!!!NEED HELP FAST!!!! Rapid Air Loss - BOTH tanks

My truck has just lost all air after running all night in -35 temps. Ran fine all night, right up to temp at 1200 RPM and had full air when I went to take off. Left nice n easy and made it about 2 blocks and within 10 seconds all the air dumped from my primary tank. I shut the truck off and climbed under and couldnt hear anything major, more like just the suspension settling. Then a couple mins after that the secondary tank was holding at 90 PSI and it also dumped just as fast. Now it will not build air at all and I am stuck on the side of the road. Could this be something simple or whats your ideas here??

 

Something froze obviously, keep er runnin and dont shut off truck again for anything, call nearest service to come out, never heard of tanks just dumping u sure it just hadnt been building air?

 

Sounds like your air dryer is frozen. Take the air line off at the top of the dryer and pour some brake line anti freeze down into the line and dryer. Give it a few minutes and it should puke out a nice slushy mess. The only problem now is you're loosing air after the secondary tank. Hopefully just from moving and the suspension refilling plus using the brakes when you pulled over. If not, I'd start with the thin plastic lines leading to the air bags. They get brittle in that kind of cold and the up and down movement when you started out could have caused some small cracks. Hope that helps, and stay warm!!!

 

First thing I would do is determine if it is the truck or the trailers, will it build with the red button popped? If not, obviously it's the truck. In these temps, (we're at -48 with the windchill this morn) anything can freeze. You may have to get alcohol in the line somewhere between the compressor and the tanks. I know they say alcohol is not good for the dryers, but when they tell you that, they are usually in a nice warm shop somewhere and not the one stuck on the side of the road. I have taken the line off right at the compressor and put it in there. A guy can always put in a new cartridge in the dryer later, not that big of an expense, and a lot cheaper than a tow truck. It sounds like you are only a couple blocks from your shop, so maybe not so bad as in some coulee outside of Drumheller with no cell service? Gotta try to find a little positive anyway. Good luck.

 

Idling for long periods in cold weather can cause the air line from your compressor to the air tank to freeze. Might want to check on that as well. Your air dryer should have a heater cartridge to keep it from freezing. Perhaps that heater cartridge has gone bad and your purge valve has frozen open. Might need to get the truck into a heated shop to diagnose what's going on.

 

It could be many things. Like the rubber diaphragm in the brake can busting in the cold or ice blocking a valve. All you can do is pre-maintain, pre-maintain, and pre-maintain you equipment. First, I would pour a cup of alcohol in the flex line coming from the air compressor output, and also pour a little into the trailer gladhands. Then, I would find the next load going south, and stay away from running any loads going back into sub-zero weather ever again. The rates sure don't make up for the added expense and aggravation of running in arctic like conditions. Trust me.

 

Says the guy from the sunshine state......

 

He's probably been there and done it though.

 

I had the same thing happen in lower michigan just crossed into indiana and air buzzer came on and I was'nt building air. I always carried a cheater fitting that allowed me to bypass the dryer temporarily since thats what was frozen up. Once I got south farther into warmer climate I reconnected and got some methyl into the system. Replaced air dryer cartrige when I got home. There could be a cap on your discharge line off the compressor that will be labeled "brake air" this is the location were you can pour in alittle methyl hydrate. If not you will have to get the discharge line off the compressor and pour alittle in.

 

Normally the air dryer freezing won't dump the air like the OP is talking about. It happened to me a couple winters ago , it was the relay valve for the tractor brakes, spring side. It hung halfway and dumped everything. Some methanol in the lines and high idle to move some air and it was fine after a few minutes.