Demco Air Force One Check Valves

[No Plan]

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I just wanted to bring to the attention for people using the Air Force One braking system some information that was just brought to my attention this week. I had a failure of the system on my way up from Arizona to Colorado last week. Everything was fine and I had no issue descending Raton Pass.

I went up to my Newmar dealer TransWest, and had this issue diagnosed and fixed. There was a vacuum leak on the airlines on the Jeep caused by bad/failed check valves. Because of the bad check valves/vacuum leak, the brakes on my Jeep were mushy and not functioning properly. They installed new check valves and I was told Demco now has a new and improved check valve. I called Demco and they told me that in fact they are using an upgraded design made by a different vendor. They are sending me 4 of the new check valves under warranty to carry as spares.

My Air Force One was installed 2 years ago for a point of reference.

 

[Neemer]

Where are these check valves located?

 

[No Plan]

They are located on the vacuum lines of the Jeep, which is part of the braking system, coming out of the Air Force One control unit mounted under the hood of the Jeep.

 

[No Plan]

I received the new version of the check valve yesterday from Demco. You can see in the picture below it's a new design. I was told by the tech at Demco the new check valve is from a different vendor and it is spring loaded.

New check valve on the left and original on the right.

 

[Neal]

If you can please provide a picture of the locations on the unit to help educate us where these go.

 

[No Plan]

Absolutely Neal... I will take a picture of check valve where it is installed on my Jeep. However, I can't do this until later this afternoon. I have a function to attend this morning.

 

[newmarokie]

Neal, attached are pictures of my '13 dodge 1500. The principal is the same. Look for the vacuum line going to the vacuum booster(probably a half inch line). One check valve goes in there followed by a tee. One side of the tee goes in the line to your vacuum booster. The other open space on the tee goes to the air force one controller. The other check valve goes in this line. The check valves allow the air force one to create vacuum just for the vacuum booster, not the entire vacuum system on the toad. The other check valve prevents the toad from losing vacuum through the air force one while under it's own power.

 

[Neal]

Thanks! Hard to see but I know where to look. May reach out to them but to date all seems to be fine.

 

[No Plan]

See below the pictures of the Air Force One control box on my 2022 Jeep Wrangler, the vacuum line coming out, and the location. There is a second one on the right side as well where the vacuum line continues on. As you can see, my tech at TransWest replaced both check valves with the new ones.

I had an issue after my Air Force One was first installed when I took delivery of my Ventana in April of 2022 after the Air Force One was first installed. One of the original check valves had failed. Clearly this is/was an issue then but I never received any service bulletin or notification from Demco regarding the upgraded check valves. My system is registered with Demco, but based on information I was told, Demco is negligent regarding customers about this and other issues I'm aware of.

I hope this information is helpful to those that have the Air Force Braking System.

 

[Chuggs]

My Air Force One is from 2016...SMI was the company at the time, before it got rolled into Demco.

I have mushy brakes sometimes. I recently pressure bled the brake lines with fresh fluid and performed the ABS procedure. It helped, but I have always wondered if the check valves could be the culprit.

Found them as Demco Part Number off etrailer.com and ordered one just now.

Did you need to only replace the check valve on the vacuum line going into the control box? I see others along the vacuum service line.

Thanks for sharing!