Viair constant duty onboard air system any my eventual solution

[MarkT]

Goodyear makes a great battery powered impact wrench. Very popular with the autocross guys...

Pep Boys has them on sale every once in a while for $99... I've seen it as low as $79. I have one and it works great.

Harbor freight is supposed to have a decent one too.

 

[MagicMtnDan]

Looks good Jason - good location for sure :thumbsup:

Car & Driver did a nice comparison test of battery powered Impact Wrenches. Snap-on wasn't included but maybe their unit is the same as one of the units tested?

Impact-Wrench Comparison: Seven Electric Models Tested - Gearbox
Hammer Time: Comparing impact wrenches from Bosch, Makita, DeWalt, Hitachi, Milwaukee, Craftsman, and Ryobi.

http://www.caranddriver.com/feature...mparison_seven_electric_models_tested-gearbox

 

[The Tank]

I'm almost positive the Snap-on impact is made by them or Blue Point(which Snap-on owns) but I will ask my Snap-on guy to make sure.

 

[KaiserM715]

Are you talking a regular ABC type Fire Bottle or a Halon system?

ABC type. No real interest in a Halon system at this time.

Reminds me of an old thread.... http://www.svtoffroad.com/showthread.php?680-Fire-Extinguishers
If you ever plan on using it on your vehicle, I would stay away from dry chemical. It has been know to eat wiring and electronics. You can get some decent Halotron extinguishers for a reasonable price.

 

[The Tank]

Reminds me of an old thread.... http://www.svtoffroad.com/showthread.php?680-Fire-Extinguishers
If you ever plan on using it on your vehicle, I would stay away from dry chemical. It has been know to eat wiring and electronics. You can get some decent Halotron extinguishers for a reasonable price.

I would never use a dry chemical on a car. When I was in the Navy we had this stuff called Purple K Powder and it would wreck wiring with the quickness. I would carry either CO2 or if its available to civilians AFFF.

 

[NoCaDiver]

I remember Purple K. Damn long time ago.

 

[VIAIR Corp]

Ryan from VIAIR

Hi guys, I just stumbled across this thread...I know this thread is a few months old so this post might be in vain but I I want to help by addressing these issues anyways.

Big J - Thanks for documenting all of this. It helps educate potential customers about what to do and what not to do when installing.

My goal is to offer tech support so I read through the 12 pages and here's what I can contribute.

1. All of our compressors come with a check valve. This particular model has a check valve built in to the tip of the leader hose. Installing this check valve is tricky because most people use a wrench to tighten it down, however that often results in over-tightening the check valve and collapsing the threads which are naturally tapered around the plunger and spring inside the check valve. So to prevent this from happening, you should use Loc-tite 545 and then hand tighten the check valve. If you use a wrench, use no more than 10-12lbs of torque. Then a few hours to let the loc-tite set in.

2. The original install had the leader hose bent right at the head of the compressor straight down. This could definitely create some heat problems and result in a leak within the leader hose. The leader hose should be be bent more than 180 degress and the angle needs to be as obtuse as possible. Remember: This is 200PSI and we use a steel braided leader hose because the temperatures get up to 200 degree F. You wouldn't kink your garden hose like that, so you definitely don't want to kink your leader hose.

3. The new install had 90 degree fitting and the pressure switch was plumbed within 6 inches from the head of the compressor. The heat transfer coming off the head of the compressor may damage the pressure switch. It is better to plumb the pressure switch to the air tank as opposed to near the cylinder head. Also, moisture is a by product of compressed air so the pressure switch should not be oriented on the underside of any fittings because if moisture settles it will fall into the pressure switch.

4. The compressor should never be able to run unless the engine is running because the pressure switch should only be activated by the accessory ignition. If your compressor turns on by itself even while the engine is off, then that means the pressure switch is connected directly to the car battery which does not guarantee that your compressor is receiving 13.8 volts, should a leak occur. If the compressor is turned on without the engine running, this will result in a volt drop/amp spike, thus giving you a possible reason as to why your fuse is blowing. There are other reasons that a fuse might be blowing such as, too small of a wire, a bad check valve, a broken reed valve, or a bad ground.

Here's the wiring diagram that we include. http://www.viaircorp.com/OffRoad/Schematics/oba_wd.pdf

Please feel free to e-mail me at [email protected] or call 949 585 0011 if you have any other tech questions.
I will try to keep my eye on this forum as well.

 

[BigJ]

Hi guys, I just stumbled across this thread...I know this thread is a few months old so this post might be in vain but I I want to help by addressing these issues anyways.

Big J - Thanks for documenting all of this. It helps educate potential customers about what to do and what not to do when installing.

My goal is to offer tech support so I read through the 12 pages and here's what I can contribute.

Welcome and thanks! Great to have you here participating.

1. All of our compressors come with a check valve. This particular model has a check valve built in to the tip of the leader hose. Installing this check valve is tricky because most people use a wrench to tighten it down, however that often results in over-tightening the check valve and collapsing the threads which are naturally tapered around the plunger and spring inside the check valve. So to prevent this from happening, you should use Loc-tite 545 and then hand tighten the check valve. If you use a wrench, use no more than 10-12lbs of torque. Then a few hours to let the loc-tite set in.

2. The original install had the leader hose bent right at the head of the compressor straight down. This could definitely create some heat problems and result in a leak within the leader hose. The leader hose should be be bent more than 180 degress and the angle needs to be as obtuse as possible. Remember: This is 200PSI and we use a steel braided leader hose because the temperatures get up to 200 degree F. You wouldn't kink your garden hose like that, so you definitely don't want to kink your leader hose.

I know you probably don't have control over all your distributors and their install practices, but I couldn't agree with you more on these points. So much so in fact, I would ask that you contact the shop that installed my system, and tell them how badly they botched the job. I'm not necessarily interested in recovering my costs from them or you, but having you talk with them about proper install techniques is almost certainly going to help save many others from going thru what I went thru, and from potentially incorrectly blaming your product.

3. The new install had 90 degree fitting and the pressure switch was plumbed within 6 inches from the head of the compressor. The heat transfer coming off the head of the compressor may damage the pressure switch. It is better to plumb the pressure switch to the air tank as opposed to near the cylinder head. Also, moisture is a by product of compressed air so the pressure switch should not be oriented on the underside of any fittings because if moisture settles it will fall into the pressure switch.

Duly noted and understood. In my specific case, I'm ok with the system as is because (1) the tank has been removed and (2) the pressure switch is doing almost nothing. If it should fail, I can/will continue to operate as expected (see my next response for why that is so).

4. The compressor should never be able to run unless the engine is running because the pressure switch should only be activated by the accessory ignition. If your compressor turns on by itself even while the engine is off, then that means the pressure switch is connected directly to the car battery which does not guarantee that your compressor is receiving 13.8 volts, should a leak occur. If the compressor is turned on without the engine running, this will result in a volt drop/amp spike, thus giving you a possible reason as to why your fuse is blowing. There are other reasons that a fuse might be blowing such as, too small of a wire, a bad check valve, a broken reed valve, or a bad ground.

The fuse blowing issue is a remnant of the first "professional" install. I've redone everything myself and haven't blown a fuse since.

Since I only use this system to air up tires, a tank turns out to be pointless. I have taken advantage of the Raptor's built in aux switches and control the on/off of the compressor now via an independently relayed and fused power supply that is only ever energized when the engine is running. The pressure switch is only there to help avoid dumping a ton of pressure into the airhose when moving from tire to tire. Should it fail in the field, its a simple matter of cutting it out of the circuit and twisting two wires together until a more permanent fix can be made at home.

I think by in large we're on the same page. You raise a good point with condensation into the pressure switch I hadn't considered, so I think I'll give the fitting a half turn and get it positioned upside down. Thanks for that!

Again, I do strongly suggest you contact the shop who did my original install. You see those pics... I can't imagine that's how you want your products installed. Especially since they're supposed to be "pros".

 

[Chrisandalex1]

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[Xjrguy]

Pretty impressed with VIAIR rep here and the response. That's some good stuff right there all things considered.