drain air tanks every day the easier way

Any advice for me? My tanks are under the truck and I don’t have pull cords. I fan the brake pedal during my post trip with the truck off (key on) until I hear the alarm and my spring brake engages around 30 psi. Then I crawl under on my back and open each valve. It’s ok this time of year but it SUCKED all winter in the snow when it was most important. I never see condensation but it’s part of my post trip. I will not stop doing it even if it’s overkill.

 

Either install drains with the cord or buy one of those deals ridgeline posted a link for.

 

I’ve asked the mechanic for pull cords. It’s on the list I guess. Months later I’m still waiting. Not spending my own money, I’ll suffer through it.

 

A rope or bungee and zip tie would work.
I would spend $2 or less before I crawled under it everyday in the winter or summer just to drain the air tank.

 

Hi Rank. I found the post in a Big Brotherish sort of way. We use Google Analytics (most companies use this or some version of it) which tells me where the traffic to our website is coming from. So Ridgeline posted the link, somebody clicked it, I noticed that there was possibly a discussion about automatic drain valves going on over here and I made my way to the thread to see what was going on.

 

Just can't fix stupid can we when you crash because you don't have any air in your tanks because it's hooked up on a cord

 

When they say 'drain air tanks', they don't mean drain them dry. All you have to do is pull the drain cord a few seconds and observe if any water comes out. I suppose if there were a lot of water, then you might want to drain them completely and have your air dryer serviced.

I was at Waste Management a few years back, they had a giant informational posterboard for their drivers on this subject inside their shop. They were telling the drivers to limit how much air came out of the air tanks when they did their air tanks draining post trips and such; letting too much air out meant that much extra idling time to build the air back up and WM operates on very thin margins and cannot raise garbage rates on their customers for a couple more years.

 

Good idea. I’ve got bungees and zip ties. I wonder if I could tie the bungee hook to the valve and hang up the other end somewhere without putting tension on the valve, I wouldn’t want that cracking open when I’m cruising.

 

As mentioned already, a cheap roll of rope with some hook (for storage) should work.

Apparently draining air tanks every day is a thing of the past when trucks didn’t have “air dryers.” If your truck has an air dryer, you do not need to drain the tanks every day. Bendix recommends draining the tanks every 25,000 miles or 3 months (whichever comes first), and the air dryer filter needs to be replaced every year. You also want to drain it again before winter season starts. Look for my comment #23 here in this thread.

 

Sonofagun