The original air bags that were used with the air beams are called double convoluting (looks like the Michelin man) and are fast reacting-meaning they alone ride stiffer then is desirable for passengers. To slow down the reaction time, the air beams were used to both increase the air volume of the air bags and to slow down the reaction time thus smoothing the ride out. My transit bus has the same bags, but instead of air beams, each bag has an aluminum can that is of about 2 gallons in volume that effectively does the same thing as the air beams.
Now buses are equipped with rolling lobe air bags that look like rubber cylinders with a tapered aluminum piston on the bottom. The piston acts like a load compensator so that for about the first 2 inches of travel there is very little reaction going on. But as the taper of the piston increases, so does the load carrying capability of the air bag and it causes the air bag then to react quicker to push the bus back up like from a dip.
The best way to compensate for plating over the air beams is to also change your air bags to rolling lobe. Then you won't have any loss of ride quality. Though many have said that the they don't mind the stiffer ride the plated over double convoluting bags give-your choice. Good Luck, TomC