Firestone Riderite airbags

I used the same looking bags on a LCruiser for a while, sold it, kept the bags though. Although some years back the two bags cost me a little over $400. To be well above $1000 now, someone is creaming a bit off the top even with normal price rise factored in. If buying through Pedders, they will add their commission/% increase to whatever they can be bought for from suppliers. It all adds up.
What you don't need is too many middle men involved.

Mate those convoluted bellows bags are as tough as nails. I used them for 4 years on my 79 before going over to a rolling sleeve type bag to cater for a 4" lift. I've not heard of one failing. They are also very hard to damage. Most people bleat about their chassis cracking before the airbag gives way :-)

If you're concerned about their age, at $1000 to replace here in Oz you may well be better importing direct from the USA.

Maintenance wise, just make sure they are aligned nicely and that the bottom brackets in particular have not slipped. This would prevent any wear from rubbing through misalignment.

Cheers

Mick

Lyndon - At 12 yrs old, your airbags are due for replacement. The butyl rubber they're made from, slowly degrades over time.
They will very rarely fail catastrophically, they just develop splits and start to leak.

They are not really all that expensive when you source them from the right sources.
It's true that local suppliers will try to hide the origin, original part numbers, and the cheap suppliers of airbags.

America is where you will find them cheap, just make sure you don't get ripped off on freight or postage.
I've had American suppliers send items via UPS - all UPS did was use the USPS and charge double what USPS did.
Shopmate is a good way to get items to Australia fairly cheaply, particularly if the American supplier is offering free shipping within the U.S.

If you pull your airbags off, you will quite likely find original manufacturer part numbers on the mounting plate area, which are currently hidden.

I just sold some very large (new, surplus) airbags to fit a Scania truck.
They would be 3 times the size of your airbags, and they are only $600 from Scania - and you can buy European aftermarket airbags for about 2/3rds the price of the genuine Scania ones.

Cheers, Ron.

Hi Lyndon. I had purchased 3 new bags that you require for a project that I discontinued. If you are interested happy to sell the 3 at $100ea and all the fittings etc. if you want my contact mobile MickO could supply. Cheers

Hi lyndon.
I am also in the planning stages of a 20,000+ km trip with similar airbags on my camper. I took pics of the cracking around the bottom and sent them to then spoke to the importer at clamp industries(also known as airbag man) and they tell me thats nothing to worry about and that there is 3 more layers below what you can see. I asked if he would do the trip himself with bags like that and the response was a confident yes.
Now they could have said " nah mate you really want to replace them" and i would have in a heartbeat and told them exactly that bit they reckon they ard still all good.