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We used that idea briefly in the early 90s useing 30 gallon horizontal air compressor tanks and our coach air tanks but soon as the air was down and they take up so much room for no capacity ! Just a shurflo brand 12 v inline water pump won out over every thing we tried for economical and no pressurized bomb water tank .
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Understood. I knew there was something I was missing.....
Those little RV pressure regulators are like $20, so a simple and inexpensive add....
It just came to me while looking at the end of where the water tank will be in this pic to either this end or the other which looked like you will have some spare room you could put a screw in bung to mount a 12v or 110 block heater in the end of the tank to keep the water from freezing near all your outlets in a hard freeze . I think you would be glad you did it while u still can if you ever found yourself in artic conditions .You are correct. There are no clearance issues. I don't have any specific pics but the short story is the subframe rail and the base rail of the habitat gave me ~12" of height to play with, and the floor deck gives me another 3" as well. I think the bottom of the structure is slightly below the tops of the frame rails, but even so, there is more clearance between the bottom of the tank supporting structure and the ball joint for the V-links than there is between the axles and the frame rails. For there to be a clearance issue, the axles will have to seriously relocate some of the other chassis components first!
You can kind of see the structure in these pics:
they sell 12v hot water heater elements.... standard hot water heater configuration. Might work fine for what your thinking if you put it high enough to not be close to plastic edge ... but not so high it could never NOT be submerged. Granted guess one could put it in a small side metal tank and circulate the water thru it too?
Very nice I was thinking of something very similar but if you don't mind I might borrow your idea as I have the same air intakes.I still wasn't ready to abandon the pass through idea though. With our truck camper, that was one of the things which I had always wanted and even if we didn't use it all that much, I could see how it would be useful. After burning some additional creative calories, I thought up a fairly simple manner to load and store the spare- make a ramp which flops down to the side from the rear cargo bay and just roll the spare in and out. The space will be at least 4' tall and if I hinge two 4' pieces together, I can probably roll it up that incline if needed. If that proves too difficult, there are manual winches which I can adapt to complete the task. At this point, the true tear down began.
Decking removed, intake torn down:
Trans cooler relocated:
I knew I wanted to keep the intakes up high in the space behind the cab. Having seen solutions like this on the web, I tracked down two Donaldson PSD10's and started copying a design I had seen. Turns out it was way too flexible and the air cleaner seemed like it would vibrate back and forth, likely hitting the cab or box. That support came out.
I ended up using a pair of 2x2 square tubes on each side, mitered and tapered into the air lift beam with a perch at the top where the filters mount. They are rock solid. On the driver's side, I took a circular section out of the tubes which was large enough to fit the expansion tank, and then cut off the tank mount from the original intake and welded that in.
Expansion tank installed:
For my next trick, I needed to scab together a few elbows and tubing to connect the 5" output from the filters to the 4" input of the OEM intake. I ordered 5 to 4 inch silicone couplers and a bunch of elbows from a place I found online and picked up some straight stock at a local place. The specific component I needed was a Y-pipe which flowed nicely into the OEM intake. The other elbows were a pretty easy task.
After some careful measuring and then more careful measuring, I started to cut. And then weld.
Step 1 - Y joint
Post-weld interior of Y joint:
Due to the offset nature of the intake, the pass side upward bend would also weld directly to the Y joint. In addition, the constraints to get the Y-pipe to flow smoothly into the OEM tube required another elbow getting welded to the output end of the Y joint. In total, there are 4 elbows cut and welded to form this assembly:
After that, the rest seemed easy- just join a few 90's with some straight sections of appropriate length. Eventually, you end up with something like this:
The couplers allow a bit of flex and imprecision for the system. I had to cut ~2' of the OEM tube to get my Y-pipe to connect smoothly, but it worked out fantastically with the coupler slipping on just aft of the intake support on the motor. Almost like I planned it that way.
In the interim, I had the driveshafts out and rebuilt. This resolved most of the vibrations which persisted after the changing of the tires. There is still a little bit to go, but it is WAY better than it was when I got it.
Other things also done are the relocation of the hydraulic controls and the manual pump. These are now on the pass side behind the cab. It's not the most effective use of space, but it's what I am going with for now. I have a few loose ends to tie up but at this point, I am about ready to start thinking seriously about building the box!
As it sits today:
That's why I surf and post on this forum. If you see anything that helps you in any manner, feel free to copy away!
Anybody that wants the cad file for my design let me know.
