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Off the wall compressed air question

woody

NAXJA Forum User
NAXJA Memorial Lifetime Member
Location
NC Sandhills
At work we have a med-sized truck (F700 IIRC) that we use 2-3 times a year to haul off scrap. 362 days it just sits...I fire it up once a month or so to charge the batteries, drain the water out of the air brakes etc....

Right now it's getting full of scrap, needs emptied bad. One steer tire has a very slow leak & it needs air now before it moves anywhere...last year we called a tire shop that sent out a service truck to air it up. Giant waste of $$ IMHO.

Anyway, it has air brakes...that means it has an air pump of some sort. Our old Army 5-tons had an air hose/chuck that hooked to (a "gladhand"?) a trailer air line, so one could self-inflate...are civilian commercial trucks like this???

An extension of this question is: Could this critter serve as an air compressor (maybe have to add an external tank to boost volume?) How big an air tank do trucks usually need for their brakes? We need air for airing up tires, maybe running a blowgun for small chores, and very possibly running a 1/2" impact wrench when the pipe/pull bar is impractical, or to run a chop-saw/die-grinder every now & then...Were not talking using the air-tools all day, just once in a while.

The state's too damn cheep to buy our lab a real shop air comp, so...

What say the NAXJA truck experts???
 
Truck that size probably has about 6-8 gallons of reserve.

You can pump the tires back up no problem wiht the compressor om the motor.

It iwll run air tools but not well unles syou add considerable reserve.
 
WipesOutStains said:
why not stick with a junkyard sandeen unit?


Dear Mr. Quickerpickerupper;

Swapping over from Sanden Ice to Sanden Air is a valuable idea & thank you for sharing it with us... but that solution isn't fitting this problem:

The compressor isn't coming off the dumptruck to be mounted in one of my Jeeps... :confused1 It has to stay in there to run the Air Brakes for the 3 times a year we drive it 15 miles to dump the scrap out of it.

What I'm asking is if anyone thinks the thing, hooked up to it's trailer brake coupler, has enough guts to run "some" air tools on a limited basis:

#1a Blow gun to clean out a few sieves, blow off a couple fans, & some electronics 1x month.

#1b Chuck to air up it's own tires (9 x 20 to 120 psi IIRC) another company truck, or one of our own personal vehicles. Our nearest 'free air' is 3+mi and our equipment shop is 20 mi.

#2 & beyond...HD 1/2 Impact use (those one or 2 pesky bolts...I have a 12v cordless for the light work), light die-grinding/surface prep, chop-sawing etc...

The personal investment (Trailer coupler, 50' HD air hose, female QD and a few males) is paid off in the next time or two we need it. Right now we have only my cordless 12v air pump, which is "limited" to inflating small tires.

<edit>Thanks Dug, that's the info I was after... No prob adding 1 or 2 small tanks in line to add volume, and a filter/regulator tween it and the hose end...<edit>

Woody
 
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FWIW, most trucks have a bunchof ports on the air tanks, many of them plugged. Chances are good you can just adapt a female QD to that and run your hose from there. Quicker and easier then using the coupler.

BTW, you are draining the air tanks when you run the truck... right?
 
"BTW, you are draining the air tanks when you run the truck... right?"

LOL yes. They drain better with air flowing.
 
All of the trucks I've been around had plenty of air for air tools, airing tires up, etc. They were all larger trucks, but I bet they are close to the same pump. Want butch? Some friends of mine hooked one up to a well preasure tank (roughly 60 gal.) and used it as an air source to paint their other one.

Most of the ones I've seen look similar to a York. Plenty to run air tools even with a one gal. tank. I can ask if you like, but I remember the ratings around 6 to 9 cfm @ 90psi.

I would bet the reserve is closer to the 10 gal range also.
 
Woody! Check the tank for the bungs. There shoudl be 3-4 that you can unscrew and put a quickconnect fitting into. I've been around a lot of trucks with air brakes, mostly 18 wheelers, and all the drivers had air hoses to hook to there tanks and for blowing off stuff and airing up tires. If you ever get down here and Ihave one on the lot I'll show you the "new" CTIS that is being used on tractors and trailers to stop blowouts. It's kool!
 
Considering most airbrake systems I've seen also run 150-200psi, you shouldn't have any trouble inflating the tyres. Air brake actuators are farily large, so volume shouldn't be a problem either.

Having said that, I'd be tempted to run a separate pressure tank for "utility air" - something akin to a deep cycle battery on an isolator - but you shouldn't have any trouble.

Gladhands can be adapted to utility air fittings as well, check for those and you can save yerself some work. Failing that, I have seen some utility trucks with airbrake run a second tank, and hardlines to the front and rear bumpers with manifolds, QDs, or extra gladhands for job air...

5-90
 
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