Receiver Tank (Air Tank)

Matt,
This has been covered a few times over the past 2 weeks or so. I'm an advocate of using an old fire extinguisher. They are rated at 700 psi so I've been told by a fire extinguisher service bloke, so they'll certainly cope with the 105psi the ARB unit puts out.
I am using a 3lt tank which was supplied as part of a Grand Vitesse Air Horn package I purchased several years ago from SA. It has 3 tapped holes in one end and came with a gauge fitted to one of the holes. I've moved that gauge up on to my "A" pillar so I can monitor the pressure. I use one of the holes as the inlet from my Maxair; another is to a Ryco outlet at the rear of my cargo area, whilst the 3rd leads up to the front with a "T" piece under the dash to feed the gauge, through the fire wall under passenger's footwell into engine bay where another 2 "T"s take air to the air horns (up the left "A" pillar and partially hidden by snorkel) and another leads to the front air locker. The hose then continues onto the bullbar and terminates in another Ryco outlet. I don't think you can get the Grand Vittesse horns anymore.
I would like to replace the 3ltr tank with a bigger fire extinguisher type. If I did, it would be fairly easy to remove the top part of the extinguisher and replace with a suitable round blank piece of steel with a suitable hole tapped into it for a standard brass fitting. You would then need to make up a "manifold" with as many threaded inlets/outlets as you require to run various items or to go directly to snap fittings of your choice.
You'd have to make sure you mounted it securely to the chassis if going under the floor. But that's stating the bleeding obvious!!!!!!
Cheers,
Roachie

Matt,
I was looking at doing this but was advised against it, for one thing it voids the warranty on the air compressor. The compressor has to work considerably harder to maintain the pressure in the reciever at 100 psi, the compressor when underload would normally maybe see 40 psi. I'm assuming that the idea of having a reciever is to maintain a pressure normally about 100 psi, I'm also assuming that your ARB compressor is the one fitted out for lockers with the auto cut out.
I was going to fill the reciever up externally at a servo and top it up with the compressor as and when it needed it, the heat generated in the compressor head is quite considerable under "normal conditions" without upping the load to eleveated pressures. There also something about the compressor discharge valves being constantly under pressure. I've seen some good set ups with air con compressors and recievers, this seems to work well, even using the tubing in the bullbar as a reciever works well from what I've seen.
As always my experiences, and my opinions. Keep the shiny side up

Search the archives - has been covered before - various options - PVC tanks too - should a connection blow, might be good to have the tank outside.The car, the boat, the camper, the radios - is that all there is to life ?

Hi Matt

I have had my ARB compressor attached to a receiver tank and fully charged at 100 psi for at least 3 years with no ill effect on the compressor.

Initially I used a 1kg fire extinguisher for a tank as I could not find a suitably sized tank despite scouring many truck wreckers. Nor could I find a bigger extinguisher.

This extinguisher had a volume only sufficient for a couple of blasts of the air horn and was of little use when inflating tyres or air dusting.

You can buy ready made tanks from air suspension specialists. They are US made and cost about $30 in the States, however you'll have to pay about $150 in Australia for the identical item and I thought that was a bit rich.

I then made a tank from the longest length of 150 x 100 x 6 RHS steel that I could bolt to my chassis. All that was needed was a blanking plate welded to each end and a drill and tapped hole for connection. Bingo, 15 litre air tank for $50 and stronger than the chassis. ARB copes with this the same as before, just takes a bit longer to fill.

Drop me an email if you need further detail.

regards
Howard

Use a baloon.. safe as houses, and PVC.. <- that has to be a joke!

Just use the spare tyre - inflate to 80psi. This gives plenty of air for dusting down before setup.

Peter

G'day Matt,

Have you given any thought to using a gas bottle - they are pressure tested to 3.3 megapascals (478 psi) and come in a variety of shapes and sizes. I made one about 10 years ago out of a long skinny 4.5kg bottle and it still serves me well.

Diesel1

Firestone make cheaper air tanks (3 gallon) and they come with about 4 or 5 outlets. About $30 US + freight