P30 Airbag Replacement Succes

Hello Everyone,
I want to start by saying what a great resource this site is.  Being a new RV owner, I find myself spending a great deal of time reading through the many posts/stories everyone has posted.  I thought I would post my story with some things that worked for me when I replaced my air bags on my Chevy P30 chassis.  When I purchased my 1995 Fleetwood Flair, it had a blown right airbag.  It appears that someone came too close to the ground and ripped off the air valve on the base of the airbag.  I set out and purchased a new Air Lift set for under $99 bucks with shipping and completed my install this weekend.  It took about 30 minutes to get each old air bag out.  I used a sawzall to cut them into small pieces and pulled them out.  The vibrating blade with a course blade pulled much of it out and made easy work with the stiff old rubber.  The new bags were a bit of a challenge to get in but the cold weather didn't really help either.  I will have to agree with others that the directions make it seem easy. "simply roll them up and gently twist them in."  The polyurethane rubber is very think and unless you are the incredible hulk, this was a challenge.  I found that if I heated them up with a hair dryer, they become much more pliable.  I took the advice from the forum to use wire ties rather than the string.  They allowed me to get a tighter roll.  After this, I lubricated them with conduit jelly that is used to pull electrical wire through conduit.  It is safe for all rubber, plastic, and metal.  This was the best and is far superior to soap and water in my book.  Now the fun part began.  Pushing something the size of a cucumber through a hole the size of a golf ball takes manipulation, persuasion, and patience.  After about 15 minutes they were in and the top and bottom plates simply slide in with easy.  Following this, I routed the airlines up to a spot under the hood and inflated.  All and all, I have about 3 hours invested in the project and that included replacing the original shocks with a new set of Monroe Gas-Magnum RV shocks. 

Now, my next project while I had the tires pulled and up on jack stands, I found I have 2 manifold bolts that have cracked off on both sides of my Chevy 454.  I'll be searching that tonight, but any thoughts would be great.

How much were your shocks and where did you get them?
J

Thanks for the excellent report.

The manifold bolts are a common problem on the 454 and you should find plenty of info online concerning them. Excessive heat is the cause.

This might be of interest to you.
From my 1995 Chevrolet Forward Control Chassis owner?s manual.

The owner?s manual gives the following ranges:

4,300 LB front suspensions = 10 psi to 50 psi
5,000 LB front suspensions = 40 psi to 50 psi
5,300 LB front suspensions = 50 psi to 80 psi
5,500 LB front suspensions = 60 psi to 100 psi

For the proper adjustment it says to inflate the air bags to the maximum pressure for your vehicle, load the motor home and then reduce the air pressure as needed to level the motor home but don?t reduce it below the minimum.

Other posts have indicated that the front end should re-aligned after the new bag installation but I didn't see that in the service manual or owners manual.

Thanks Clay for that info.  I will be playing with the amounts as we load the coach fully.  That information is very helpul.

RV Roamer:
I bought them online a place called:  http://www.stengelbros.com/  They are located in PA and were great to work with.  I also bought my airbags there too.  For the shocks, I paid $42.84/ea for the front and $44.62/ea for the rears.  They are the Monroe Gas Magnum RV shocks.  Shipping at this place on Timbren and Monroe shocks are FREE.  I know people have raved about Bilstein Shocks but after doing some research, I figured I'd give them a try given the age of my coach.

I would highly recommend this place for any suspension parts and other chassis parts for your rig.