Cruisemaster launches long travel suspension

Brisbane's Cruisemaster used the Victorian Caravan, Camping & Touring Supershow to launch a new long travel off-road premium version of its ATX airbag suspension.

Shown in prototype form only, with no announced release date, it's similar to the long travel airbag suspension fitted to Bruder’s Exp-4 and current Exp-6 expedition caravans, ATX Icon is based on Cruisemaster’s premium airbag trailing arm system, but employs a larger truck-spec airbag with a patented self-aligning mechanism.

This innovation ensures that the top and bottom airbag mounting points remain parallel throughout the full range of the bag’s travel and can be operated by a key fob remote control.

The system was endurance-tested on Cruisemaster’s annual ‘Rat Run’ that took its test rig 8500km from its Brisbane HQ to the Cape York Peninsula and back via the Tanami Track.

The system allows a full 1800mm of vertical travel, and is adjustable for height on each side, ensuring that the caravan or trailer it is fitted to can be levelled on most surfaces.

Cruisemaster also used the Supershow to launch its new  ATX Icon airbag XT Freestyle steel suspension that is expected to hit the market by the end of June.

Cruisemaster ATX Icon gets re-enforced shock absorber guards, with an extra durable coating, while an extended colour range exclusive to the Icon Edition is also offered, allowing caravan and camper trailer manufacturers to match it to their body and chassis colours.

Cruisemaster also displayed its latest DO-35 V3 Plus coupling upgrade of the current DO-35 V3, featuring a snugger-fitting and re-shaped dust cap, plus reinforced rear webbing to allow the coupling to be fitted to the underside of drawbars in most applications.

New stampings should also make it more easily identified from the cheaper DO-35 copies that have been making their way onto the market via some imported camper trailers.

Also seen for the first time at the Supershow was the sixth generation XT suspension – Cruisemaster XT Freestyle ­–  featuring a new 2.8T Drop option and a one-piece stub axle re-enforcement across the range, a cable management tray, a bolt-on disc brake conversion, a refined one-piece shock mounting bracket and a inbuilt handbrake cable guide.