Driving an air ride without air

[tree98]

One of my guys drove my Pete 365 about 125 miles today with little or no air in the bags because one is leaking badly. The truck has a pusher and a tag axle so that probably helped but I'm wondering what sort of damage can happen from driving it like that?

[the missing link]

I do know that it can break the bottom of the bags out . There is a rubber block in the bottom of the bags , but it will only take so much . Depends if he was loaded and how rough the road was .i would just replace all 4 .it is really hard on the driveline as well .
I know you did not ask but I would kick his ass all the way down a long street if that was me . It takes 2 seconds to plug the line going to the airbag . Running on 3 is still better then none. That's why I have a 500 $ air fitting set , at least it gives me a chance to patch up to get it fixed . But I don't know the story . All I know running like that would be a last resort .

[Nilao]

I carry a 3/8 straight quick connect so I can bypass a busted bag. If it is on an end line I have a 3/8 compression fitting and a plug to block the threaded end of the fitting. Those 3 parts can save your bacon.

[Chamberpains]

A fair amount of drive line problems can happen because the shafts are put in extreme angles and then forced to spin. So if you had any ungreased u-joints or rears with low lube levels, running this way will burn them up in a hurry. Being you said he drove with LITTLE or no air and the air compressor kept up allowing him to release the brakes, generally speaking, if he took his time and didn't beat the snot out of it racing back and didn't say he heard the god awful grinding every time he hit a bump, then I would say he didn't hurt anything too bad. Check your drive line real close. U'joints, slip joints and check for excessive yoke movement for pinion shaft bearings getting damaged and check the oil in the rears for metal shavings. 125 miles is a long time to run like that. So hopefully nothing got burnt up for your sake. But I've seen guys run a lot longer than that and had minimal damage.
A quick fix you can teach any driver in that situation is to cut the air supply line off at the junk bag and fold it over to pinch off the air. Then use vise grips, zip tie or any thing that will keep the air from leaking out. this will isolate the bad air bag but allow the others to function. Then you can limp the truck to saftey.

[Waterloo]

I carry those inexpensive 4 inch needle nose locking pliers. Saved my bacon more than a few times with broken air lines and heater hoses. Around $10 ea at Home Depot, cheaper ones if you shop around. I think I paid around $4 ea for the ones I carry, I like to have at least two in the truck, normally four.

[tree98]

I changed the bag today and got a 1/2" push on cap to put in the glove box for the next time this happens.I looked at the drive shafts and u-joints, everything appears ok. I hope no damage was done.