F3T Rear air suspension

[Buckskin]

Many of you with this model with air suspension may not be aware that riding solo or two up that this suspension leaks down about every 10-14 days. Thus unless you are really anal about your suspension, you are riding around just on the spring itself.

This suspension should have on average at least 40 psi depending on solo or two up...
Check yours now, and see what you have??

What do do? If by chance you are one of the astute riders that already have a FOBO Trike set up on your bike you are half way there. Simply add a screw on T-valve to the air fill located under the passenger seat...some of you may not even know that there is one?
Picture attached to know what this setup looks like. Also for those of you already using FOBO Trike and maybe pulling a trailer behind you, you can get a FOBO Bike set to add 2 sensors to the trailer wheels and now you got that set of tires being monitored on your smart device.
Where do you get this item? Ask Jacob at Lamonster Garage to get it for you...
Buckskin

 

[Peteoz]

Good post Buckskin. There have been a number of posts on here from people who did not even realise they had an adjustable rear air bag . You actually wonder how many salesmen and service techs know about them. When my F3-L was handed over, I checked the bag and it was set to zero, even after asking the salesman to get it set to 60psi as I am 300lbs. Mind you, I have the bag set at zero now that I have a wonderful Wilbers rear shock absorbing most of the potholes and road irregularities. The bag really is more of a seat height adjustment than anything else.

Pete

 

[Tbachli]

Critical to set as you can get bounced easily if wrong. I check mine when I check tire pressures. Air bag seems to hold pressure quite well for me.

 

[OkieDoc]

I have a 17 F3T and was really frustrated with the air suspension leaking down every few days.
So when I had my rear apart to change out the tire I pulled the air suspension bag and the associated tubing out. Out of curiosity I inflated the bag up and submerged it in a tank of water. No bubbles coming from the bag assembly, but there was a steady stream of bubbles was coming from a fitting on the fill line. I took the fittings apart and reassembled them with teflon tape. I refilled the bag with 50psi and submerged it again. No bubbles. It has been over 6 months and I have not had to add any more air to my air suspension.
You can add the FOBO to your ride, but I would recommend fixing the air leaks first.

 

[2dogs]

I have an FOBO on my Schrader valve for the airbag. I'm 155/160 lbs. and I ride at 26/32 PSI. The airbag is an automatic ride height system. It is controlled by a sensor on the swing arm and a sensor under the passenger seat. Maintaining PSI varies from spyder to spyder. Some leak down overnight and some hold PSI for weeks or more.

 

[Peteoz]

I have an FOBO on my Schrader valve for the airbag. I'm 155/160 lbs. and I ride at 26/32 PSI. The airbag is an automatic ride height system. It is controlled by a sensor on the swing arm and a sensor under the passenger seat. Maintaining PSI varies from spyder to spyder. Some leak down overnight and some hold PSI for weeks or more.

Not on the F3T it’s not, 2dogs. It’s completely manual.......but the same “leak” rules apply

Pete

 

[2dogs]

Not on the F3T it’s not, 2dogs. It’s completely manual.......but the same “leak” rules apply

Pete

Yep, you are correct. BRP has eliminated some of their headaches by not installing the (#^*&) system on some models. I forgot to mention that BUD's can be used to adjust and set the preload of the system for the weight of the driver. When it works correctly, it is a sweet system.

 

[SpyderAnn01]

This also pertains to the base model RT.

 

[Buckskin]

Now that is interesting....
You say when you had the rear wheel out during a tire change, but it begs the question, with wheel out, is it pretty obvious how to access and remove the bag and air line etc? Next, obviously the fitting right under the seat can be accessed and that is one fitting but what about the other end at the bag? Which one was the leaker? If I took a shot at just pulling the top fitting out of the mount and pull out the line and disassembled the fitting and put some teflon tap or maybe some teflon sealant like on gas/air fitting maybe could seal the culprit off there? From there once I get that leak fixed, the FOBO sensor is an indicator of the air setting for solo and two up riding to make the proper adjustments.
As it is now, that alert is squawking at me when I get 50 ft of the bike. Now it will hold pressure, nice......

I have a 17 F3T and was really frustrated with the air suspension leaking down every few days.
So when I had my rear apart to change out the tire I pulled the air suspension bag and the associated tubing out. Out of curiosity I inflated the bag up and submerged it in a tank of water. No bubbles coming from the bag assembly, but there was a steady stream of bubbles was coming from a fitting on the fill line. I took the fittings apart and reassembled them with teflon tape. I refilled the bag with 50psi and submerged it again. No bubbles. It has been over 6 months and I have not had to add any more air to my air suspension.
You can add the FOBO to your ride, but I would recommend fixing the air leaks first.

 

[Buckskin]

That was a mouthful there Pete. As noted below, I'm going to get that fitting at the top out for starters and see if that fixes the leak issue.

Good post Buckskin. There have been a number of posts on here from people who did not even realise they had an adjustable rear air bag . You actually wonder how many salesmen and service techs know about them. When my F3-L was handed over, I checked the bag and it was set to zero, even after asking the salesman to get it set to 60psi as I am 300lbs. Mind you, I have the bag se
t at zero now that I have a wonderful Wilbers rear shock absorbing most of the potholes and road irregularities. The bag really is more of a seat height adjustment than anything else.

Pete

 

[OkieDoc]

Buckskin, there were a couple of threaded fittings in the manual fill air bag system on my 17 F3T (other models may be different). It was the top fitting or the first one after the schader valve assembly that had the gross air leak on my bike. That said the other fittings are assembled the same way and I see no reason that they couldn't leak also. Having the whole thing off the bike made it easy to diagnose and fix the leak(s) and then check to see that the fix worked.
You can do the top fitting and hopefully that helps. I wish you good luck, but I'd recommend next time you change the rear tire to pull it out and rebuild it the way BRP should have assembled it to start with.

 

[Rattlebars]

Mine does not leak down. The Schrader is tight and you can tighten it with the pictured tool/cap. Too, the OEM cap has a rather generous o-ring which should keep the air in it even if your Schrader is not tight. Bad fittings on the bag should be a warranty item.

 

[Buckskin]

Hey Chet, looks like you made the change over to the CanAm from the Wings with me. I got the dill valve tool to check that to make sure that is not part of the problem. When I screw on that T-valve it seals up on the bike stem but adds two more dill valves. I'm pretty sure I'm sealed off on the side stem with the FOBO sensor and I do have a cap with a little tiny O ring. I think by pulling out that circlip on the bike stem I can pull it out and will use some teflon sealant for gas pipe fitting instead of the tape. If that does not seal it off, then the next time the rear wheel is off will pull the whole thing out and seal it up and then dip it into the pool for the leak test.

 

[CapnPete]

Thanks to this thread, I checked the pressure on my 17 F3-T. Does not hold air. Should this not be a warranty item? Anyone try this approach? I would imagine my dealer (not Platinum, Gold or Silver but I think maybe Lead) is going to give me a bunch of pushback on this.

Just wanted to get others thoughts.

Thanks!

 

[2dogs]

Thanks to this thread, I checked the pressure on my 17 F3-T. Does not hold air. Should this not be a warranty item? Anyone try this approach? I would imagine my dealer (not Platinum, Gold or Silver but I think maybe Lead) is going to give me a bunch of pushback on this.

Just wanted to get others thoughts.

Thanks!

You may not want to go to that dealer. BRP and some (not all) service managers are skilled in deflecting and redirecting. Service managers are supposed to be an advocate for you and act as a go between, between you and your warrantee carrier. Even if you have to travel some distance to find a qualified/competent service department, do it. You'll not regret it particularly if you've ever had experiences with a substandard service department.

 

[johnv50]

I have a 2017 F3-L and was under the impression that the rear airbag was automatic and did not need any manual inflating/deflating. Is this different from the F3-T ??

thanks johnv

 

[CapnPete]

On the F3-T the inflation is manual via a Schrader valve.

By the way I just talked to my dealer and they are quoting a month to fix this.

 

[jlc41]

Hey guys not go off track but, I have a 2018 Limited and I don't see a Schrader valve. There is some type of rocker spring under a plastic cover that appears to be weight sensitive. Have they done away with the Schrader valve on the Limited. No reference to one in the manual.
Thanks

Joe

 

[robtdonna]

The Limited (F3-L) has an automatic rear air bag system. The F3-T air bag is a manual system thus the need for the schrader valve.

 

[Rattlebars]

Hey Chet, looks like you made the change over to the CanAm from the Wings with me. I got the dill valve tool to check that to make sure that is not part of the problem. When I screw on that T-valve it seals up on the bike stem but adds two more dill valves. I'm pretty sure I'm sealed off on the side stem with the FOBO sensor and I do have a cap with a little tiny O ring. I think by pulling out that circlip on the bike stem I can pull it out and will use some teflon sealant for gas pipe fitting instead of the tape. If that does not seal it off, then the next time the rear wheel is off will pull the whole thing out and seal it up and then dip it into the pool for the leak test.

Yup. I could not hold up the wing with my knees going bad. I'mm at a loss figuring out what a dill valve is. Is it pickles? Oops. I found it. Never heard it called a dill valve before ( for 70 years)

You may not want to go to that dealer. BRP and some (not all) service managers are skilled in deflecting and redirecting. Service managers are supposed to be an advocate for you and act as a go between, between you and your warrantee carrier. Even if you have to travel some distance to find a qualified/competent service department, do it. You'll not regret it particularly if you've ever had experiences with a substandard service department.

You bet deflect and redirect. I tried to get a warranty call on a signature light that went bad in 2 months and they dicked me around until BRP would not honor anything on it.