I have an s-10 thats so worked over, there's not a whole lot left of the s-10. I want to build an ARB style bumper and started thinking about the airbag.

Really I think I should just take it and the sensors out and sell them on ebay. The only CA law I found on this was you can't sell a previously deployed airbag. I would probably change to a larger steering wheel too in case I ever lost power steering.

But.....

what if I'm wheeling and that airbag really saves my life. I mean if I have a massive bumper, and i actually set off the airbag, that means I've smacked something pretty damn hard. But by that time I'm probably going to have bigger problems to worry about. I'm not a physist so it's too hard to calculate all that crap.

I don't like airbags and I think they cause more injuries than they prevent. If you are wheeling and the airbag deploys it will most likely be a low speed collision where you happen to smack the sensor just right rather than a high speed collission. What will happen next is that the airbag will knock your hands off the wheel and if you are lucky your left hand will only be smashed into the A-pillar. Also your ears will be ringing from the noise of the airbags going off (imagine someone shooting a shotgun with the barrel 12" away from your face). Again if you are really lucky you won't need to be steering around an obstacle or away from a cliff or something because when the airbag goes off and you see everything go white you will sit there wondering why your hands are at your side. If you want to keep airbags for street driving I'd say simply pull the fuse when you go off road.

well said paul, i agree that they can cause major trouble. IMO the best solution is a good amount of rollcage padding around your seat, a well secured racing seat and most importantly a good 3point (or more) harness. after all, does NASCAR use airbags? no, they use what i described above with the best success to date.

Can't speak for the S-10. But, I know on the Jeeps, the airbags aren't going to go off on the trail, unless you really fawked up.


They only go off on a 26mph or greater front impact. I heard they told someone to go out with a XJ? As long as he didn't hit anything head on, he could do what he wanted to it to try to make the airbag go off. He slapped his helmet on rolled it multiple times, etc. no air bag, back at the lab, rammed it in to a wall and it deployed.

If it were jeep... I'de leave them. Most modern airbag systems require multiple sensors to go off before deployment anyway.