adding airbags

[Sirlandsalot]

Hello everybody!


Up here in yur Canada eh,  I have a 33’ 1984 chieftain that I would like to add airbags to.    I am wondering who has done it?   I ma not replacing but adding, I have read a bit about different options like airlift and firestone.


I am nervous to order somthing and find it wont fit! 


Thanks y’all

[HamRad Mobile]

Good morning, Sirlandsalot] 

     Interesting that no one has responded yet. 

     Your Chieftain is built on the GMC P37 motor home chassis, a variant of the P30 medium duty truck chassis.  It is easy to add the air bag or air lift kit to the rear axle.  The Airlift kit may be a little more popular than the Firestone, but either one will fit and work.  I have an old Airlift on my rear axle. 

     This is literally a bolt-on addition to your rear axle.  It is easy to do. 

     Officially, the main effect is to help you adjust the rear axle right height to maintain the suspension system in the correct attitude with varying loads in the back of the motor home.  Again officially, it does not alter the weight carrying capacity or the GVWR. 

     You already have eight air pressures to monitor; the six tires and the two air bags up front.  Well, actually that is nine air pressures to monitor, because we should look at the spare tire also.   

     This addition will raise that to eleven pressure checks to make. 

     When ordering, just tell them that you want the kit for the P37 motor home chassis, and the rear axle is the same as the P30 truck chassis.  I think mine is the Airlift 88203 kit.  The catalog gets a little weird when you get to 1993, but yours is before that, so you will be OK. 

     A Tire Pressure Monitoring System (TPMS) is a really good thing for watching over the tires, but often we need to run a different pressure in the air bags than what the TPMS is set to watch over.  For that reason, the TPMS might not be helpful if your air bag pressure is outside the range for watching over the tires.  I did check with the maker of my TPMS, and they are set to watch for only a limited range of pressure levels.  You cannot select a range for each individual pressure monitoring sensor.  Rats. 

          Enjoy; 

          Ralph 
          Latte Land, Washington