Ram's factory air suspension

I carry an extra bag and spare parts in my truck. I can replace a bag or any of the lines on the side of the road in a matter of minutes. So in some ways the air ride is better. I have seen broken springs, hard to do that on the side of the road.

I've driven semi's for 18 years and it is rare to have an actual air bag leak. Normally you see a wear mark before the bag develops an issue. Normally it's the air leveler valve that goes bad or a bad fitting. Limp it home or a safe place and call road repair. The one time I had a bad bag, they isolated it to stop the leak and I limped the 20 miles back to the yard.

If it did not cost about $4k to do it, I'd swap out the leaf springs in my F350 for air ride suspension in a heart beat. Whenever I do replace my current truck I will be looking for air ride.

Your asking a question that can't be answered at this time. IMO a broken spring/equalizer bar/pins or a deflated air bag nets the same issue. You simply limp to the closest garage that can fix the problem.

IMO the Ram may have taken a page from the Kelderman suspension system that has been around for years. The Ram system may be similar to their 4 link air suspension. The Kelderman air suspension system is very popular with RV folks with LDT's and MDT's .

I will let you know how it works out when I get my 14 or 15 with rear air suspension next year.

For lighter duty vehicles, air bags have been around for the luxury marques. Seems like typical life is anywhere between 100k to 200k for the bags. Compressors are a different story, I believe they are using electrically driven units. They don't last as long as engine driven units, but they also don't cycle as much. I also don't know if the factory bags have any hard internal structure to support the vehicle should one go out. Some do and some don't, if they don't, then loss of air would sideline you. Also, air suspension will usually give plenty of notice before actual failure. You will typically see cracking on the rubber or see sand or dirt rubbing away at the air bags. So as long add you are diligent on the inspection of your vehicle, you should catch most issues before they break. It's just the electric air compressor that is an unknown for me.

Duplicated info already posted.

A lot would depend on the capacity of the compressor ,big leak - you need a large supply of air to limp home ,if it can't keep up you are stopped.
As long as they don't cheap out and go with a low bid supplier they should last and last,Ive got over 1/2 million on mine . The bags themselves are very robust and connectors are inexpensive and roadside replaceable.
The compressor is the unknown,engine driven? Electric? Classs 8's are pretty big 2 cylinder units.
Anyone know .

bigrigs have run airbags for decades, not much worry there. As far as running without air in the bags, it would be as good as a shopping cart at freeway speeds.