the bankruptcy at the time had changed that. Thus, GM was the open door for the career.

Dodge has the fewer rollover issues, however the ones they do have showed great loss of life.

 

Facts you state regarding stability of short wheelbase 15 passenger van are well known. Again the question I asked you was are you willing too make a statement taking into account your three decades as a GM engineer THAT with Roadmaster product installed the rollover would have been prevented?

Also had you warned the company regarding running such a dangerous vehicle.

Lastly following is a direct quote word for word copied from the FAQ section of one of the links in your previous replies;

"Can RAS eliminate vehicle rollover?

No. Roadmaster Active Suspension can not eliminate rollovers due to the complexity, and many contributing factors, of a rollover event. No individual product can. However, RAS will significantly improve road holding and stability during sudden maneuvers, thus making the vehicle safer and less prone to roll. This is especially true of 15-passenger vans."

The point I wish to get across is I have no desire or reason to question your knowledge or automotive experience. What I do take exception with is you strongly questioning the wisdom of other forum members we are all entitled to our opinions.

Glad you and I could keep our back a and forth civil have a good day and great spring season.


Regads

 

I have been reading these replies for the past several days with great interest. It appears that either air bags or the Roadmaster systems will help fix the "trailer" squat on the rear of the van and enhance my driving safety a bit.

I think that I got out of these discussions that I am glad I don't have a hi-top conversion nor do I haul 12-15 passengers. I never knowingly load heavy in the rear; there are no seats back there and anything really heavy I try to load behind the front seats so as to keep the headlights level.

Adding a new heavy tongue load will be a new adventure for me in towing. I thank those of you that gave me suggestions for specific products, which was certainly a big help in evaluating my options.

 

Legally, I can not since there are just too many people with the itch to sue. I can not make any such statement in a public forum.

I can tell you from testing OE competitor systems, tier-1 systems, and aftermarket systems, the RAS held very high ratings in various categories. Again, I can not share detailed information in a public forum.

As for the suspension air-bag systems, whether those are automatic or manually maintained, those can fail or malfunction. We learned many lesson on the Cadillacs and Buicks.

The RAS is mechanical by design. Once installed, it's basically maintenance free. It's failure would be due to salt in the environment like any other suspension part.

The best system is hydraulic hands down. One with a dual redundancy for safety is all that matters.

 

None of those pictures shows a trailer LOL


j/k

 

The topic of the thread is "trailer towing help" .

I don't see any trailor hitches or trailors in any photo here either. These photos appear to illustrate the well documented issue of greater rollover risk of the extended 15 passenger van. Both Ford and Chrysler studied the problem at the time and the only official solution they came up with that I'm aware of is to convert these extended vans to duallies (install dual rear tires).

On topic:

It is simple physics, not magic. Airbags add load capacity, they cannot make a vehicle more stable. They only approaches that can add stabilty to any vehicle remain the same:

lower the center of gravity (lower the vehicle)
high quality gas charged shock absorbers
front and rear sway bars, bigger the better
better quality and/or higher capacity springs
coil over springs work too, but have limited lifespan

For towing only:

a load distributing hitch (any brand/version) can help overall stability and add tow capacity by shifting the center of gravity closer to vehicle center.