Routing air lines

The glad hands must separate clean from the trailer in event of a breakaway as does the pigtail.

I applaud your need for rubber, they will absolutely break if made of plastic as mine has the minute it got cold enough to do so.

I think of a old post that used to ride in the crossmember, probably a welded bracket that conveyed the air lines to the post itself. Then the rubber connected to that post to the trailer gladhands.

The post would ride on the crossmember of a frame (Side to side bracing) behind the catwalk but ahead of the trailer's corners so that it will not get chopped off by trailer corners etc.

A idea from top of my head would be to have the air lines orginate from the front of the trailer with a big grommet pass through to the post which should hold the three breakaway items, pigtail and the two airlines.

Once the trailer has decided it wants OUT and OFF your 5th wheel and it's absolutely going away from your tractor, your post gladhands must let it go with a minmum of fuss. But is it dot legal?

I think so. But that's too big of a problem potentially not to ... be what I would call easy going about this fix or build. The big reason is your trailer is not going to accept gladhands from any other tractor which will create a problem.

 

You don't trip over the light cord just the air lines?
I have learned to pick my feet up, kinda like walking. lol

 

You can can get plastic airlines for winter

 

I may be mistaken, but @Pedigreed Bulldog would be able to help. Btw, I’ve seen some trucks with quick disconnects in both locations, for versatility.

 

I don’t have any pics on this phone, if I can find one later I will post it.

Get the Arctic rated coiled plastic airlines. Lay them over top of each other so that they “coiled” together. Run your electric cord down the middle of those. Having everything run together will keep them from getting stretched out from the weight of the snow and ice you’ll accumulate in the winter. We started running about a 3” piece of rubber airline between the truck frame and the flash and on the truck. Doing this keeps you from breaking airlines when they kink at the flash and while turning. The main thing is that you’ll be stretching your lines a lot farther while turning than you do when they’re up top.

When you plumb the lines under your trailer make sure and put shut offs on everything. That way you can keep your trailer aired up when you disconnect your lines if you have to make a sharp turn or back in at a 90 and such.

 

While I've never done it, Redneck Engineering is a hobby of mine...

Quick & easy would be to put a T with a couple ball valves (to shut off whichever lines you aren't using). Put a gladhand at the rear of the cab (no air line...just the T, ball valve, gladhand). Put another ball valve and run hard plastic line from the other end of the T to the rear of the truck, put a bulkhead through a bracket to mount it sturdy and get back to pipe thread, and put a gald hand on the rear.


Air in ---> T ---> ball valve ---> glad hand
.................¦
................V
....... Ball valve ---> air line to rear ---> glad hand

Not sure how well that'll show up, but hopefully you get the idea.

Then, just get a set of coiled air lines and put gald hands on both ends. If you want a little more secure connection, use locking glad hands like these on your air line:

That way they can't accidently come off. I absolutely LOVE these, because doing drop & hook loads on flatbed, sometimes they overhang the load off the front of the trailer and don't use sufficient dunnage to create enough clearance to get the airlines connected...so I just pull out a wrench and rotate the glad hand 90 degrees (always try to put the hole facing down to avoid future issues with moisture). Ordinary gladhands might pull off if you're turning a corner wrong way...but not these. Until you physically move the latch, it's on there.

Anyway, that's how I'd do it if I pulled my own trailer and wanted the rear-of-chassis air lines but might still need them behind the cab. When I get around to redoing my rear cross member, I'll be running air/electric back there, too...but I'm going to cheat. I'll be mounting a glad hands and a plug on my catwalk, and have them run to the rear. If I am bobtailing or need air/electric at the rear, I'll just couple to them and they'll be functional...and if I'm hooked up to a trailer set up in the normal way, I'll just hook to them. Ever since I mounted the tool box across my frame rails to carry straps/chains/etc., I can't use the plastic doohickey, so I just bungee the loose ends to the catwalk. Having the plugs on the catwalk will give me a secure way to keep everything clean when I'm not hooked to a trailer.

The problem with quick-connects like you'd use in a is that road grime, salt, moisture, etc., really do a number on them. If you aren't actively working to keep them functional, they won't be when you need them to be.

 

Running the spring up to the trailer helps keep from getting your lines hooked on your flaps if you turn sharp. You can see where the gladhands are, then the rubber running up to the truck. Looks like 6” of rubber or so, I guess I lied earlier. This helped more than anything as far as keeping from breaking lines.

 

You're right about the quick disconnects. They come stock on stretch trailers. But then, that's part of my pre trip. The last thing I want to do is get to a customer, and try to stretch, and not be able to do so because of the connectors.

 

You gonna go back and run that sweet t8 again?