Foretravel Owners' Forum For owners and Fans of Foretravel Motorcoaches September 12, 2025 ...

Airbag failure

October 02, 2022, 09:51:25 pm

Headed towards Salida, CO and I start hearing a horrible whining sound that increases with speed. Thinking it was the transmission, I pulled over to check things out. Well, couldn't see anything, trans and retarder temps were fine. (In hindsight I did hear an air hiss that I figured was from the 6 packs bleeding off.)

I drive off and my wife is following me in the toad as we weren't going far. I look back at my wife and notice her flagging me down again. Also noticed a nice long trail from the tires and I'm not sure why they were making a trail.

So anyways, come to find out the hissing was from the rear forward airbag on the drivers side . Asked a nice person if we could pull on to their property to figure out what to do. Thankfully my parents also have a foretravel and live about an hour from where we were. Went to their house and removed a bag and brought it with me. With limited tools and no cap for the air line, it was very difficult to hack the coach up but managed to get about six inches of space. We are now back on the road.

Question is, the wheel well above the tire is pretty chewed up from the tire rubbing. What kind of options do o have to repair that area?

Purchased 8 new bags hoping to get them this week we shall see.

And thanks to the couple that stopped to help that also own a Foretravel. Hopefully you are on here!

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Re: Airbag failure

Reply #1 – October 02, 2022, 10:05:59 pm

When I had worn out the wheel wells I used fiberglass to repair them and for the final coat
I used cold cure epoxy with a graphite mix from West Systems and I think it wears better.

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Re: Airbag failure

Reply #2 – October 03, 2022, 08:10:40 am

Another repair for worn wheel wells for those not skilled with working with fiberglass is to cover the area with a thin (but thick enough to be rigid) sheet of aluminum. Bed it in a good polysulfice and screw (also beded) at each corner.

Paint exposed side to match wheel well material.

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