Offroading with airbags

TerryMason

Administrator
Staff member
I've never been offroading in a vehicle that had airbags, but I'm looking to take my new TJ soon. Is there anything that needs to be done when you're gonna wheel with airbags? What does it take to set off an airbag? Can I just pull a fuse to disable them?
 

I wouldn't pull a fuse just because that may inadvertantly set it off either pulling it or putting it back in. Plus, it maybe connected to other important stuff. I've wheeled my TJ for 6 years and never set an airbag off. I'm not sure what kind of wheeling you're doing, but I've come to some rather abrupt stops with no problems. Although, you should be able to turn the passenger one off. If you don't have anyone riding in that seat then why risk setting it off. You'll only have to replace one if you do happen to set it off.
 

Some manufaturer's airbags are set to activate as low as 5-10 miles per hour. Others may have a higher minimum speed. There are usually 2-3 sensors in the front (nose) of the vehicle, and in addition there's an inertia switch inside the control module (usually a silver/black flat rectangle metal box) located somewhere in the vehicle's interior. Both the sensor(s) and the inertia switch need to be activated in order for the airbag to deploy.

I don't recommend pulling the fuse to the airbag b/c that fuse may control other features on the vehicle. Besides that, the airbag control module is designed to hold an electrical charge for anywhere from 10 minutes to an hour AFTER electrical current has been removed from the unit. So it is highly likely that an airbag will have the ability to deploy after electrical current is removed.

Like Bounty said, "If they go off, it's likely you needed them."

Happy wheeling, Terry!
 
There is a fuse, to the best of my recall, it's one of the ones for the airbag system, but I am not one hundred percent sure, that controls things like, your air conditioning, your backup lights, a couple other systems like that. As I recall, the original problem was the airbag light being on, the subject vehicle was a '00 TJ that required all kinds of frustration and diagnostics before it was found that it was just one stupid little fuse... I mention this, just to point out that pulling the fuse would not be a good idea, there are a lot of interconnected systems...

I have never seen an airbag go off on the trail, and I have seen vehicles hit trees, vehicles hit vehicles, vehicles roll over, you name it... If you hit something head-on hard enough to set it off, I concur, you needed it to go off, but things like being off angle, bouncing up and down, splashing, tipping, dipping, climbing, descending, and other such things, in my experience, have no effect whatsoever on the airbags...

Your seatbelts, that's another story... Those things just LOVE to lock in at the slightest hill climb and/or giant washboard...
 

0k here is the official word ...
Your jeep has multiple sensors for the air bag, and more than one needs to be triggered in order for the air bag to discharge.
They are designed to function at 30 MPH and up. Also if for some odd reason that your airbag did deploy you have a class 2 air bag that deploys slower than the the original design.
 
Back
Top