• Steel Soldiers now has a few new forums, read more about it at: New Munitions Forums!

  • Microsoft MSN, Live, Hotmail, Outlook email users may not be receiving emails. We are working to resolve this issue. Please add support@steelsoldiers.com to your trusted contacts.

1st project writreup on new forum- remote air tank drain

Monster Man

New member
884
1
0
sick and tired of crouching down under your deuce to drain each tank individually? Sick of muddy shoulders and strained backs? Me too, but I wasn't keen on the remote drains I've seen, mainly because of cost. Hey, I'm REALLY cheap!




so I made my own:





I first took out each petcock (make sure tanks are drained first). Then I cleaned off all the 40 years of gunk on them, and got to work. They will need to be in line with each other, but instead of opening front to back they will now open side to side. So, be sure to drill your hole in the right spot. Grind off a flat face on each drain handle (to facillitate drilling), and throw it in the drill press, with about a 1/8" bit



Get the holes drilled, the bend up your rod however you see fit. Mine ended up a little short because I put a loopy bend on the end, so it's best to start long. It's just plain old 3/8" round stock. Grind a flat on each spot you want to drill a hole through and center punch it. The holes will line up with the tank drain holes in the off position. So, once those holes are drilled you can stick your pins through- As said I'm super cheap so I used some nails, obviously not the best choice. A machine screw with a nylock would work better, hell, anything would work better! You just want to attach the rod to each handle securely, and still allow it to pivot in each direction.



Put some new teflon sealant on the petcocks and reinstall them in the tanks, being sure they are inline with each other and not overtightened.



Put the rod on and pin it all together and figure out how you want the rod to route. Mine rests on the spare tire when not in use.



Then when it's time to drain the tanks, you simply pull the handle, and it opens both drains, push it and it closes them. Easy as pie, and cost about $2!!!



Be sure to paint it so it doesn't rust, it will get a lot of road debris.







 

Recovry4x4

LLM/Member 785
Super Moderator
Steel Soldiers Supporter
34,012
1,809
113
Location
GA Mountains
[4][green]That was clever and resourceful. Just so everyone knows, Saturn has the kit too if you don't feel like fabricating. IIRC its about $12.00[/green][/4]
 

Longhunter7

Member
923
8
18
Location
Northern Illinois
MM!

My petcocks on the air tanks are different than what you show!

My air tank petcocks point straight down and have to be turned several revolutions to open them!

I purchased the kit from Saturn Surplus, and it came with new valves that can be opened with the supplied cables!

It was a very easy installation, just remove the old petcocks and install the new valves, with thread sealer of course!

Then attach the cables and pull to drain the tanks! :roll:
 

Attachments

Monster Man

New member
884
1
0
hmmm... interesting, in that case I definitely would have bought the kit. I wonder if somebody added these or if they are the standard ones?
 

Recovry4x4

LLM/Member 785
Super Moderator
Steel Soldiers Supporter
34,012
1,809
113
Location
GA Mountains
I've seen both types of petcocks on trucks. Even mismatched on the same truck. Who knows woth the Gov't!
 

Recovry4x4

LLM/Member 785
Super Moderator
Steel Soldiers Supporter
34,012
1,809
113
Location
GA Mountains
Bjorn, I like the 757 and all that but I still have a difficult time dealing with the fact that it's a Ford. My saving grace is that its a military design.
 

Amxhunter

New member
119
0
0
Location
Mobile, Alabama
Recovry4x4 said:
[4][green]That was clever and resourceful. Just so everyone knows, Saturn has the kit too if you don't feel like fabricating. IIRC its about $12.00[/green][/4]

Yeah , and a year later he's gone up 50% ?? everybody trying to make a buck.
 

AnonymousOne

Member
171
16
18
Location
Boston MA
I know this is an old post but still an important one so I thought I would refresh it with some new "How To" pictures I took ...

Also wanted to show why this is important to blow out the air in BOTH of your tanks ... look at the crud I had in mine building up on the far tank that no one wanted to crawl under and release ... (tank should be hollow, open and clean)

Anyway - not as fancy as some folks here but it works .. when I get time I will come back and "clean it up"
 

Attachments

Last edited:

clinto

Moderator, wonderful human being & practicing Deuc
Staff member
Administrator
Super Moderator
Steel Soldiers Supporter
Supporting Vendor
12,596
1,132
113
Location
Athens, Ga.
AnonymousOne is really working his search karma! :beer:
 
Top
AdBlock Detected

We get it, advertisements are annoying!

Sure, ad-blocking software does a great job at blocking ads, but it also blocks useful features of our website like our supporting vendors. Their ads help keep Steel Soldiers going. Please consider disabling your ad blockers for the site. Thanks!

I've Disabled AdBlock
No Thanks