Community Forums

rgwarren718 · 03-28-2020, 06:47 PM

Traveling through the great state of Ohio we hit a terrible stretch of road. It was so bad I thought the whole RV came off the ground. When that happened we noticed that roads had become unbearable to travel on. Our 2012 Phaeton was being shaken and hammered like I never felt before.

Of course I had to stop and ponder what was going on and I then noticed the RV was tilting to the rear end. After looking I uncovered we had lost all of the air suspension to the rear of the coach. We were basically riding on the frame. I first thought a broken airline but the pressure gauges were static showing no lose of air.

Found a Freightliner Service Center for $195.00 an hour and they found the problem in two minutes. Apparently there is a rod on the rear airbags that some how adjusts the ride height of the coach by controlling the air flow into the bags. A nut that holds the rod onto (?????) can off and resulted in no air to the air bags.

If this happens to you, you may save yourself some money ($267.00) and time if you look to see if this nut has come off on your coach.

To be fair with Freightliner since the coach took one hell of the beating they completely went over the suspension to assure no damage had occurred.

Just thought I would share

God protect you and your family in these difficult times.

lwmcguire · 03-28-2020, 07:10 PM

Glad you and the family are safe and back on the road.

There are typically 3 ride height control valves on Freightliner chassis

2 on the rear end and one for the front

Mud, road debris can also mess with them and they wear out as well as have parts get loosened

Happy traveling and be safe

Pigman1 · 03-28-2020, 08:34 PM

I believe the system you are talking about is a rod a 6-8" long with a loop and rubber bushing on each end. These bushings slide over short machined pins that are held in positions by the nut you are referring to. I had one on my Powerglide chassis come loose at about 10,000 miles, but I was still under warranty and Tiffin tightened it up, checked the ride height and all the other pins. My Powerglide requires these be cleaned and lubed with Stewart Aqualube, a waterproof grease each 20,000 miles or so. Well worth checking each time you climb under the coach. Aqualube is somewhat hard to find, but it's out there. Your lube requirements for a Freightliner may be different.

gandl2 · 03-28-2020, 11:35 PM

What road were you on? Like to know so can be avoided.

rgwarren718 · 03-30-2020, 09:58 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by gandl2

What road were you on? Like to know so can be avoided.

The nasty stuff was near Columbus. It was either I70 or I270, or I71. We were headed toward Cincinnati on our way to Texas.

richard5933 · 03-30-2020, 11:13 AM

Wondering if the rod had become loose before you hit that stretch of road. At the point you thought the road had gone to pieces it might have actually been the point the rod came off totally, dropping your coach down onto the rubber bumpers. Any coach with deflated air bags is going to ride horribly.