Draining Air System

[Bompa13]

We own a 2008 Fleetwood Excursion 40E. I am trying to learn all I can and what I can do myself.
We are taking it to Gaffney, SC for a complete Chassis maintenance in January as I believe nothing has been done prior to us buying it.
I was reading a forum on maintenance of the Air Dryer system and wonder if anyone can tell me were I will find the 3 drain lanyards for the tanks as I would like to see how much is in them. I have looked in what books I have but haven't found them yet

[Ranger Smith]

generally by passenger side tire underneath. You may have to crawl under to find and pull them. Be sure the RV is on the jacks before you do.

[OldHatt45]

Generally speaking, the lanyards (if you have them) can be found in the generator compartment. On rigs that ride on a Spartan Chassis there are 3 tanks and 3 lanyards. If, as you say, you can't find them, the easiest way to find them is to go under the coach. Generally the air tanks will be just behind the Front wheels in the middle of the coach. Once you locate the tanks, the Moisture Ejectors will be on the bottom of the tanks. The lanyards are attached to the Moisture Ejectors, if you have lanyards. Some rigs with automatic Moisture Ejectors don't have lanyards, but should. If you don't have lanyards, you should manually purge the Moisture Ejectors.

Hope this helps.
Drew

[UsualSuspect]

There are 2 lanyards, both are located on the passenger side front wheel well. To find mine, I had turn the steering wheel all the way to the left, and you should be able to see the lanyards towards the rear of the wheel well, top portion. Mine were painted black from when they painted the undercarriage, but they are there.

[Pigman1]

It really depends on where the coach builder decided to put them that day. I've seen Freightliner/Fleetwood with them in the driver side wheel well, passenger side wheel well, along the frame rails beside the generator, and even still coiled up at the drain valves, exactly where they were when Freightliner shipped them. Tiffin sometimes just makes a loop about 6" long and cuts the rest off. As suggested, slide under to the tanks and see which way yours go. It's a crap shoot but once under your rig it's not hard to find where yours are.

By the way, in all setups I've seen, there have been 3 lanyards coming from two air tanks. One of those tanks has a baffle inside and a drain valve at both ends. The valves won't all look the same as one is usually an automatic one with a heater and lanyard and the other 2 are manual without heaters.

[96 Wideglide]

Originally Posted by Ranger Smith

generally by passenger side tire underneath. You may have to crawl under to find and pull them. Be sure the RV is on the jacks before you do.

I dont have a FL chassis, but when I drain my air tanks, it does'nt drain the air from my air bags.

[FIRE UP]

Originally Posted by Bompa3752S

We own a 2008 Fleetwood Excursion 40E. I am trying to learn all I can and what I can do myself.
We are taking it to Gaffney, SC for a complete Chassis maintenance in January as I believe nothing has been done prior to us buying it.
I was reading a forum on maintenance of the Air Dryer system and wonder if anyone can tell me were I will find the 3 drain lanyards for the tanks as I would like to see how much is in them. I have looked in what books I have but haven't found them yet

Bompa,
First off, it's really good that you're trying to learn about your coach. So many folks just buy them and learn nothing about them and are completely lost even when minor issues occur. You don't have to become a master Tech but, knowing some basics surely helps when something goes arry.

Now, as far as your tanks and the drain lanyards are concerned, about 95% of the Freightliner chassis equipped rigs have the lanyards in the right front fenderwell. They can be obscured by many things. They're not always right out in the open. Typically there's three. And, not very many coaches with well-working air dryers, will have ANY moisture come out of the drain pet-cocks. I've pulled on ours several times in the last couple of years of ownership and, have yet to see any moisture come out.

But, we primarily live/operate/travel in way less humid areas so, that may, or may not have any effect on what kind of moisture is produced and, gets by the air dryer and condenses in the air lines. But, just because you don't see any moisture produced by one pull, doesn't mean you should never do it again. I don't do it very often because, as stated, I never find any but, I still do it every once in a while.

And, I don't drain the tanks trying to see if there's any in there at all. Moisture (aka WATER) is heavier than air so, it will obviously settle in the bottom, usually right at those pet-cocks so, in the first second or two, is when you'll see any, if at all. Good luck.
Scott

[ladagobago]

when I took my FL to a truck repair they crawled under and found mine for me. Everyone has to learn from the start some time. he also showed me the rear tank and it doesn't have a manual drain. it is automatic but the other were up front behind the right wheel.

as for the air dryer. a word of caution "CAUTION". The air dryer filter has to my knowledge is under high pressure. the system must be empty to replace the filter. anyone have suggestions.

I recently had my service company remove my air filter supply completely. they found it clogged with all sorts of mud, dirt and crap. they also removed all my wheels and cleaned the moving parts of brakes which were totally rusted and inoperable. while they were at it they also set the ride height and slack adjuster on the brakes.

It ride nicely now and really stops.

[BFlinn181]

Originally Posted by ladagobago

as for the air dryer. a word of caution "CAUTION". The air dryer filter has to my knowledge is under high pressure. the system must be empty to replace the filter. anyone have suggestions.

I recently had my service company remove my air filter supply completely. they found it clogged with all sorts of mud, dirt and crap. they also removed all my wheels and cleaned the moving parts of brakes which were totally rusted and inoperable. while they were at it they also set the ride height and slack adjuster on the brakes.

It ride nicely now and really stops.

You can bleed air by engine off, repeatedly press foot treadle until both air gauges are all the way down.

Most modern slack adjusters should be self adjusting, but anyone with air brakes should still learn how to adjust and check them.