I’m in the process of stripping everything from the back of my M1088 and at first I was planning on leaving the intake and spare tire in the OEM config but the more I look at it, there’s a lot of wasted space and unnecessary weight there. Furthermore, I would like to carry more fuel but want to leave the area aft of the fuel tank open for an entry point into the habitat so throwing around the idea of mounting a second OEM fuel tank on the driver side. To keep things symmetrical, the battery box and air tanks would need to move. Is there any reason the air tanks are in that specific location? Could they moved forward and a little higher say where the OEM intake is located?
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LMTV Air Tank Relocation?
- Thread starter Mavcaster
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So, I can't claim any sort of engineering degree associated with Air Brake systems. I can say that with the past 40 years of experience with air brake systems - I have never seen air tanks any higher than in side the frame rails. The M1088 and that family of trucks have three tanks. You need to keep the "plumbing" as it is now. There are check valves between the tanks so the air can't flow backward in the system. The "wet tank" fills up first and water collects in that tank first off the compressor.
I can't say that higher than the frame rails is a bad thing, but logic has the air dryer at about the same level (height?) as the tanks. Air tanks need to be drained daily. That water has to go somewhere and the higher they are mounted - the more slop and mess gets blown onto everything below those tank drains.
Adding a second Fuel Tank: Have you figured out a plan for that? On a road tractor, there is a hose that connects the tanks together. On a road vehicle, that connection happens at the bottom of the fuel tanks. One fuel gauge, one pickup tube but again these are OFF-ROAD and you can't have something that low where it might get torn off... Yes, my M936 has two tanks. But there are two pickup tubes and two gauges on that truck.
Hopefully several of the other guys can stop by and give some opinions.
@Mullaney And that was kinda my line of thinking as well with the air tanks, you always see them mounted in roughly the same location so I figured there had to be a reason for this. Also not quite sure on the operation of the second tank though but could run a second gage and just install a transfer pump to refill the main tank if no other option. Also if mounting a second fuel tank just opposite the OEM, the air tanks could remain at the same waterline I guess and just repositioned to the aft along the frame.
This question might get more traction in the LMTV sub-forum (not the camper conversion sub-forum). Maybe post it there too, or ask a moderator to move it for you?
For years WHITE-FREIGHTLINER made single axle cab overs to pull doubles and triples and the frames were so short they had no where to put enough air tanks on the frame to operate that many trailers so they had 1 big airtank that went up the back of the cab for more volume ! Its the red tank on the back of the drivers side you can barely see so i guess you can remote your tanks as long as you can drain them moisture wise and think about where you mount anything heavy like fuel tanks to balance the weight evenly on both sides of truck to have more balance once you have a camper on top of it all 
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Nice find @chucky !
The cool part is that the tank drain would still be at about the same level - about "frame high". I wonder if there is a minimum requirement for the number of tanks? Maybe there is a two tank minimum - just to CYA if one tank ruptured?
@Mavcaster , this might be an idea... Definitely need a solid answer on the quantity of tanks before you go off down this path.
I remember the big tank being on the passenger side of the rear cab on the cornflake trucks growing up but i couldnt find any pictures this morning of them but theres got to be more applications like that because they used to pull rocky mountain triples on I-90 and above and that was 3 45ft trailers so they needed lots of air for sure up in the mountains trying to get 3 trailer loads of freight to the bottom without running out of air or setting the drums on fire !
If youve got the 4 batteries and 3 tanks and the battery box might be pretty close to the same weight of a full tank of fuel opposite side ! So im not sure how you will get 350 lbs in a side box opposite of 2nd fuel tank to offset that maybe generator /chains /tools i wound up putting a 90 gallon blatter all the way across the dovetail of mine for the extra capacity for fuel that gives me roughly 150 gallons and just put side boxes on both sides of frame up front and centered the fresh water tank under the bed with 90 gallon tank and house batteries centered butted up to the fresh water trying my best keep the weight inside the box centered as possible
I don’t have the 4 batts anymore, downsized to 2 and the thought is to move them along with the air tanks closer to the cab to allow for the extra fuel tank on driver side and more storage along the frame rails. Your setup seems interesting though, I will have to check that out for sure. Are you saying you deleted the factory fuel tank?
ramdough
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My thought was that you want your dryer lower than your compressor so water collects there. After that, your tank location probably does not matter.
I am looking at doing something like this as well. I probably will put the batteries where the tool box is. I have not figured out the rest. I have a winch truck, so more stuff to work around.
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I am looking at doing something like this as well. I probably will put the batteries where the tool box is. I have not figured out the rest. I have a winch truck, so more stuff to work around.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk