Driving with no air in Air Bags

[Sammie]

Because of parking height restrictions in my motorhome garage I need to move my new 2006 Journey forward about 2ft after dropping the coaches air bags. Is this possible? I also need to start the engine and then back out 2ft before reinflating. Will I cause any harm to any mechanical parts by driving this short of a distance with the air bags not inflated?

[Sammie]

Because of parking height restrictions in my motorhome garage I need to move my new 2006 Journey forward about 2ft after dropping the coaches air bags. Is this possible? I also need to start the engine and then back out 2ft before reinflating. Will I cause any harm to any mechanical parts by driving this short of a distance with the air bags not inflated?

[doc]

It does not bother our '00 Itasca Horizon. Rather than annoy the neighbors when we leave early by letting the diesel run for several minutes, we just ease out of the site with the bags still down, I hit the "rabbit" button on the HWH levelers to speed up inflation, but the first few yards sometimes feels rather bumpy until the air catches up. Sure would hate to make a couple of hundred miles with them down however.

[GStream40]

Won't hurt a bit. The only thing is that on some coaches the clearance between the front fenders and the tires are so close when deflated that if you turn the steering wheel there is a chance that one will damage the fender at the wheel opening. I would keep the wheel straight if this is your case.

Ron

[Acker1]

According to Freightliner you can do damage by moving your MH with the bags not inflated. The damage is to the drive line. Call Freightliner for verification and it might apply only to certain chassis in their line.
I got this info in a 'Camp Freightliner' class put on at the factory.
DICK

[Cruzer]

As long as you are only going a few feet, and it's in a straight line I don't see a problem. If you turn the wheels you may have some fender clearance issues and the driveshaft angle is greater when the bags are deflated but you are only going a few feet and very slow so you should be OK. Keep it under 75 MPH and don't do any smoking burnout when leaving the garage and you should be fine.

[Acker1]

The reason the 'camp freightliner' instructor stated that, is because someone brought up the exact same question--just moving in and out of a garage. I would still call FL, and if they say it's OK, document it in case you ever have a driveline problem.
JMHO
DICK

[Navy Flier]

You will never get anyone at FL to sign off on permission to move the coach with the bags deflated. Acker 1 is exactly correct in that the problems is in drive line clearance with nuts and bolts within the chassis. When the bags are deflated the driveline angle can be severe enough to cause the driveline to hit bolt ends in close proximity. On some coaches the wheel clearance can be a problems.