Air Bag Preventative Maintenance

[Gene Obie]

I have 10bag roadmaster chassis and wondering what the collective wisdom is on whether the bags "age out". It's a 21yr old coach and i don't see any significant cracks and don't have any issues with leaking on any of the bags. Just wondering if it's a good idea for preventative maintenance to replace at this point? Coach is stored indoors with bags unloaded off-season about 1/2 the year.

Taking it in for Koni shock upgrade this off-season and just wondering whether to do bags at the same time.

[David T. Richelderfer]

A few years back, I had some front-end repairs done at Chassis Dynamics in Yuma.  While in there, the mechanic noted the four front-end bags were showing some cracks, so I had them all replaced.  The bags don't cost that much compared to the drag link, king pins, and bearings.  I saved several hundred dollars by sourcing the replacement hardware and avoiding the shop's markup by saving them time finding the hardware.

[Carl Boger]

Gene,

I replaced all 8 of mine at the 20 year mark.  One had blown, luckily in my drive, and I figured that they were all likely in the same condition.  When removing them some looked fairly good, and others had obvious cracks, mostly hidden from the a casual inspection.  Yours may be in better condition, but at 20 years they may be subject to failing.  Just my opinion.

[Roger Milne]

So interesting this post has come up at this time. So I am parked for the next few weeks and then moving into a new home. We just completed 5 days of across the country driving and knew I had a small leak somewhere as I'd lose tank pressure over night and couldn't keep the leveling system at level for more than a night. So I ran it in travel mode and found one of the air bags in the drive axle is leaking pretty good, so I'm facing replacing them all now as they are all aged.

So I see the chart for the part numbers etc on the Tech Support page, but my question is??? Can these be replaced by the owner? or is this a shop job where they can lift this up with commercial jacks/ I need to find a good truck shop in the Charlotte NC area if that's the case. But before I did that I figured I'd ask if this was something we owners can tackle and if so how??

[Carl Boger]

Roger,

If you have the tools and room you can do this yourself.  I don't consider this an easy job, and if I ever need to replace mine again I will probably try to hire it out.  You will need to get the coach high enough off the ground to be safe and get good access.  The side panels will hinge up, but some access is still very tight.  The bolts may or may not come out, and the fittings my or may not break.  A company with a pit or lift can make this job much easier.  It really depends on how hands on you want to be.

[Roger Milne]

Roger,

If you have the tools and room you can do this yourself.  I don't consider this an easy job, and if I ever need to replace mine again I will probably try to hire it out.  You will need to get the coach high enough off the ground to be safe and get good access.  The side panels will hinge up, but some access is still very tight.  The bolts may or may not come out, and the fittings my or may not break.  A company with a pit or lift can make this job much easier.  It really depends on how hands on you want to be.

That's what I figured and with everything else going on, probably not something I'll undertake, so I'll be looking into a good shop in the Charlotte area in the coming months.

Thanks