Spartan Air Brake Question

[sharring]

Greetings, I have recently purchased a DSDP (Spartan) and it is our first diesel. I need to know if I have to drain collected water from the air brakes system? I'm not sure where this is done if it needs to be done. Could someone tell me what I need to know about draining the system. Thanks.

[GaryKD]

Hi sharring,
Without knowing the details of your chassis it may be difficult to answer your question, This question might be better placed in the Spartan Chassis forum.

That being said, the only maintenance for potential water I've done is on an annual basis to:
1. Completely drain the three air tanks
2. Change the Meritor/Wabco Air Dryer Canister

To drain the 3 air tanks, find the three lanyards. They may be available on the inside wheel well of either front tire. If there are no lanyards, one will need to get under the front axle and release the air from each of the tanks. The tanks are located above the front axle.

To change the Meritor air dryer canister, all (and I do mean all) the air PSI must be drained from the air tanks. The canister can then be spun off just like an oil filter. A call to Spartan will determine the correct air dryer canister one needs to purchase.

[AndrewC]

Gary please let me know if you drain yours
tank André

[GaryKD]

Hi AndrewC,
I do annual maintenance of drain the air from the tanks and then change the air dryer canister. January is the month I do this maintenance. I just did it earlier this week.

I personally do the maintenance.

["007"]

In case you haven't found this link here is information on Spartan Maintenance.

[akadeadeye]

Quote:

Originally Posted by GaryKD Hi AndrewC, I do annual maintenance of drain the air from the tanks and then change the air dryer canister. January is the month I do this maintenance. I just did it earlier this week. I personally do the maintenance.

The lanyards on mine are located a long reach in the right side front wheel well. I pull on them about twice a year.

GaryKD, I have not changed the air dryer canister nor do I understand what it does or why it needs to be changed. Can you help me with that?

Don

[GaryKD]

Hi akadeadeye,
The air dryer canister is what removes contaminants and moisture from the air as it is pumped into the air tanks. This keeps the entire system full of as clean and dry air as possible. The canister will, over time, wear out and will not be able to clean/dry the air. My Spartan maintenance book mentions this canister should be replaced every 24 months. It gets a bit more complicated than this overview, but everyone should understand the canister will wear out and needs replacing.

I replace mine annually because I live in a high humid area and normally am very conservative on my preventative maintenance.

The Meritor maintenance book says to replace the canister:
1. every two to three year for preventative maintenance
2. whenever the compressor is replaced
3. if water is found in the supply tanks

["007"]

Added information. Looks important

[sharring]

Quote:

Originally Posted by GaryKD Hi sharring, Without knowing the details of your chassis it may be difficult to answer your question, This question might be better placed in the Spartan Chassis forum. That being said, the only maintenance for potential water I've done is on an annual basis to: 1. Completely drain the three air tanks 2. Change the Meritor/Wabco Air Dryer Canister To drain the 3 air tanks, find the three lanyards. They may be available on the inside wheel well of either front tire. If there are no lanyards, one will need to get under the front axle and release the air from each of the tanks. The tanks are located above the front axle. To change the Meritor air dryer canister, all (and I do mean all) the air PSI must be drained from the air tanks. The canister can then be spun off just like an oil filter. A call to Spartan will determine the correct air dryer canister one needs to purchase.

The coach I have is a 96 Dutch Star 38 foot on a Spartan Chassis. I'm not sure what chassis it is. I have looked under the front end of the coach adn in and through the wheel well area and I see no air tanks or lanyards.

[Iron Man]

Quote:

Originally Posted by sharring The coach I have is a 96 Dutch Star 38 foot on a Spartan Chassis. I'm not sure what chassis it is. I have looked under the front end of the coach adn in and through the wheel well area and I see no air tanks or lanyards.

Spartan did not put them on all chassis or they might have got undercoated by Newmar. If you don't have them you can purchase a set for under 20 dollars.

[GaryKD]

Hi sharring,
To locate your air tanks, a call to Spartan (800-543-4277) might be the thing to do. Have your VIN when you call. Manufacturers do change things from time to time. There should be two air tanks and three purge valves (one tank has two tanks inside it). Once the air tanks are located, you'll be able to see if there are lanyards coming from the purge valves on the bottom of the tanks. If not there, Iron Man mentioned they can be purchased. Or, one might want to go under the coach, once a year, and release the air PSI from under the coach. Done at the same time one greases the chassis and there may be little advantage to the lanyards.

[05kstar]

PLEASE USE JACK STANDS & OR BLOCK THE CHASSIS BEFORE letting the air out of your air tanks.
Just trying to help a Dp newbie

[GaryKD]

05kstar has a good point. Sometime I forget the basics. While it may seem safe to use the coach jacks to raise the coach so one can do maintenance, for me, I will not do this. I have two jack stands (proper size of course) to hold up the end of the coach I am working on. The jacks remain down, but I do put weight on the stands. I know, they are heavy, awkward to place, in the way and a general PITA. However, it only takes one incident to make them worth all the aggravation.

[litespeed]

I am a newbie...so this may sound like a " foolish " question. I drain my tanks about once every 4-5 shut downs. At first..I seemed to get about the same amount of air released from 2 of the lanyards..with the 3rd one a bit higher. Recently ( have only had the coach since July 2011)...one of the lanyards has noticeably less air released. All gauges read normal..everything appears to work ok.

Is this a normal thing or am I rembering wrong or ???????