military hand truck air compressors......what are your thoughts?

Even though this is mostly the "generator" forum.....


I'd thought I'd ask members thoughts on the small military hand truck style
air compressors. Doesn't seem to be too much talk about them.

I kind of took a fancy to them and collected a few different types with the 1A08 engine,
a few with the Robin engine with recoil starter and then some with the Yanmar diesel engine.

Using them around the farm the Yanmar models are animals which start easily every time all the time.

The 1A08 powered models typically have a few problems. Often the intake manifold is cracked.
Seen a number of those. Carb floats often sink.......but when they run they tick along nicely.

The Robin powered model are a bit in-between. I guess I actually prefer the 1A08 model...when they run.
I've also repowered a 1A08 model with a predator engine from Harbor Freight. Simple inexpensive cure for the
1A08 blues. Have a friend running such an animal on his service truck, been in service for over a year now with no issues.

Just curious as to any comments any of you might have. Any and all input appreciated from comments from
working on them or using them in the service or buying and using them as surplus. Always looking to learn more
about them while still trying to figure out why anyone would collect air compressors.......

Huummmm! (we are wondering too) No really um, air compressors , sounds like my recent Generator buying binge, I have 10 at last count bought them all to make repairs and sell, just haven't gotton around to the sell phase yet, They are fixed , Perhaps hypnotherapy ( my wife suggested it honest (for me) )

I think buying binge is the correct way to put it...........LOL

I have a half dozen of them at least, I finally found a diesel only to replace the fuel pump to find it has a terrible knock! Planning on taking it to a local diesel shop, maybe they can tell me what is wrong with it? I have a gas unit I am upgrading with a 6 horse Honda motor! They are great for airing up the motor pool especially if you put a regulator on it so you don't blow up/destroy any tires!

I loved the hand truck air compressors. But as Gunwriter has already mentioned, the carbs were a problem, and the intake manifold ALWAYS broke. They were too long, made of cheap aluminum and without a doubt, some butt-head would toss a bag of commo on the hand truck, with the expected results. Broken intake manifold. Later, we got the bigger air compressors, with the 4A032-4 engine. THAT was an air compressor! Yeah, the carbs sucked. But other then that, nice.

A buddy has one and I like it - - - - - a LOT!

I want a couple so I can convert to a 12v motor, a 24v motor, and maybe a diesel if I can find one.

Guyfang said:

I loved the hand truck air compressors. But as Gunwriter has already mentioned, the carbs were a problem, and the intake manifold ALWAYS broke. They were too long, made of cheap aluminum and without a doubt, some butt-head would toss a bag of commo on the hand truck, with the expected results. Broken intake manifold. Later, we got the bigger air compressors, with the 4A032-4 engine. THAT was an air compressor! Yeah, the carbs sucked. But other then that, nice.

Click to expand...

I wasn't sure HOW they were breaking the intakes, but I have seen a large number broken so I figured it must have been pretty common.
I have brought probably three to a friend who has welded them up, and then remachined so I could pop them back on. I have another few
that are broken. Probably replace those with a Predator engine.

I have two of the 4A032 powered air compressors and had two with Briggs. One of the 4A032 is equipped with a 24 volt starter and a Slave Plug
so you can push button start it. That is the way to go! The 4A032 engines sound great, they just have a fantastic exhaust note in my book.
They really move some air too. I have a friend which wants to buy one, then I will keep the last one. I thought about replacing the 4A032 with
a Yanmar diesel off one of the 3kw gen sets. I thought that could be a pretty sweet set-up........

rumplecat said:

I have a half dozen of them at least, I finally found a diesel only to replace the fuel pump to find it has a terrible knock! Planning on taking it to a local diesel shop, maybe they can tell me what is wrong with it? I have a gas unit I am upgrading with a 6 horse Honda motor! They are great for airing up the motor pool especially if you put a regulator on it so you don't blow up/destroy any tires!

Click to expand...

ugh sorry to hear about the diesel knock...
but if you get it taken care of they are a great unit in my opinion.
They pull start very easy, seem to be very reliable and are very handy.
I had a flat on a skid steer tire the other day and I used my small diesel with a 1/2 inch impact
to zip the lug nuts off. Zero problems and never had to wait on the air compressor.

does yours have the slave cable plug? I have one that does....its more work to get the cable out and plug
it in then to pull start it........but fun.

The problem with the old army was this. Everything had to get loaded on trucks to go off into the sunset. The hand truck, 3KW DC gen set, 3KW AC gen et, ten million other things that were in the Number 1 Common tool set, and spare parts would go in first. Then the rucksacks, duffel bags, tentage and last but not least, the cammo crap. The carb intake manifold never had a chance. Broke every time. Today, the units have the SATS. Standard Automotive Tool Set. Its a DREAM. Take a look at one, and you would sell your first and second wife off into slavery to have one. One of the few times in the last 20 years that I have been tempted to engage in Grand Theft, was when I walked into the SATS trailer. It was a near run thing. 99% of all the tools needed for you to fix ANYTHING automotive or power generation wise. Anything. Oh well, it would have been hard to hide.

OK really interesting, thanks for taking the time to share.
I was wondering how it happened.

Would you mind sharing a bit about the SATS?

Thanks!

This will now be called the "Eat Your Heart Out" page.

Here is the KIPPER book on the SATS. They came up with it for the military. There is a few pages of KIPPER bla-bla at the start, and several pages of NSN's at the end. In the middle is a whole crap load of tools. And some stuff is NOT in this catalog. Like the air compressor. Like the 10 KW, (I think it's a MEP-803A) gen set, Transmission jacks, Hyd jacks, Air pad jacks. And a whole bunch of stuff I cant remember. I had to inventory 4 of them in 2010. But that's been a while. Comes in a huge 5th wheel trailer. Heater/air con super lights, blackout system, 24 light system, 120 volt light system, Battery chargers, multimeters, battery testers, and on and on. It tested my morals. I would have sat in it like Smaug, in his castle dungeon full of gold and jewels. Almost any tool I ever needed, was in this trailer.


View attachment SATS_BOOK_sm.pdf

And there was the "LAWSON KIT.

Google LAWSON PRODUCTS. The company outfitted ISU shipping containers with:

Nuts of ALL sizes, SAE and Metric
Bolts of ALL sizes, SAE and Metric
Washers of ALL sizes, SAE and Metric
Lock washers of ALL sizes, SAE and Metric
Serrated washers of ALL sizes, SAE and Metric
Cotter pins of ALL sizes, SAE and Metric
Light bulbs, 12 and 24 volt
Wire, of all sizes
Terminals of ALL sizes, SAE and Metric
Tape
Hand towels
Hand cleaner
Rivets
Inserts
Canon plugs
Generic linkages
Generic connectors
Electrical connectors
Tools of all types, needed to make this stuff work

And lots more. A treasure trove, that anyone who hasn't seen it, can NOT comprehend it. I fell in love with this thing. Every unit that bought into the program, had a LAWSON contact who would come around on schedule, and check the boxes, (oh did forget to say that this was ALL in drawers, racks, shelves and hangers, supplied by LAWSON?) to see if you needed restockage. He would count what was there, restock and bill the unit. It was costly. But 99.9999999999% of the common crap you needed to repair something was in those darn containers. The LAWSON guy here in germany, (we still love you Marty!) was a fellow retired CWO. Smart as a whip, and always gave the troops a break. The kit came in two ISU containers. It was a workshop in a can.



Then there was the FRS Tool kit.

An Expando trailer,

The FRS (Forward Repair System) is a maintenance shop on wheels. With its on-board crane, air compressor, 30 kilowatt (TQG) tactical quiet generator, welder, and full compliment of diagnostic and hand tools, the FRS's two person crew will be equipped for almost any maintenance task. The FRS Technical Manual is TM 9-4940-568-10.

​

​

The FRS can replace a power pack with ease and get it back in the battle, quickly. No need to drag the vehicle back to the unit collection point.
Carried by a PLS (Palletized Load System), the FRS will go where the M1 tank goes. The PLS has the power and speed to keep up with the pack.

The FRS is built on a PLS flatrack and can be on the ground and operational within 5 minutes of arrival.
(Information taken from the Picatinny Arsenal's FRS page.)

OK, first let me say, thanks very much for taking the time to share this. I am looking forward to digging into it.

But I just read this part to my wife:

"It tested my morals. I would have sat in it like Smaug, in his castle dungeon full of gold and jewels. Almost any tool I ever needed, was in this trailer."

She was an E5 and burst out laughing.....she loved it. Very aptly described!

Gunwriter said:

Even though this is mostly the "generator" forum.....


I'd thought I'd ask members thoughts on the small military hand truck style
air compressors. Doesn't seem to be too much talk about them.

I kind of took a fancy to them and collected a few different types with the 1A08 engine,
a few with the Robin engine with recoil starter and then some with the Yanmar diesel engine.
.......

Click to expand...

I have a couple of the Robin engine compressors for the Fire Dept. Very nice. Isn't started that often and the gas tank is ALWAYS dry. Even if petcock is shut off. Why?

My weakness is small pumps (as FD). Recently got some Darley (Ohler) 125gpm Hatz diesels (USMC). New in the factory box. We have had some 125gpm. Yanmar pumps and the Hatz engine beats the Yanmar all to heck. If run tank dry it will self prime. Of the 4 we received one has a frozen injector pump need to sort out.

Monday drill we burned a abandoned house. Water supply was draft with 3x of the Hatz. Total of 500gpm direct to engine intake which pumped 100ft to the fire. Photo below is the same setup for test purposes supplying a 500gpm quick attack monitor.




We have a Yanmar pump and a Yanmar 2kw that were run out of fuel and I have not yet figured out the trick to get air out of the fuel line. Got to be something secret motor sgt thing.

Take a look at the fuel filter housing. Or rather, the hose that is the supply side. Normally, it tends to have a bend, that goes higher then the fuel bowl. We took a wire tie, and pulled the bend down lower, and it tends to allow the GD air bubble be pushed into the fuel bowl. There is also some screws on the top of the fuel filter for bleeding air out. This is about the only PITA of this set. If we are in the shop, we add a little pressure to the tank, while cracking the fuel line after the filter. There is a real good reason the fuel lines are clear plastic!

No, I wasn't a Motor Sgt. Heaven forbid!!

Gunwriter said:

OK, first let me say, thanks very much for taking the time to share this. I am looking forward to digging into it.

But I just read this part to my wife:

"It tested my morals. I would have sat in it like Smaug, in his castle dungeon full of gold and jewels. Almost any tool I ever needed, was in this trailer."

She was an E5 and burst out laughing.....she loved it. Very aptly described!

Click to expand...

Obviously, you have good taste in women.

I bid on an FRS on GL a while back. Too rich for my blood, but how friggin cool are they!?

If you have one, you will never need to haul a tool box of any kind, again in your natural born life. The welder is great! The crane is great! The air compressor was kick as and the air tank is large enough for most any job. One young soldier claimed he spent his whole tour in east knack a Stan in one. The flat rack is a great idea. Blow into a site, drop the rack and you can use the truck right now! The 30 KW gen set allows you to run the welder and lots of other tools and equipment. Put up the side pieces and you can have lights, power and a great place to work at any hour of the day or night. It dosnt have the full range of say, the SATS tools. But for almost any normal job, it's got enough. I would have loved to kick my contact teams out with such a rig. This is a must have gear for automotive or ground power repair. Your tongue would hang to your knees if you got to look this thing over. Bothe the SATS and FRS hand only Snap On Tools.

Originally Posted by rumplecat
I have a half dozen of them at least, I finally found a diesel only to replace the fuel pump to find it has a terrible knock! Planning on taking it to a local diesel shop, maybe they can tell me what is wrong with it? I have a gas unit I am upgrading with a 6 horse Honda motor! They are great for airing up the motor pool especially if you put a regulator on it so you don't blow up/destroy any tires!

ugh sorry to hear about the diesel knock...
but if you get it taken care of they are a great unit in my opinion.
They pull start very easy, seem to be very reliable and are very handy.
I had a flat on a skid steer tire the other day and I used my small diesel with a 1/2 inch impact
to zip the lug nuts off. Zero problems and never had to wait on the air compressor.

does yours have the slave cable plug? I have one that does....its more work to get the cable out and plug
it in then to pull start it........but fun.

Mine has the starter and no slave plug, but as you said a pain to get the slave cables out so I ran a couple of wires and she started right up, but what a knock!!!