Compressor/hose setup

[stewfish]

Garage ideas for the truck
My setup will be using a spare 5 gallon portable air tank I have to air up tires after off-roading. I have a 12v compressor that is very popular in the Jeep/4x4/overland world. I will be using my extra industrial type fittings but I had a few general questions about fittings and hoses and maybe they have been discussed here for garages.

Rigid or flexible?
I'm leaning towards brake line or 1/4 brass line with the screw on fittings like my propane system has in my RV, mainly for longevity and strength. There is an 8ft run from the compressor inside the cab to the tank under the truck or up in the bed fender wall. I have a 2500 with tons of space. I'm thinking rigid or flexible brake line will hold up better than a goodyear rubber hose eventually cracking from the FL heat/hot road.

Check valve or three way to bleed off pressure:
I'd like to maybe add a check valve inline at the air tank. A lot of the pros say the compressor does better when you turn it on with no pressure/load and then connect it to a tire. But I'm thinking I'll still have air in the hose with pressure. So turn on the compressor with the valve bleeding out the third port but closed to the tank, and then turn the valve from compressor to the open port over to the tank.

Sealed system with as few couplers as possible:
I'll have a wip coming into the truck bed. I'll mount it to the wall with a shutoff just before the female coupler to prevent future leaking. Then I'll have a 25ft hose to plug into the system and use to fill. In My garage the couplers eventually always leak no mater what brand or type I use. I think the constant 80+ degrees ruins the rubber seal in them. I'd like to pressurize the tank ahead of time, maybe even fill from home, and have the tank not leak. 5 gallons fills two tires, so if the tank is pre-pressurized, the compressor then only has to fill two tires. The compressor takes 4 minutes to fill a tire back up, so I could leave out messing with pre-filling and adding a coupler bc it's a potential future leak source.

I have a pressure adjust manifold if I need it for the output of the tank, but for filling tires I don't think I need it. I can watch the pressure using my filler/guage. The max pressure of the pump is 150psi.

I also have a spare small dehumidifier w a drain. I could also use it before the tank, but I'm thinking just fill the tank towards the end of the trail to give moisture a little time to collect at the bottom of the tank, then use the tank drain to avoid another potential leaking component. And only two tires will have direct air fill.


What are the most relieable valves and couplers? Even Milton couplers are leaking for me over a year or two so I have a shutoff at my garage tank outlet.



Sent from my phone using Tapatalk

 

[HotelMike]

Have you looked into using 1/4 air brake line and push fittings? The bleed off you describe sounds like a compressor unloader. Wouldn’t the unit already have one or be able to start under load. Sounds you are over engineering it and making it more complicated. Just put a shutoff at the tank so you can isolate it off the rest of the system when not using it for longer periods.

Search of J844 on amazon.

 

[Glory]

Have you looked into using 1/4 air brake line and push fittings? The bleed off you describe sounds like a compressor unloader. Wouldn’t the unit already have one or be able to start under load. Sounds you are over engineering it and making it more complicated. Just put a shutoff at the tank so you can isolate it off the rest of the system when not using it for longer periods.

Search of J844 on amazon.

HotelMike has it. I used DOT air brake line to plumb my truck. Tucked the ARB inside the rear fender cavity, held in place by a steel frame I welded up and it bolts to the frame.
Push fittings are easy to use and haven’t leaked once in over 5 years and many miles bombing the Mojave.

 

[stewfish]

Have you looked into using 1/4 air brake line and push fittings? The bleed off you describe sounds like a compressor unloader. Wouldn’t the unit already have one or be able to start under load. Sounds you are over engineering it and making it more complicated. Just put a shutoff at the tank so you can isolate it off the rest of the system when not using it for longer periods.

Search of J844 on amazon.

I haven't heard of that system/hose before. There is a Goodyear hose and hydraulic store nearby that may have that hose and the connectors. I'm now thinking a boat steering system I installed two years ago had that type of hose. It was like pex, but seemed thinner walled and a little more rigid. Thanks!

I didn't want to reach up into my rear fender to turn off the tank. so if my lines are all threaded in, I could have a shut off before the coupler to avoid leaks. I think I'll go with a full sized 1/4 turn ball valve vs the small fragile looking valve at harbor freight.

I got the Tsunami MF-1050 for Christmas. I read that it has 2+ cfm, duty cycle is 45 minutes before needing to rest, last forever, but blows a fuse under strong pressure/load. A lot of people use it as their beginner pump, then as a backup in an ammo can. I have spare wire to upgrade it, an extra automatic breaker to fix the fuse issue, and I can always upgrade the pump later while still having a plumbed system already installed. The Tsunami version has the 1/4NPT and a industrial male compessor hose fitting to do what I'm doing, while older versions had a proprietary quick connect with wierd threads (7/22 or something) that had to be tapped larger to get to 1/4NPT. For $50 I doubt it's waterproof, so I think it should go in the cab - maybe behind the back seat.

I'm not sure if upgrading the wire/breaker will be enough to help start against a high load, but I'll try the easy setup first.

Thanks again

Sent from my ASUS_X017DA using Tapatalk

 

[Tallpilot]

I haven't heard of that system/hose before. There is a Goodyear hose and hydraulic store nearby that may have that hose and the connectors. I'm now thinking a boat steering system I installed two years ago had that type of hose. It was like pex, but seemed thinner walled and a little more rigid. Thanks!

I didn't want to reach up into my rear fender to turn off the tank. so if my lines are all threaded in, I could have a shut off before the coupler to avoid leaks. I think I'll go with a full sized 1/4 turn ball valve vs the small fragile looking valve at harbor freight.

I got the Tsunami MF-1050 for Christmas. I read that it has 2+ cfm, duty cycle is 45 minutes before needing to rest, last forever, but blows a fuse under strong pressure/load. A lot of people use it as their beginner pump, then as a backup in an ammo can. I have spare wire to upgrade it, an extra automatic breaker to fix the fuse issue, and I can always upgrade the pump later while still having a plumbed system already installed. The Tsunami version has the 1/4NPT and a industrial male compessor hose fitting to do what I'm doing, while older versions had a proprietary quick connect with wierd threads (7/22 or something) that had to be tapped larger to get to 1/4NPT. For $50 I doubt it's waterproof, so I think it should go in the cab - maybe behind the back seat.

I'm not sure if upgrading the wire/breaker will be enough to help start against a high load, but I'll try the easy setup first.

Thanks again

Sent from my ASUS_X017DA using Tapatalk

Are you hooking it up directly to the battery? It's blowing its internal thermal fuse?

It sounds like you will have a pretty cool set up when you are done. ARB knows everyone uses the compressor to air up even though they really made it for their lockers. They probably should put an unloader valve on it.

I used a cheap 12V tire filler until I got my Milwaukee. But I'm in Florida so rock crawling isn't an every weekend thing.

 

[matt_i]

As far as couplers, just dont use them. You can valve off a dedicated hose, assuming its always going to be airing up tires.

OR - look into NPT to JIC adapters. Parker makes them - search FTX for starters - and you have a hydraulic rated metal-to-metal seal (iow there's nothing by plated steel on the fittings) that requires a little adjustable wrench to tighten and loosen the female swivel fitting. Probably want to roll with a cap for same. They don't have an internal check to hold the pressure like a QC fitting would, so have to be backed by a valve.

 

[stewfish]

HotelMike has it. I used DOT air brake line to plumb my truck. Tucked the ARB inside the rear fender cavity, held in place by a steel frame I welded up and it bolts to the frame.
Push fittings are easy to use and haven’t leaked once in over 5 years and many miles bombing the Mojave.

I went down to Goodyear rubber/hydraulic hose store and they had Parker air brake hose. I went with 1/2" so the pump didn't have to push through such a small hose with 1/4". They had prestolok push to connect fittings with that had the 1/4"NPT fittings to connect to all the compressor stuff. The guy said the burst pressure in the book said 950 PSI. It didn't give a Max working PSI, but he said it should be about 300 for the max PSI. It was a $1.79 per foot and around $5 per connector.

I used 4 gauge wire from the battery to an automatic breaker, down, and along the frame zip tied to other harnesess, and then up through the plastic fitting on the passenger side floor below the seat. Then to another breaker becuase I needed a safe connection for the 4guage wire to the pump wire and it wouldn't have enough room in the pump for an electrical connector that big. I redid the relay inside to a Bosch relay, and increased the wire gauge sizes in the pump as well to 10g.

I ran the prestolok push to connect 90 with 1/4NPT from the pump down through the plastic in the floor next to the electrical sealed with 3m 5200. Next, routed the hose to a tank in the fender. I went to a metal yard and had a 1.5" strip of stainless strap cut off a sheet metal piece. The strap connected to some random bolt holes that must be there for some upgrade reason. Anyway from the tank I went into the bed of the truck near the tailgate through the pillar there that had a hole, I think to add tie down hardware. I have an on-off valve there then a coupler in case I want to connect or disconnect the hose if it's in the way. The on-off valve will make sure it doesn't leak.

I have it pressurized to 100psi right now to watch over night for leaks. It took a couple minutes to get to that. It's a pretty impressive pump for $50

Sent from my phone using Tapatalk