Frozen air lines and stiff landing gear

[Crumm]

Hey, Crumm. Been there done that with the landing gear..what do you guys do with air lines? What kind of precautions do you take? One of my straight trucks has air brakes and I can't keep the tank dry. Used alcohol based conditioner several times but when it goes down to 15 or so I'm usually under the truck with a torch and its getting old. Any suggestions?

We run Alcohol Evaporators downstream from the air dryer and fill them with straight Methanol. Valves still freeze up from time to time but the methanol usually does a good job of keeping things dry. Lift axle valves and suspension valves seem to be more problematic than brake valves. When I can't get a trailer to air up I have a small 1 gallon portable air tank that I dump a quart of methanol in and then air up the trailer with it in line. If the truck freezes up we do the same thing but add it to the main compressor line or the main line out of the air dryer if the air is getting that far. Seems like most the truck freeze-ups I have had over the years have been in the line from the air dryer to the alcohol evaporator or just frozen valves. The air up here is cold but like they say it is a dry cold At -60 the problem is keeping the air in the system, everything leaks when it gets cold. Methanol seems to usually work better than heat, seems like by the time you get enough heat into a valve to thaw it out you end up melting something like a plastic line or o-ring in the valve. We do use small propane torches with map gas(map gas hotter and doesn't freeze like propane) and large propane weed burners but only as a second defense.

Best cold weather defense on the landing gear is to take the cover off the gear case and clean out all the grease. Most our trailers use to have no grease but we have a bunch of new ones that were greased at the factory. They have not got all the gear cases cleaned out yet so they are a bit stiff.

 

[F350DRW1]

The crankcase gear freezes up??

 

[Crumm]

Yeah the grease in the gear case freezes solid and you can't turn the crank even if you stand on it. They spin fine with no grease in them. Heating them up every time is a pain in the.........

 

[F350DRW1]

Well, thats a new one on me. I've never seen grease freeze. WOW. I have ever defrosted trailer lines by charging with Vodka [don't ask] when we were out of air line conditioner. And when I was just a kid my dad would send me under his old Mack with a torch to warm up the oil pan. Trucks and Winter: perfect together!

 

[95_stroker]

Thats a whole different kind of cold up yonder.

 

[F350DRW1]

I'll say. Coldest I've ever seen was -20 for a few days. That was on a snowmobile trip in New York state. Frozen grease sounds like something you would have on the moon.

 

[Scot]

Depending on the number of trailers and equipment combiations this may be possible. I used to use the air supension dump valve to set trailers on stacks of wood blocking and never had to deal with the landing gear cranks. They just stayed up all winter. Unless one was knocked off the blocking.

 

[BIG JOE]

Well, thats a new one on me. I've never seen grease freeze. WOW.

Not to Hi-jack Crumm but: During my Antarctic experiences, I reached into a bucket of old 30 weight oil and scooped up a [hand full] of it. Had the consistency of Thick Jello. It Jiggled like Jello. I've seen Lube oil Frozen solid also. Chipped away frozen grease too.

I think of those times, often.. when trying to decide whether or not to Plug-in my 2K. COLD-COLD temps do strange things to lubricants.

Whole different COLD, DOWN Yonder too.

 

[Crumm]

Depending on the number of trailers and equipment combinations this may be possible. I used to use the air suspension dump valve to set trailers on stacks of wood blocking and never had to deal with the landing gear cranks. They just stayed up all winter. Unless one was knocked off the blocking.

Thats how we drop the low-boys but I would estimate that there are somewhere around 100 trailers here in town and another 50 in Prudhoe Bay. That would be a lot of blocks. Remove all the grease from the crank and they spin like a top.

 

[Crumm]

I've seen Lube oil Frozen solid also. Chipped away frozen grease too.

Yeper. Grease can be chipped, gear oil like jello and even motor oil will get so thick it wont pour. Of course we run pan heaters on the engines and synthetics in the gear cases that don't do that but dino oil will.

I remember when I first moved up here I had to change the oil in my 3406 and before I got the first 5 gallon bucket dumped in it the oil was so cold that it would not come out. I had to take it back in the house and heat it up to get it in the engine where the block heater and pan heater could take over. This was at -60 in Tok Alaska. After three winters out in the cold I rented a shop

I have heard that with dino oil in a rear axle the ring gear will cut a slot through the frozen oil and then burn up from lack of lubrication. I have never tried it but my personal thought is when the gears start getting hot they would heat the oil and start it flowing. Someone should test my theory