Putting Alcohol in the Brake Lines

You live up on the iron range?

if you freeze up a lot you may need a new dryer.

You could get a glad hand with a short line and somehow put a funnel on the end?

 

First try bleeding your tanks. If your dont and it keeps building up it will freeze up your dryer to and it wont release air pressure. Now your looking at putting alcohol straight in to the air compressor.

 

I don't know where you'd get one, but it's not good to use airline anti-freeze often, it's hard on air bags and chamber diaphragms. It has its use for emergencies, but if you have to use it often, you may need to service or replace the air dryer. Make sure the air dryer heater is working and drain your tanks often. If you live where it gets really cold, an air dryer upgrade is a good idea, like a dual cartridge one.

It's also not good to use it in the blue line. If the blue line is frozen, you should pull it off the valve(s) so you can blow the alcohol through, then hook it back up. It wont get water out since it has no where to go. Once the alcohol evaporates, it can freeze up again.

Another thing to check is your air compressor coolant hoses. Cats are good for the steel braiding rusting up. I've pull some off where the inside diameter of the hose was about 1/2 of what it should have been or the rubber was coming apart clogging them up. A hotter compressor makes more condensation. If the hoses are brittle, cracking or swelled up, replace them.

 

Most every truck dealership should carry air line antifreeze it is suppose to have some kind of lube in it, Personally, you can get Menthol Hydrate at a hardware store, pore it in the emergency line, on the truck , connect the line pore some in the service line and connect it, charge the trailer and apply the brakes. The air system you have to drain the tanks all year long when ever you are parked on an incline drain the tanks that the drain is at the low end. Drain the trailer tanks as well.
Once it is cold out and the system has not been maintained it is a little late, Preparation, and maintenance does work.
Just a thought!

 

You could just use an empty gear oil quart container, they have the spout that you can stick a hose on connected to a gladhand.

 

http://epi.hbsna.com/products/dept.asp?dept_id=103

Used something like this in the early 80's.

 

Bendix used to make those but not any more probably because they frown on adding anything to the brakes system.