air compressor maintenance

[mfancher]

Other that what the manual says, can anybody share their insights?
Thank you!

[AWCHIEF]

Is there a specific problem you are having? My experience with air compressors is that that they just work with very little maintenance. Most important thing to do is make sure that the oil levels are correct. I have two that are both over 30 years old and have never had a problem with either one.

[masseyfarm]

Unless you are getting oil in the airlines, your compressor should be not a maintenance worry.

Watch for moisture in the air tanks and drain at least once a week when in use by using the three lanyards provided. If there is any significant sign of moisture, service your air dryer with a new cartridge.

On your model, there was a recall on the airlines to the rear brakes that were OEM routed so that they can rub on each other and cause a possible leak.

Have you got a kneeling valve on that unit? or just the standard dump valve.

Dave

Originally Posted by mfancher

Other that what the manual says, can anybody share their insights?
Thank you!

[mfancher]

ok, not sure what type of valve...
where are the lanyards?

[masseyfarm]

Your unit is probably got a different layout than my Clipper.
On the Clipper, one lanyard for the front tank is in the propane tank storage compartment, and the other two are in the city water service bay at the rear. It is probably easier to crawl under the unit and find the air tanks and follow the cable from the manual drain to see where yours is located. You should have two tanks, but one is a split tank with drains for each.

Dave

This good general information is available on the site listed below.
RV Tech Tips: January 2012

Credit is given at the bottom of the information.
"Draining a motor home's air tanks is a simple, but necessary procedure

Draining or bleeding the air tanks of an RV is a reasonably simple, but necessary procedure.

One common misconception is that the main purpose of draining air tanks is not to remove the moisture from the system, but really to test the integrity of the system. If the air drier is doing its job there should be very little, if any, moisture exiting the tanks when the manual tank drains are operated. If you do see excessive moisture coming out it is time to service the air drier.

Normally you would pull and then release the tank drain lanyards. Any moisture within the tank will settle to the bottom and be expelled. However, some procedures go a step farther and tests the check valves within the air tanks. This requires complete draining of the tanks rather than a brief spurt.

The following procedure is required to test the check valves between the tanks. Note that there are two physical air tanks on some systems. One tank, however, is divided into two partitions to form both the wet tank and primary tank. Thus, in effect, there really are three tanks.

The test procedure is as follows:


With engine off, make sure both air gauges read 70 PSI or less. If they read higher, pump the brake pedal until the air pressure gauges read 70 psi or less.

• Start the engine and run at 1,200 rpms or higher until the air drier purges in the rear of the vehicle.
• Turn the engine off, but leave on the ignition switch so that the gauges are powered up for reading the air pressure.

In the following steps, pull each lanyard until the tank is empty and the hissing stops. Do this as follows:

• Pull the silver lanyard (wet tank). There should be no significant moisture and neither of the gauges should change.
• Pull the green lanyard (rear air primary tank). There should be no significant moisture and one gauge should drop to zero.
• Pull the red lanyard (front air secondary tank). There should be no significant moisture and both gauges should now be at zero.

Posted by Thomas Michalski at 1/04/2012 04:21:00 PM 0 comments "

Originally Posted by mfancher

ok, not sure what type of valve...
where are the lanyards?