#381 Replacing an Airbag on my Peterbilt The Life of an Owner Operator Flatbed Truck Driver

okay we got both or we got airbag out it actually came out a lot easier and I thought it would all right good morning it is Sunday morning we're in Effingham Illinois Illinois I got the wireless mic so I hope you guys can hear me we are near the interstate which is over there we've unhooked the trailer got a couple projects for today we're gonna fix the exhaust leak and I've already got the can down and then we're gonna replace that air bag right there that's gonna be the biggest job right there so but I'll talk about how we're gonna do it so what we're replacing this the front air bag it looks just like this one so you guys can get a good idea of what it looks like but I'll show you we're gonna have to block it up and everything first thing I wanted to show you was this is my little quick fix for the in one second this is my little quick fix for the exhaust leak I just buy it this is a tomato paste can which is just about the right diameter just a little bit so we'll overlap it the one thing you want to look for when you get in the can is make sure it has the lip on each end some of the new cans they're kind of formed from one piece of metal and they don't have the lip on each in where you can open it with the can opener so make sure you do that but this pretty simple process we're gonna put this on there we've got some clamps gonna put some clamps around there and the way I cut this is I just take the saw hang on a second I just take the saw set the saw in like this and then slice it like that so that's how I cut it but let me go ahead get this on this pretty simple and then we'll get into the tough stuff here in a second okay I got to use my my new drill so thank you Steve that's what it looks like pretty straightforward that'll last for quite a while I found those work better than the clamps so we'll try that for a while and see how that goes all right next thing we're going to do is the air bag so what we need to do is we're going to undo the leveling valve and we're going to overextend the air bags a little bit and then block it up and then that way when we let the air out of the air bags it will sit on the blocks and it'll give us enough room between the top of the air bag and the bottom to put the new one in okay we've got the the bolt off of the leveling valve now watch that air bag see this is the leveling valve so I raise it up and that air bag is going up so you can see how it goes up and what we want to do is pump it up over extend it a little bit and then we're gonna put some blocks of wood now see how if I just leave it right there it's a stay level and the way it works is when it's hooked into this here is how so when it goes down see it gets released in air and it goes up it pumps it in and when you're going down the road this thing is constantly going up and down to keep the same pressure amount of pressure in the air bags so I'm just going to take that set it over out of the way so it doesn't let me move it painlessly so it doesn't get bent or hurt there we go okay so now let's uh let's block this up a little bit all right I'm trying to do this with one hand so gonna have to fair with a little bit sit here put this one on my hair kind of trying to get it just right there there we go okay so we'll just double check make sure that when we set it down it's not going to hurt anything that one looks good that one looks good let's swap this out for this smaller piece right here get that one right there double check okay so now what we're gonna do is we're gonna lower the airbags so push the level down and it's going to sit on those blocks so come over here right there double check see how this is doing over here it's uh I'm gonna adjust that one block right there let's go ahead and let the air out of the airbags there make sure nothing gets bound up okay all of the air is out of the airbags so see how soft now the weight of the truck the frame is sitting on these blocks of wood right there so there's no weight on the airbags and that gives us plenty of room so I'm gonna use this airbag as an example because we're gonna change the one over the front you can't see it very well so there's two bolts right here then we gotta bust loose nine times out of 10 these bolts break I've already got the hardware and everything I need and then underneath there is a bolt that is up under here that we gotta break out and that's the same thing nine times out of ten that stud will break I've already got a new stud for the new airbag but that's what we're gonna replace and then we just got to remove the air line and I'll let me uh let me go get the new airbag okay this is the new airbag that we're gonna replace it's a little bit different it doesn't have bolts that go down through the top I asked a guy you know it was different he says it's the new design so we gotta that's why I have to jack it up because you got to have enough room to push this down and get the studs up into the hole I did buy a new air fitting just in case I can't get the old one out and then this is the stud that it is stud that'll go down in the bottom so like I said it's kind of hard to see up in here but that's the air bag we're gonna replace you can see it's soft there's no air in it so what I'm gonna do now get the tools plus the bolts loose on the front airbag and from the bottom and remove the air line so once I get that done on the front I'll uh I'll show you what's going on okay we got both or we got the air bag out it actually came out a lot easier and I thought it would so the the fitting the air fitting came out the bolts came out fairly easy and then on the bottom it's actually two parts on the bottom the stud that goes down through the bottom that one came out pretty good now what was wrong with this one is I don't know if it'll show up in the camera but this is real dry rotted around here and it was leaking now it wasn't like blown out leaking but it was leaking and so if this one's pretty dry rodded that means that most likely another one's gonna be dry rotted so I will have to keep an eye out for that but so this is the new one here and see here gently turn this over I don't want to hurt those studs but this the same thing bottom comes out and then like that like that let's see here let's go over here and take a look if I can show you so let's see if it'll show up so the air bag used to sit right there so you can see where the the hole is so the frame of the truck is actually sitting on the block of woods right there so that is the way to change the air bag on the truck not too bad not too hard another thing you could do especially on the trailer sometimes if you have a blow air bag on the trailer is to plug up the air line going to the air bag you want to replace and then what happens is you air up the other three air bags and then you can get work because you need that space to to get the air bag to push it down and get it in the hole same thing if you have a Peterbilt and you ever have to change this little air bag right here this is fairly easy get you a block of wood stick in the hole right there jack up there get a cab just a little bit set it down on that wood an Indian replace that air bag same same principle so so anyway it's cool pretty good let me let me go ahead put all these parts back together and we'll we'll see how it goes it's actually going fairly easy so talking a bit all right we got the new air bag in show you guys so we got it see if it'll show up so we got the new air bag in right there now I got the airline hooked on and then I just snug up these bolts because what I wanted to do is fill up with the air first and then sometimes when the fills over there it wants to twist just a little bit and find its center I found that sometimes it works best so it's it's just snug we'll let it fill up and then it might wiggle a little bit to find its center and then because it might be twisted just a little bit on the air bag so to let it kind of find its center that's just something I do I don't know if it works or what but that's just how I do it so I've already started the truck we got air built up now what we're gonna do is take the leveling valve see these are still flat we're gonna take the leveling valve crank it up and we're gonna add some air and you can hear that the air going up so we leave it up like that and then up and then you heard that one pop so like I said it wants to find it's kind of its center that's why I don't snug it down and then there it goes so it's it's aired up let me go ahead and level that out turn that off all right so you can see now it's off the blocks and everything looks right so they're a little overextended so we're gonna lower it down a little bit all right we'll set it right there for right now so what I'm gonna do I'm gonna go ahead and take the blocks out hook the leveling valve back up get it to where the trucks level or where it's supposed to be and then we'll go down and tighten everything up and make sure everything looks pretty good okay I think we got everything done and put away so we've got the leveler hook back up we're going to start the truck build up some air pressure you can see kind of sitting at an angle got the leveler hook back up we've got all the bolts tightened up on the air bag here we'll go over here a ticket so you can see from this angle over here so we got all the bolts tightened up on the airbag the line the air line hooked up so everything looks good thanks project these are my eight foot drops right there on that load that's my little four foot drop that's got the big tear in it so the next project is we're gonna roll out that tarp and fix that tear and I think what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna move the truck over just over this way and then we'll work on the tarp between the truck and the trailer so that's gonna be the next project ah see here the little our little suit can fix so today's turnin out pretty good getting a lot done okay I got the truck moved over and I got the tarp out as you can see that's my big rip in the tarp now I have that tarp tape over here stay here I'll show you this stuff I bought this what last year at that truck show this stuff right here but what I have found that when it gets hot out this stuff comes off it get the glue gets all tacky so what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna glue this with that glue glue this to that and I'm actually gonna do both sides so I'm gonna put a strip across there let it good dry flip it over and put a strip on the other side and hopefully hopefully that'll fix it enough to where I can use it what had happened is I had a load of Steel and I put some padding up there but apparently it wasn't enough and it sliced right through there so all right so that's gonna be my project I'm gonna do that it's pretty simple straightforward but I'll call it quits for today on the video but I'm gonna finish this and I'll talk to you guys later thanks for watching you

Channel: SuperTruckerDan

Views: 20,499

Rating: 4.9602108 out of 5

Keywords: super trucker dan, supertruckerdan, flatbed, flatbed equipment, truck driver, truck leasing, truck driver training, truck driving, truck driving company, drive a truck, american truck driver, cdl, dash cam, dashcam, driver, driving, driving a peterbilt, flatbed trucking, flatbeder, freightliner, how to, kenworth, learning to drive, leasing, lorries, mercer, otr, owner operator, peterbilt, prime inc, tarp, tarping, trailer, truck, trucker, trucking, trucking videos, volvo, mercer transportation

Id: g0qGgpHt1A4

Length: 13min 26sec (806 seconds)

Published: Sun Mar 08 2020