Blown Air Suspension - Replaced

[cmc76]

I was towing a severely overloaded trailer with my 2500. Blew out the passenger side bag. Got everything offloaded and the bag burst and had exploded up and over the exhaust. I limited the use until the replacement Arnot A-3516 bag came in. The truck was sitting on bump stops, so basically like a new F250 as far as ride quality.
Just a couple tips on how i swapped it for those looking at the repair.
I pulled the wheel off, then lowered the axel onto some cribbing as low as i could. Then lifted the truck by the hitch to get some room. since my bag was really blown out, needed some extra space. unbolt the parking brake cable from the hub and the top of the axle. remove the 2 lower bolts holding the bag in place. once loose, easy to reach the air line fitting. Pull it out. What a blown bag looks like shown below. If you buy a new bag it doe NOT automatically come with the corrugated cover. If i was doing it again, i would buy a new cover. Compress the bag then loop it with zip ties. Get it into place, bolts loose on the bottom. cut the zip ties, bag will expand a bit. reconnect the air supply. Now you want to make sure the top seats correctly. With the suspension pulled open this far your air system will be in error and wont power up. I put the wheel on, but in hindsight. id raise the axle and get the truck closer to ride height. Have someone start the truck, back will inflate and you can guide the top into the seated position.
All in al not a bad job. took me an hour or so with basic tools.

 

[johanh13]

I agree, I would put a new cover over it...

 

[gimmie11s]

Holy cow! She blew good

 

[Pearce]

Wild! I've noticed when disconnecting my gooseneck sometimes it appears as if the ball is stuck to the coupler, it could be at least. But, if I open the and shut the truck door the bags deflate due to the load change and the ball drops from the coupler. Not sure what opening and closing the door does to cause this but it works. I'm sure it will do it with the truck off. I can't recall if it does the same with it on. Anyway, maybe something to try before you're completely unloaded to reduce the bag expansion.

 

[cmc76]

I honestly dont know, the compressor kind of has a mind of its own. with any luck, i wont be back under there again. When the bag blew i didnt have much option but to get to my destination and offload. thats when i crawled under and saw the blown bag. i am glad i got it done, sounded like a expensive repair

 

[cmc76]

Unsure what the reason behind it yet. But last night the service air suspension light came on. i have not looked into it yet. but bags are inflated , or at least riding like it is fine so far this morning. I will have to dig into it later and see if i missed something. I patted myself on the back to early

 

[amj2626]

I have the Ram Air Suspension on my 2021 2500 also, it has a leak, which I believe is a bag leaking. Looking ahead, did you replace just one factory bag with the Arnott version???? Can you buy that cover seperately that was damaged on yours? Any help would be appreciated, the factory Ram Bag is crazy priced!!

 

[cmc76]

I bought just the bag. Salvaged the better part of the cover. Some of the cover got melted on the exhaust, I cut that part off.
The bag itself was a direct swap. And once the temperature warmed up above 10 degrees, no issues.

 

[cmc76]

And a Christmas update. So, the replacement bag i installed seems to have blown. Out of nowhere lost air and truck drove like crap last night returning from family get together. Limped it hone, awful ride.
Couple additional take aways-
I didn't notice during initial installation. The Arnott bags have plastic indexing tabs on top. I didn't even see those on my blown factory bag. But didn't think that they may have busted off.
Either way, looks like my replacement shifted towards the front. Kinked and blew.
I was hoping for a loose fitting when I got under it. But it's blowing air like an open hose.
Now that I've been under it twice. I found there is a sweet spot that will kick on the compressor. If you jack it up high enough to get the bag in. Compressor will not kick on. A second person to lower the truck while you lay under and get it properly aligned is probably the way it needs to be done. I didn't do that the first time.
Expensive lesson.
Im on the fence if I go again on my own. My guess is the dealer will be a long way out to get it done. So I may just do it again with lessons learned. 2 arnott bags are still cheaper than a single Mopar one. Let alone service costs.
To be continued

 

[johanh13]

Yikes, keep us posted. Also, some photos would be nice!

 

[AH64ID]

Interesting, I wonder if you have a bad pressure sensor as the truck won’t overinflate the bags. Even if the bag is at max pressure to supple the trailer and it doesn’t vent you remove the weight the bag will decrease in pressure from the bag expansion.

The 2500’s are also notorious for errors with too much payload, so the likelihood of actually overloading the bag is pretty low.

 

[cmc76]

I am going to see if i can find any codes on the pressure sensor etc. i was not towing this time. When i get back under i will get some more pics, it displaced easily 4-6" inches to the front.

 

[cmc76]

OK, so the replacement bag came in yesterday. I was able to get it done before the temperature tanked. Attached is a pic looking up from the rear, the top is where the air line connects. My suggestion is to get it tightened off before getting the bag into final upright position. A couple things i did different this time.
- with the truck in the run position but not started, you can get into your suspension settings and set it to tire change mode. this shuts off the compressor while you wrench.
-I left the wheel on, put a floor jack and some square steel tube under my pintle hitch, ended up having to raise higher than you would think for clearance between the axel and exhaust.
-this time i bought the Dorman bag, it did come complete with the new outer cover where the Arnott Bag did not.
-this time i did cut off the old fitting and installed the new compression fitting on the air line.
-i slowly lowered the truck , checked probably 6 times to get the index points lined up. though when i did air up it still seemed to bang into place. ( index points shown in pic )
-once the bag is in, truck is dropped all the way, i turned in on, turned off tire change mode. it aired up and lifted the truck to correct height in no time.

Additional items
- the airbag bladders seem well made, every other component on it is flimsy plastic
- i did just hand check the ride height sensors located right behind the brake backing plate. these are also plastic garbage. felt like a plastic hanger. i am surprised these survive with any offroad driving.