Are air bags a wear item?

[Kathy G]

With about 6000 miles on our Workhorse chassis with a 2008 Crescendo 40K, we blew the air suspension on the passenger side (one with heavy slide) while going over a minor bump on a paved road. It is being fixed under warranty, but would like to know what to expect in the future.

[RayChez1]

Not sure what kind of air bags you have on a workhorse chassis. I have the Neway Freightliner and I never have had any problems with the airbags. Those air bags are made out of some pretty strong stuff, you must have hit that speed bump pretty hard to blow an air bag. Or it was just a defective bag from the factory. :wink: :wink:

[Kathy G]

We were going 62 mph on a paved 4 lane US highway, minor bump

[RayChez1]

We were going 62 mph on a paved 4 lane US highway, minor bump


This Crescendo that you own, is it a diesel pusher or is it the FRED. I am not familiar with the workhorse chassis. I am thinking that they only make workhorse for the front engine diesel, but I also know that Crescendo has a diesel pusher version and also a Fred. I am trying to picture which air bags you have on your coach.

[Kathy G]

It is a diesel pusher

[RayChez1]

It is a diesel pusher

Kathy, I imagine that the air bags on a workhorse are basicly the same as on most other diesel pushers and those air bags usually last a long time. But they will fail every once in awhile, most of them are sold at truck stops. I think what happened to your coach was more of a rare thing. You probably will never have problems again.

[Kathy G]

I read somewhere online that if your coach sat around a dealer for awhile and the dealer had the slide out, that might cause premature wear. Ours was made in 2007 and we bought it last summer, so the big wall slide may have sat out and that is the side where the airbags failed.

[RayChez1]

It would not be premature wear because there are no moving parts to an air bag. It is like a basketball you fill it up with air and you can deflate them if you choose to. I let all the air out of mine when we are at an RV park. Then I put the slides out, but, NO that would not be the problem for the air bag to fail. Maybe something was rubbing on it and it wore a hole through it, or something else, but not worn out because your slides were out.
Well it is good you still had warranty on it. That is why when I bought my coach I also bought an extended warranty, since I planned to keep the coach for a long time. I got a seven year extention on mine. It will be up this year though.

[rodger1997]

Kathy...I just purchased my coach and I am the 3rd owner, I have to replace the rear air bags, found one blown and one not correct for my Workhorse chassis, I have found several things that are not right...it always amazes me the things people do to save a $....Air bags are not a typical item you should have to replace often...we own heavy delivery trucks and don't have many issues....