Yankee in Dixie
Member
The GooseBox on my 21 Astoria 3173RLP was not holding air. I would fill it up at home or at a truck stop and when we would stop in a couple of hours the air would be completely gone. I also was having issues with filling the internal airbag with a portable air compressor. I finally replaced the external lines with a simple hose and valve. I could then fill with the portable air compressor, but within a day there was no pressure in the airbag. So I called the help number on the side of the hitch and talked to a service rep. After discussing the hitch's symptoms and what I had done he had a new airbag shipped to me at no cost and emailed me the instructions for replacing the airbag.
The airbag arrived in about 10 days. The provided instructions were clear and covered virtually everything. It wasn't hard replacing the airbag, but of course there were some issues. The top two bolts holding the airbag in would not come loose. Generous amount of Kroil and heat had not effect. My impact wrench just rounded out the 5mm hex head and I had to drill the bolts out. Then removing the lower assembly you have to move the assembly back a couple of inches before it will drop down and out. The instructions don't mention this. The old airbag was made in Germany by Continental Tire.
I could find no damage to the airbag, top:
Or bottom:
This is what the original bolts holding the airbag in looked like, they are 8mm x1.25, 20mm long. It takes a 5mm hex head/allen wrench to remove them.
When I reinstalled the airbag I replaced the upper bolts with conventional bolts with a shoulder on the head. they are also 20mm long.
The only issues I had reinstalling the lower assembly was remembering to move the lower assembly up a couple of inches past the alignment point for the big pivot pin and getting the shocks reinstalled. The pivot pin requires two 8mm hex head/allen wrenches to tighten.
My hitch was made on 21 September 2021. As you can see by this decal:
Hopefully this will not be a reoccurring issue. Pressure in the airbag seems to be holding fine now. We bought this unit last March and I am sure the airbag was unserviceable when we bought the unit, but this is the first one I have seen.
The airbag arrived in about 10 days. The provided instructions were clear and covered virtually everything. It wasn't hard replacing the airbag, but of course there were some issues. The top two bolts holding the airbag in would not come loose. Generous amount of Kroil and heat had not effect. My impact wrench just rounded out the 5mm hex head and I had to drill the bolts out. Then removing the lower assembly you have to move the assembly back a couple of inches before it will drop down and out. The instructions don't mention this. The old airbag was made in Germany by Continental Tire.
I could find no damage to the airbag, top:
Or bottom:
This is what the original bolts holding the airbag in looked like, they are 8mm x1.25, 20mm long. It takes a 5mm hex head/allen wrench to remove them.
When I reinstalled the airbag I replaced the upper bolts with conventional bolts with a shoulder on the head. they are also 20mm long.
The only issues I had reinstalling the lower assembly was remembering to move the lower assembly up a couple of inches past the alignment point for the big pivot pin and getting the shocks reinstalled. The pivot pin requires two 8mm hex head/allen wrenches to tighten.
My hitch was made on 21 September 2021. As you can see by this decal:
Hopefully this will not be a reoccurring issue. Pressure in the airbag seems to be holding fine now. We bought this unit last March and I am sure the airbag was unserviceable when we bought the unit, but this is the first one I have seen.
