Onboard Air Systems (Updated w/ Pics)

adamis wrote:
The pain in airing tires isn't so much the time it takes but holding rather holding the connector on the valve stem.

Amen to that. I just spent the weekend down to the beach and timed my air down/up with the crossfires going to both tires on the rear.

Air down 80psi to 24psi: 12 minutes (using auto air deflator)

Air up 24psi to 80psi: 6 minutes (using parks provided air pumps)

Holding the provided air chuck on for 6 minutes (per side) just right so it doesn't leak is no joke.

With a 4 gallon air tank, running air impact tools would be no problem. Probably would want to change out to 3/8" airline maybe instead of the 1/4" I have. Still, I think you would easily be able to run an impact wrench or griner as much as needed with this setup.

As far as inflating tires, while there is probably room for larger tanks under the truck, I don't think it would be of much use, you aren't going to get a large enough tank under the truck to handle all six tires. At some point you just have to let the compressor run and fill.

One thing I did setup was a Y splitter that I can plug to my connections on the truck. I then have two hoses and can fill two tires at a time. I also have the connectors that stay connected once on and a pressure regulator. The beauty of this is that the tires will be exactly the same pressure. I can employ this on the dually's as well. The idea being that I can just connect the tires and walk away for a while. The pain in airing tires isn't so much the time it takes but holding rather holding the connector on the valve stem.

adamis wrote:
To answer JoeChiOhki first... If you are just adding the system for airbags and an airhorn, the belt driven compressor is overkill I think. My truck already had two air compressors, one for the exhaust brake and one for the airbags. You don't need large pumps for either of these items. Guys using the belt drive units are using them for air tools and inflating large off-road or farm tires. I think you would be pretty happy with an electric pump and you would have a lot more flexibility on the install. In my own case, I am considering trying to remove the two other compressors to clean up wiring and such but I will likely leave things as they are for now because I'm running out of time to spend on this project as it is.

Aye, if I was able to add it, I would expand the setup to include larger tanks and the means to connect impact air tools and what not to the system for field work. It would also be used for airing up and down the truck's six tires (or the tires of a future toad), and so on.

Since its not looking like an straight forward thing to accomplish for now (Larger project than I have the time to take on atm), I planned to scale it back to a smaller use case which only operates the air suspension and the horn and for that a much smaller system will fit the bill.

So I managed to do an air up test today. I deflated one of the dually tires to somewhere under 10 lbs and then reinflated the tire. My tire size is stock tire size for a Super Duty (non 4x4 if that makes a difference). I managed to inflate the tire from less than 10psi to 70psi in 3 minutes and 30 seconds. Not to shabby!

I think actually it could be much faster as I am using 1/4" line and have about 40' between what is under the truck and the air hose itself. I am fine with this as I wanted 25' air hoses (two) that could be easily stored in a small bag that fits under a seat. Overall very happy with the work and I am looking forward to using it on our next Pismo Beach Oceano Dunes trip over New Years.

If anything now you can sit at the pump and charge people for air :)

I have looked into the crossfire's a few times and am still considering. It is such a pain to air up the inside tire. In the past when I used the air fill up station on the beach where the guy had one pressor for eight vehicles it could take an hour to get all the tires filled up. Holding the air chuck to the inside tire got very tiresome (no pun intended). I haven't deflated my tires to air them back up to see how long it takes but I'm guessing it will be much shorter than an hour now.

Thanks! That is an awesome setup. I would love to have something like that for when I come off the beach for airing my tires back up.

Speaking of which, I am loving these crossfires, I can air up/down both tires from 1 valve stem, no more reaching in to the inner tire.

Pics of the airlines...

To answer JoeChiOhki first... If you are just adding the system for airbags and an airhorn, the belt driven compressor is overkill I think. My truck already had two air compressors, one for the exhaust brake and one for the airbags. You don't need large pumps for either of these items. Guys using the belt drive units are using them for air tools and inflating large off-road or farm tires. I think you would be pretty happy with an electric pump and you would have a lot more flexibility on the install. In my own case, I am considering trying to remove the two other compressors to clean up wiring and such but I will likely leave things as they are for now because I'm running out of time to spend on this project as it is.

To answer mellow's question... I didn't take pics of it just yet, I will try to do that today and post but the 4 gallon Air Tank sits just in front of the rear wheels. From the tank I have a T valve with compression fittings and 1/4" DOT approved 300PSI air brake line. I snaked the line to the front and back of the truck where I put together small mounting brackets, one that sits under the license plate on the front bumper and one that sits right next to the hitch on the back. Each of these brackets has an air chuck in it. Additionally, I purchased a regulator and a Y splitter along with two 25' hoses. This way when I inflate tires, I can inflate two of them together at the same time and ensure they are exactly the same pressure.

How are you distributing the air to the front and back?