Should I worry about my airbags when off roading?

truckguy82 · March 15, 2017

2002 and up GM 1500's will deploy airbags at 9mph and up, under that speed you are okay.

2007-2017 JEEP Wranglers it is 8-12MPH, not sure of the criteria for that minimum speed gap.

Those are the only 2 I know.

I don't know if this is true. I went to gm technician school just for the hell of it about 10 years ago.

airbags have a battery backup on them, don't know if it's changed since then but typically the battery has enough juice in it for 10-20minutes. The reason for that is if you lose power, or just parked somewhere like the side of the road, and then get hit by something, your airbags will still deploy.

So if they implemented a system so that your airbags deploy when your vehicle is shut off, clearly there would be no minimum speed for deployment.

Unless you're just talking about the side airbags and they are on a different system, you'd think they wouldn't be though.

Jerry's Denali · March 15, 2017

10 months much less 10 years is an eternity in the automotive safety/technology field.

It is against Federal guidelines for an airbag to deploy below a certain minimum speed, which I think is 4 MPH(not sure).

Different automotive companies have various minimum speeds that they go by, but none can go under the Federally mandated minimum speed.

Airbags can be very dangerous if deployed when not needed, like at very slow speeds and while stationary.

The minimum speeds I stated were correct, however they can change on a daily basis with the new car manufacturers design changes.

I should also clarify my statements only pertain to frontal airbags, NOT side curtain.

Side curtain airbags are a completely different animal, I have seen where they deployed in an automated carwash with the car in Park.

With all that said, I remove the SIR fuse when we go off-roading in our Wrangler, just to be safe.

Jerry's Denali · March 15, 2017

More clarification I was just made aware of:

There are some areas of the SIR software that allows airbags to deploy if vehicle is in Drive but stopped and has a sudden acceleration in the reverse direction(severe frontal impact), i.e when stopped at a traffic signal.

I do not know how these forces are calculated, but I will find out from my "expert"

Andy Seibel · March 15, 2017

either way, a certain amount of g-force is required to trigger the air bags (except for malfunction). I and others have stated that you can abuse your vehicle a decent amount without having airbags go off.

The OP was wondering if he should diasble them- I would say no, the airbags won't go off if you are driving off road. Its not worth messing with a safety system that will probably just set off all kinds of warnings and alerts in the DIC.

Madcow2020 · March 15, 2017

There has been reported issues of the airbags going of while on unimproved roads. I know one was a member on here. He showed where he was and it didn't look worse than my front yard. What is known about that is it was after a suspension lift and there was no body damage on the truck, but without video or data logs from the truck everything else is speculation. He may of gotten severely of camber somewhere signaling the system that he had reached the threshold of rollover. The other one I've seen and is confirmed is the Chevy Colorado test video. They did look like there may of been son good of camber spots on the road. Unfortunately they do not show you the video tape of when the bags deployed. They just cut to a picture of them having been deployed. Those are the only two verified reports that I've seen, there maybe more but I really haven't looked. I think asking as you don't cowboy it through bad stuff you should be ok. They looked like they were beating on the Colorado pretty hard in the rest of the video.

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MrSteam · March 16, 2017

I don't know if this is true. I went to gm technician school just for the hell of it about 10 years ago.

airbags have a battery backup on them, don't know if it's changed since then but typically the battery has enough juice in it for 10-20minutes. The reason for that is if you lose power, or just parked somewhere like the side of the road, and then get hit by something, your airbags will still deploy.

So if they implemented a system so that your airbags deploy when your vehicle is shut off, clearly there would be no minimum speed for deployment.

Unless you're just talking about the side airbags and they are on a different system, you'd think they wouldn't be though.

Great Info. I would love to hear any follow up you may find. Thank you for posting

either way, a certain amount of g-force is required to trigger the air bags (except for malfunction). I and others have stated that you can abuse your vehicle a decent amount without having airbags go off.

The OP was wondering if he should diasble them- I would say no, the airbags won't go off if you are driving off road. Its not worth messing with a safety system that will probably just set off all kinds of warnings and alerts in the DIC.

That's what I was worried about by pulling fuses. I am sure it would cause all kinds of errors.

There has been reported issues of the airbags going of while on unimproved roads. I know one was a member on here. He showed where he was and it didn't look worse than my front yard. What is known about that is it was after a suspension lift and there was no body damage on the truck, but without video or data logs from the truck everything else is speculation. He may of gotten severely of camber somewhere signaling the system that he had reached the threshold of rollover. The other one I've seen and is confirmed is the Chevy Colorado test video. They did look like there may of been son good of camber spots on the road. Unfortunately they do not show you the video tape of when the bags deployed. They just cut to a picture of them having been deployed. Those are the only two verified reports that I've seen, there maybe more but I really haven't looked. I think asking as you don't cowboy it through bad stuff you should be ok. They looked like they were beating on the Colorado pretty hard in the rest of the video.

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Sir I saw these two cases also. That is what got me worried. Not so much the 6" lifted truck but the bone stock Colorado made me nevus. I have a 2 1/2" Read LIFT leveling kit installed. I had to or I would never be able to even try to get any place off road. So I worried a bit about this. I don't want to get stuck with a big bill.