Safety Air Bags

[grantcln]

When did Chinook install safety air bags in their Rv.

[kdarling]

Air bags started with the 1997 Ford dash update.

A Chinook with that chassis will have a VIN starting with 1FDWE35...

1FD = Ford
W = 10,000 GVW, air bags
E35 = E350 chassis

Even though Econoline vans had a driver's side air bag since 1992, the E350 cutaway did not get any until 1997.

Interestingly, I've seen a 1992 Chinook sales document which listed air bags as a supposed standard option, but I think that was an early mistaken assumption on the part of whoever wrote it. It did not appear in later option lists.

Kev

[Scott]

My 1994 has driver side air bag, but no passenger.

[Edit: I just went out and checked, only to confirm that this in incorrect. It's just a large, heavily padded steering wheel. Bummer.]

[kdarling]

Hi Scott,

What letters do your VIN start with, and would you please post a photo of your steering wheel?

Thanks!
Kev

[Blue~Go]

I had read that about the Chevy cutaway (that the cutaway got airbags much later than the van), but not about the Ford (not that I have ever had one in that year range). I did have a friend with a 2000 or 2001 Chevy Cutaway Class C that had no airbags - not even a driver one - I was pretty surprised considering the late date.

[Scott]

Hi Scott,

What letters do your VIN start with, and would you please post a photo of your steering wheel?

Thanks!
Kev

Oh man, I was wrong. Since my steering wheel is so huge in the middle, I had assumed this whole time that it had a SRS. Nope. Rats. Curator Kev, at it again .

[Blue~Go]

Ha, now it's like when you've been driving blithely along for miles, without a care in the world and then you look down at your gas gauge and see you've been on empty for.... how long? .... and now you're driving along gingerly, ooching yourself to the next gas station.

I wonder if you do have the same "humpy" steering wheel cover as the airbag models, but they were just able to get away with not putting the airbag into the cutaway (but didn't make a separate wheel cover). Can you see where they shaved off the "SRS"? (probably not but you know what I mean).

I imagine I'm not the only one who now sees a, say, 1978 Ford van steering wheel and it it's like..... so thin! Wheel, column, and side stalks are all so slender and naked compared to our puffy things nowadays. I used to drive a '76-ish Ford Cutaway, and it had all that, plus the little/short bucket seats that were almost like little low-back dining chairs

[kdarling]

It's really easy to tell the difference. Here's the two types of 1992-96 steering wheels used by Econoline vans and F150 trucks.

As noted above, the cutaway E350 never got the above airbag version, because it didn't get airbags until the next model revision in 1997 with a totally different wheel.

Still, it's not unknown for someone to install the rectangular wheel just for looks, with an airbag that's not hooked up. That's why I asked for your VIN, in case someone had done that on yours.

Kev