Air Spring Safety ?

[CurlyDave]

About 18 months ago I installed Firestone Sport Rite air bags on my 2000 F-150. They have made a significant improvement in towing ability.

About two weeks ago I was hauling a load of dirt in my dump trailer when I heard a loud "pop" and one of the air bags broke. Fortunately this was at low speed and on a fairly straight road, so I was able to pull over and pry the air bag remnants away from the tire with a short piece of pipe.

I replaced it today and there didn't seem to be any rubbing on the truck frame or obvious chaffing. But the bag was clearly damaged in at least one and maybe two places.

What could be the cause of this? Bag Failure? Road debris throw up?

The instructions said the bags were good for 100 psi and I have never run them over 80, because that is about the max my compressor will put into them. I had them at 80 psi at the time because I had loaded the dump trailer by wheelbarrow, and it tends to be tongue-heavy when that is done, since it is hard to get the load distributed evenly right up to the gate.

This seems like a potential safety hazard to me since I had just come down out of a mountain pass where the road is very twisty. Suddenly having to deal with a very unbalanced truck and a heavy trailer on a mountain road could be dangerous.

Other than going slow in potentially dangerous situations like this, is there anything I can do to prevent a sudden unbalance?

Is this a common problem or was I just unlucky?

 

[SPYDERLK]

Dave, I have no specific experience there, but it occurs to me that the spec may mislead. Do the insructions make any distinction between setting the pressure at load or prior to load? Are you airing up to 80 before or after loading? See where Im heading? If before, the airsprings are doing a huge share of load support with greatly elevated pressure as they compress. Pressure may go sky high. If that isnt factored into the design or dealt with in the instructions ... :thumbdown: [:confused2:]
larry

 

[Diamondpilot]

Personally I do not like air bags. I know lots of people with them but to me they seem like a band aid for too small of a truck. OK, got that out.

As for your issue I think it was probably road debris. Like I said I know well over a dozen people who have them and never a blow out. I have seen lots off other issues like cracked lines, leaking fittings, ect but no blown bags. You could have just gotten a bad one or it was some road debris.

Chris

 

[CurlyDave]

I know the truck is too small. I really want an F-350 for the towing. I just don't want to afford one right now. When I am done with my current project, rebuilding and then selling our burned out house, I will probably have enough miles on the F-150, and some spare cash for a bigger one. Heck, even the right new F-150 would give me a lot more towing capacity, maybe enough.

Actually, when they work the air bags are really good. They allow a few inches of trailer ball height adjustment, and can take care of big variations in tongue weights.

I usually hook up the trailer and then add air to the bags, so adding load didn't cause the air pressure to spike. I have aired up the bags and then loaded them, but measuring air pressure after loading usually shows no substantial increase in pressure, most of the time no increase at all. As much as that sounds contrary to the way we think they work, adding load doesn't increase tire pressure either.