[77newell]

Richard, you and I are on the same page regarding the "driving forces". Math does matter. There is a drawing in the notebooks for the coach showing Ridewell specifying a 6in plus diameter airbag for the rear. There is no way that could do the job. There is another drawing showing a 9.12in diameter top plate and a 8in bottom plate. This is the bags my coach has and it's rated for 5800lbsf at 90psi, which is less than the load imposed. It works, but it is at its limit.

Your suggestion of adding a grease fitting seems sensible to me though it would require pulling the bolts and drilling passages for the grease. At that point I'm stuck with the need for 1100ft-lbs of torque which is more than I'm willing to mess with.

Given that no Ridewell suspension uses any lubrication I'm guessing that what I'm experiencing is really rare, go figure. I'm also guessing that being this highly loaded is rare so it may never come up in normal applications. Therefore, your suggestion for installing larger bags makes sense. I will consider that if and when I need to replace the bags due to their condition.