Auto Inflators?

Well the military had "CTIS," an acronym for "central tire inflation system" Let's just say it wasn't one of the world's technological wonders. So, when I see them on the newer tractors I just keep thinking "stupid" and "you'll be sorry"

 

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There is quite a few guys in the oil patch running those setups on their vac trucks. When used with the big floater tires they work very good in low traction off road situations. I have even seen them on some cement trucks with duals and in the same low traction soft ground conditions that one truck got stuck in, the other drove right threw. The guy driving the truck with the CTIS Loved it, he could put the pressure down a bit when on the road for a better ride, and he didn't get stuck nearly as often as he used to.

However you have to be careful not to let the pressure down to low when you have a load on, or you will pop the tires off the bead. I saw this a few years back not to far from the farm. They were spreading drilling mud, and to get to the field they were spreading on their was a creek crossing and some swampy ground that had to be driven threw. It was just after a snow so every thing was covered up and the driver got off the trail, with a load and got stuck, He let the pressure down for more traction. He let it down to low and spun all 12 tires on the back of the tri-drive off the rims. It was quite a mess, when I got down their the truck was sunk in half way up the frame. I know the first tire guy they called out to try to put the tires on. Because it was swampy everything was frozen, It took him 4 hours with a shovel to dig out one set of duals, then he called me to see if I had a pump he could use to keep the water out of the hole he had dug. So I go down their on the quad to see whats going on, and the drilling crew had sent down the D8 cat they had on sight to pull him out onto higher ground. Couldn't move it, stuck so bad the cat would just dig a hole as it pulled its self backwards with the winch. So my buddy tells them that their isn't anything he can do until they get it out of the muck, unless they want to pay him buy the hour to dig each tire out, he figured it would take 3 to 4 days working 18 hrs a day. They said they would call him when the got it out.

To get the truck out, they ended up with two cranes, a high hoe, and 2 D8 cats. They had to build pads for the cranes to sit on to lift the truck out, and because they were close to the creek, they had to return everything to the way it was before they came in to get the truck out. I had heard that it cost in the neighbour hood of $65,000 to get the truck out, and another $40,000 ish to fix up the hole.

SO the systems do work, if you know what your doing and follow the manufactures recommendations on how to operate the system. If your an idiot, or your driver is an idiot, you may want to steer away from them.

 

Great story. I always like to say you don't get stuck, just delayed! That was some delay.

Anyways, the military and the oil patch guys drive over/through varying conditions where airing down/up is a necessity to keeping the wheels turning. But over the road tractors don't. So since an inflation system is way more complex than an air hose and a tire gauge ya gotta ask if it's sliced bread or teats on a bull I would think. I go with the latter.

 

They put them on our reefer trailers - probably the tankers too. Its the "TireMAXX" system - seems to work pretty well. Most "low" tires will be up to spec within about 15 minutes. There's a monitor light on the front end of the trailer you can see in your rear view... lights up when the system is drawing air, so you can check to see if you have a small problem or something more serious.