Bleed those air tanks!!!

[reblawyer]

I really hate it when my own mistakes come back to bite me in the a**. A couple of weeks ago I thought I would be a genius, instead of opening the tanks I just bled the excess air out through the inside cab valve(did this all of the time while in the reserves in New Mexico). Now I know the foolishness of my ways! I went to take her for a spin this weekend and lo and behold I had vertually no braking power. I am pretty sure my problem is two fold, need to check the brake fluid, bleed the lines and take down that air-pack for the second time in as many months. While trying to figure out what the problem was this weekend I got under their and opened the air tanks, got about two cups of water out of them. I guess down here in all this humidity the water really builds up and I assume that the airpack got gummed up as a result of moisture in the lines. Lesson learned, I'm just going to get a kneeling pad and get under their at the end of every days use and open those lines and let a little air cycle throug before I shut the engine down.

 

[ojsdna744]

Not telling you what to do, but I have found that I do drain those tanks pretty regular since that quick-bleed deal was installed. Not a big deal to reach in there just before shut-down and pull those wires to drain the tanks.....i get a decent amount of water after a days use every time.

 

[Westech]

i drained mine the other night for the firts time sence winter and i got almost 2 gallons of oil/water sluge!!yeah you need to drain them atleast once a week.

 

[motorolanut]

Ditto

 

[jwaller]

I drain mine every time I use my truck and in SC I get a cup every time.

 

[CGarbee]

Same here in NC, at least a cup every time.... I drain my at least every day. In the summer, every time that I shut it down... Got the drains relocated so that I can do it from the side of the truck...
Have a stencil the FrankUSMC made for me that says "drain tanks daily"....

Love that high humidity...

 

[n1vbn]

In the Winter time with manual drain cocks on the air tanks I like to leave em open when the truck is parked. It is very dry in Winter so why not take advantage of the drying qualities by leaving them open to dry out the air tanks.

If you have oil in your air tank you might want to consider replacing the air compressor as the piston rings are going south. Oil does nasty things to brake valves.

I prefer manual drain cocks, no spring to rust out or cable to break. A bolt inserted in the drain cock makes em real easy to open and close.

Had one driver last year complained about losing his 30 to 40 pounds of air pressure after one stop on the road, when we arrived at the jobsite he told me about his loss of air and I asked when he last drained his tanks. We drained over 10 gallons of water out of both tanks and his problem went away. His truck was a 1984 R Model Mack with no air dryer installed.

DRAIN EM DAILY!!!

 

[cranetruck]

I have to admit that I don't drain my tanks as often as I probably should. Interestingly, the inboard tank is the one that accumulates water/alcohol (from the alcohol evaporator), while the outboard tank rarily has any water in it at all....

 

[rmgill]

For me it depends on the trip. I tend to get after short trips or a couple of short trips, a mist and then nothing from the inboard tank. I let it go for 2 weeks and got a pretty good amount of mist, but it was only enough to dampen the pavement below the truck. Seems like an occasional light squirt of oil into the air system might be good for things.

Of course the airpack maintenance is to get a squirt of oil in an access plug.

 

[Flatlander]

It's so dry down here in West Texas, we park our deuces on the lawn and drain the air tanks so the grass can get the water...