American Coach: 1996 American Eagle - Air Tank Replacement

[degkop]

Was under the rig this weekend searching out air leaks and found a pin hole in my System 1 Air Tank (Wet and Dry). Working with Spartan to get a replacement tank cost. Obviously, rig is sitting dead in the driveway and not too thrilled about having mechanic coming out to replace the tank. Only 8 or 9 hose fittings and two auto water extractors on the bottom to replace. Anybody replace theirs, at the shop or by themselves? Looking for cost and/or how much a PIA it is. Have worked on the air system before, so not afraid to pull the tank, but more worried about getting to fittings that were originally accessed from above (before the house was built).

[degkop]

Here are a few photos of the hole and the connections on the top of the tank.

[Trexoffroad]

Yikes. Sorry but I have not pulled one before. Looking at the pic, it “might” have enough slack in lines to lower enough to get to connections and undo. If it were me, I’d be replacing those compression fittings with push to connect to ease install. Please keep us posted on your progress/solution. This is good info for the next person.

[degkop]

Tank is out, new tank is ready to go in

[degkop]

Was able to get the tank out with just removing the side bolts and then working front to back to get the hoses off. A big help was to cut all of the zip ties that Spartan used to neaten things up when they initially put in the tanks. There must have been 20 of them that kept things really tight. Once I was able to get the wire cutters up there to cut them (trying to stay away from the hoses) things were a lot easier to get to. You will want a really stubby set of wrenches or a small adjustable wrench that will open to 1” to get onto the air fittings. Plan is to simply repeat the removal in reverse and hope that all of the hoses have enough slack to get back on. Am not going to convert to slip on connectors as 1) I don’t want to spend $100 on 8 fittings and 2) not being 100% sure that they are air tight until I get everything bolted up and back in place. No way to get my hands in there, so even if I switched, I would have to drop the tank again if there are any leaks. Keeping my fingers crossed that there will be no leaks....