Air suspension blow out!

Today I was moving a tractor on a double axle, pipe-rail trailer and as I was climbing up a small incline on a gravel road, I heard a pop and then a boom! Stopped the truck and turns out the air suspension bag on the right side of the truck ruptured.

The tractor weighs 4000# and the trailer about 3000#. Loaded it pretty level but maybe a tad tongue-heavy, but nothing major. Assuming the tongue weight was 1000# +/-

I was in rural Texas so I limped the whole rig about 7 miles to a place where I could get it towed to a dealership ($400). I have an aftermarket 3” ReadyLift that is made specifically for the rear air suspension, so hope this is either covered under warranty or something. I have a lot of questions here.

I towed this same setup multiple times with my ‘16 Platinum with zero issues. I’m not pleased.

 

The last thing i would want on there is a lift kit when the dealer sees it

 

Hopefully the Ready lift Co. will warranty it,considering it was designed specifically for the 3rd gen and a year and change old.
The time,money inconvenience and the tow $ not to mention the phones calls that will be made are going to suck too.
Sorry man.

 

Yeah. The lift is gonna be the x-factor. We’ll see, but either way I gotta get it fixed. I have no idea what cost to expect. I’m a little nervous about that

 

your 16 didn’t have a oem air system with a aftermarket lift on it either though

if you tow like thst with a decent load, lose the lift would be my suggestion and let the Toyota system work as designed

unfortunately I bet you get denied since that’s directly attributable to the failure

have you ever weighed you tow set up to see what the actual tongue is? Did you have WDH on ? Not sure how that would even work with the airbags and a aftermarket lift though

 

Well, my ‘16 does have a lift, but no airbags and it does fine with even heavier loads than this.

Not sure what the tongue weight actually is. It’ll probably get denied and then I’ll see I’ll talk to Ready Lift.

I’m not gonna lose the lift, so guess I live with the consequences.

 

Understandable, find out the tongue weight , that will be key

also the manual says use WDH above like 5k or something, you may want to look into that as well

 

Bummer OP. This is why I specifically avoided the air suspension in our Jeep GC. They’re great, until they fail. Then they are almost undriveable and $$$ to repair.

 

Yeah, I'm guessing a WDH is near mandatory with a Tundra towing anything over 5k lbs. Sorry this happened to you.

 

Damn, hate seeing that. Following to hear the outcome.

 

Interesting. I’ve never even thought of using one. I’ll have to check it out.

 

im guessing what happened is

Too much tongue weight due to the lift messing up Toyotas design specs which was made worse with no WDH with I think you said 8k ish.

I bet without the lift it would have been fine but still a WDH is needed

 

Update: Dealer sent me a video of the underside once it was on the lift.

Looks like the right rear airbag came unmounted at the top and slipped out of position. This caused a ton of pressure on the remaining bag which caused it to fail.

Seems like poor installation from the guys that installed the lift, but idk

Waiting on a ruling from dealer and then I’ll address with the lift shop.

 

Dang bud, that is a heck of a find. Good luck!

 

thanks for the update, if thats the case, I bet it was the lift install.

I would still recommend the above with weighing it so you know the tongue and also WDH

good luck and let us know how it shakes out

 

OP you’re just taking one for the team with this, I’ve got more comfort level now with what it takes to pop a bag. It takes a lot.

 

Update: So dealer denied coverage due to aftermarket lift. I just got the estimate... $3400!

The guy that installed the lift does all of this dealership’s lifts and said that this particular dealer has a policy of anything under a 4” lift should be covered under warranty (they sell a lot of lifted trucks).
He knows the dealership owner and says they’ve been long time family friends. Got on the phone with him and the service manager and the SM is going to talk to the general manager about it. Hope they’ll reconsider cuz something definitely malfunctioned here. It wasn’t the payload that was the culprit.

I’ll update when I can.

 

If Toyota tells the dealer to pound sand on the warranty claim there’s not much to be done.

This is why it is unwise to modify suspensions on vehicles with factory air ride.

 

This will be interesting to see just how good of friends this guys is with the dealer.

i remember on my old 4.6 it had a faulty cam and it was so odd that toyota corporate wanted to come see it in person to learn about it.

i can imagine they will want a photo of the airbag?

 

Thanks for the update , I sure hope they don’t put you in the middle and nobody will stand by their work, it sure sounds like the install dude didn’t torque something or didn’t install wrong

but that’s just with the limited amount of info you posted

I know you said you wanted the lift but if you tow a lot, like I said before consider going back to stock and you likely never have another problem

 

It’s almost as if the vehicle manufacturer has spent millions upon millions of dollars funding a team of degree holding engineers to develop the suspension on a vehicle. Then millions more to test and refine it under a wide variety of conditions to perform its core functions to ensure it works, lasts a long time, and is reliable.

Clearly the manufacturer doesn’t know what the hell they’re doing compared to Ricky Jimbo at Bubba-Tard Lifts Inc. Ricky Jimbo knows what works, and has just as much enginumeering know how and testing as Toyota/Ford/GM/Ram, hell if you ask him Ricky Jimbo knows even more. You need his products to make your “xxxxx” truck ride better, look better, perform better, and drop them panties!

 

Wow. I was just trying to add to the forum, but you seem to have taken my decision to add a lift as a personal indictment.
I added it because I personally didn’t like it the way the stock truck sits.

Now let me be clear I have both the knowledge and funding to support my decision so before you start using the term “unwise” and calling people names, you better know your audience.

I did my homework, understood the potential risks, and I’m willing to accept the consequences, but in my opinion…something failed. If I can have that failure identified and rectified then good for me. If not…I’ll deal with it.

I’ll be just fine without your input moving forward.

 

Damn dude, you’re awfully sensitive.

Life must be hard with such paper thin skin.

 

To be fair, you were being an ass.

 

Nah, not really. I wasn’t attacking the OP.

I didn’t say the OP was Ricky Jimbo or Bubba-Tard Inc. Just that’s who usually is making lift kits that unsuspecting buyers end up buying lifts from. Seems like this might be the case here.

As for it being unwise to modify a truck with factory air ride, I stand by that observation. There’s a reason a lot of really reputable lift manufacturers (the kind that make functional suspension lifts with extra travel and don’t use spacers) don’t mess with factory air ride trucks. There be dragons. Better for everyone to not go there.

Even Toyota doesn’t want to support their air ride equipped Tundras with a factory lift. This is a clue.

 

Not sure what the point of any of your comments have been.

My skin is plenty thick.

Just not sure why you felt compelled to comment with no helpful content, only disparaging comments and insults.

Thanks for telling all of us not to modify our trucks. It’s really helpful. If people were completely content with the factory engineers, then no modifications would be necessary and sites like this wouldn’t exist.

 

You’re considering all modifications as being of equal value, function, suitability, and quality.

They’re not. As you are discovering.

If you want a lifted Tundra the best choice is one without the adaptive suspension package. You might consider returning to stock, and trading for a truck without it to put your lift on if it will transfer over.

I haven’t found any lift kit that is specifically compatible with the rear air ride load leveling system aside from Rough Country.

There are a whole slew of them that specifically state in the technical notes that they are not compatible. Companies like Dobinsons, Icon, etc that make real suspension lifts that actually increase travel, and don’t rely on spacers don’t support the rear air spring equipped Tundra. Neither does the factory TRD lift, and if anyone knows the suitability of the rear air suspension Tundra to be lifted I’ll put my money on Toyota having a pretty good idea.

You are probably throwing money into a burn pit trying to lift an air leveling Tundra and tow with it. I know you don’t like hearing that, but it’s probably an accurate statement.

 

$3400 to fix it makes me think the dealer is going to fire the good old parts cannon at it. Which will not fix the root cause of the problem (which is likely lifting a Tundra with air suspension in back) and the OP will end up having another similar failure.

Return to stock and drive it as designed, eliminate the air ride and lift it, or return to stock trade off for a non air ride Tundra and lift that.