stalker Posted January 12, 2012 Share Posted January 12, 2012 Does anyone have any experience making their roll cage an air tank.? How much pressure does yours hold and is there a big problem with water in the cage.? I figured you could just have multiple drain plugs and could just hook the compressor up to it every few weeks and blow it out. sounds like it would be a great space saver. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Reshma Posted January 12, 2012 Share Posted January 12, 2012 Someone give this guy a cookie. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stalker Posted January 12, 2012 Author Share Posted January 12, 2012 Someone give this guy a cookie. what does that mean.? this is an old trick that i am just hearing about? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr.510 Posted January 12, 2012 Share Posted January 12, 2012 I've pressurized the cage on a couple vehicles. It's amazing how much volume there is in a tube structure when you add it all up. The downside to doing this is you can't drill any holes in the tubing to mount stuff (not that you should really do that anyway). Any tubing strong enough for use as a roll cage is strong enough to take more air pressure than you could likely pressurize it with. 250psi is nothing for .120 wall steel tubing! The other thing to remember is that unless you drill a hole where each tube intersection is while building the cage there will be no way for air to pass between the various tubes. Every roll cage or other tube structure I build has all the tubes connected by 1/4" holes just in case I or some future owner decide to use it as a reservoir. It only takes an extra minute to drill a hole at each intersection and this saves the major PITA of drilling them and plug welding the "access holes" later. Way back in the day some F1 cars had the chassis structure pressurized with nitrogen and a gauge installed. As long as the chassis held pressure there were no stress cracks between tubes hiding under the paint. - Wish I'd thought of that one! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AK9849cy Posted January 12, 2012 Share Posted January 12, 2012 There have been a few folks do this with their sliders.. and growing up in Iowa we used to make a huge tube bumper and make it an air tank. In the end it ends up being a novelty more than something that is useful. A cheepo air tank stuffed under the rig somewhere usually works fairly well. http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/B005J8UT0Y/ref=dp_olp_0?ie=UTF8&redirect=true&condition=all Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stalker Posted January 12, 2012 Author Share Posted January 12, 2012 if the tube will be on the truck you might as well use them right...i think ill give it a try later down the road... any moister issues you had with this design? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trogdor636 Posted January 12, 2012 Share Posted January 12, 2012 if the tube will be on the truck you might as well use them right...i think ill give it a try later down the road... any moister issues you had with this design? Just run a water seperator after your compressor. I used to have airbags on my 2WD Hardbody, the valves gumming up with water sucked until I did that. Never had a moisture problem after that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Reshma Posted January 13, 2012 Share Posted January 13, 2012 what does that mean.? this is an old trick that i am just hearing about? No, It means that you deserve a cookie. Didnt know I could fill a roll cage with compressed air til now. This is a must for me to do Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tmoore4512 Posted January 13, 2012 Share Posted January 13, 2012 Yep cool idea... Ive seen the tube bumpers done as tanks before. I like the idea of having air on the trail, but a compressed air bottle that holds an ungodly amount of PSI works just the same and is not as space needy....I dunno...im tired and typing...not a good combo. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shift_love Posted January 14, 2012 Share Posted January 14, 2012 this is rather brilliant idea, ill have to look into doing this on the s14 drift car cause air would always be sweet for tires and fixing beads from overly stretched tires i agree with the cookie guy lmao Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Slartibartfast Posted January 14, 2012 Share Posted January 14, 2012 Or you could use the air like a mechanic my dad knows... he put a tank in the back of his wife's car, and hooked it to a train horn. He says if she drives a little car, it had better have a big horn. It's crazy loud. My only concern would be what a pressurized cage (or bumper!) would do in an accident. That, and the PITA you'd have trying to find that one crack/pin hole. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AK9849cy Posted January 14, 2012 Share Posted January 14, 2012 That, and the PITA you'd have trying to find that one crack/pin hole. There will be more than one.. and they will also show up after time. For example... There are many weld-on beadlocks that leak out there... kinda funny how the aluminum beadlocks do just fine... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr.510 Posted January 15, 2012 Share Posted January 15, 2012 My only concern would be what a pressurized cage (or bumper!) would do in an accident. That, and the PITA you'd have trying to find that one crack/pin hole. If you hit something hard enough to break a weld or tear a tube you'd get a rush of pressurized air out, and nothing more. Depending on the size of the hole it would take between two seconds and several minutes to lose all the pressure. To find a crack or pin hole use 409 multi purpose cleaner or soapy water just like you do for finding tire leaks. Even the tiniest of air leaks will make an obvious stream of soap bubbles. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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