Airing Down

... and there are. I just had to look. LOL.

The other day I went out to rescue somebody stuck in the sand.

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I did all my off road playing on a dirt bike I could (and often did) manhandle out of mudholes.

An uncle in Colorado showed me how he had modified an old A/C compressor pump into an engine driven air pump to reinflate the tires.

If you put tire valve male and female fittings on an air hose you could deflate and reinflate from inside the cab. The thread is close enough to

You are suggesting a pressure relief valve. I suspect a commercial valve would need the spring changed to a softer one to make adjustment less fussy. They aren't hard to make, the used control valve I bought for my tractor bucket loader had a fixed setting relief that I modified to be user-adjustable according to an added gauge. The actuator plunger consisted of a tap bolt with the hex head turned round and grooved for an O ring, which sealed the low pressure drain side. It compresses a spring that presses the original valve disk against the orifice. Originally the relief pressure had been set with shims.

Usually I make thumbscrews and control knobs from knurled aluminum. Recently I tried knurling acetal which turned out very well, clean and sharp.

I mentioned converting a pull ring pressure relief to a cam handle. The cam lever is a sheet aluminum rectangle bent into a channel over stock a little thicker than the valve stem diameter, and mostly filed to a rounded cam profile to lift the valve and hold it open.

This is the kind of stuff that made the USA great !

No, this is a "simple" pressure let off regulator. You set the desired pressure, screw it on to the valve stem, and go sit in the air conditioned cab of the truck sipping on a cold water while your tires flatten to sand running pressure.

More like this:

Or like this:

I was wondering if there might be a simple screw on regulator I could preset to desired air down pressure screw one onto each valve stem, and sit in air conditioned cab of the truck to sip a water while I waited. If there isn't one, just how hard would it be to make one? Well four... well eight. I'd like a set in the Jeep too. //////////////////// More like this:

------------------------ Good, you found your answer.

And prompted me to find a right angle tire valve extension, instead of making one.

This is the kind of stuff that made the USA great !

Hi all

Back in about February I pulled some folk out of where they had sunk into the grass. Has rained so much here and we had no clearly identifiable Spring. Was funny walking along inventing a "Wurzels like" song about taking my rope for a walk (cider-drinking world - including famous "I am a cider drinker" song). Want to find a light block can attach to vehicle being towed, end of rope to fixed object, so getting 2:1 advantage with rope attached to towing-point of towing car. Only had 1:1 then - but mercifully I had a long coil of rope so I could tow from the tarmac some distance away.

Was at an event where the booked venue had fallen-through and an enterprise at an airfield had stepped in - bless them.

Rich S

As a designer from Bulgaria I sometimes work with told me, "The more off road capable is your truck the further you need to walk to find a tractor." I guess rednecks are the same all over the world.

Glad you were able to get them out.

On my recent recovery effort, after airing down, I used four recovery straps linked together with soft shackles to slam them out and back onto the road with my truck about 2-3 feet at a time. I was rather proud of my heavy Chevy and how it managed the sand after I aired down. I never really used that technique before (shock loading recovery straps), but it was uphill, sideways, in bottomless dry river sand. On "level" ground I can usually just pull somebody straight out with steady pressure. I rather learned a bit from the experience and I like to think I am a fairly experienced desert/offroad driver. I did have a 120 winch cable and another 400-500 feet of heavy nylon rope, but I'd never have recovered them that way.

Sometime I'll tell the story of the night I caught 21 fox in 18 traps... and why I was able to do that.

Bob La Londe snipped-for-privacy@none.com on Mon, 10 Jun 2024 12:23:38 -0700 typed in rec.crafts.metalworking the following:

Friends comment is "4x4 just means a longer walk once you're stuck."

My idea of 4 wheelin' is to go in 2 wheel drive until you get stuck . Put it in 4 wheel and get unstuck and go home . We have a 4 wheel drive and chains because without we could end up stuck down here unable to get out in an emergency in winter . I haven't needed the chains yet .

My idea of 4 wheelin' is to go in 2 wheel drive until you get stuck . Put it in 4 wheel and get unstuck and go home . We have a 4 wheel drive and chains because without we could end up stuck down here unable to get out in an emergency in winter . I haven't needed the chains yet .

-- Snag It's great to be straight !

-------------------------------- Here in New England there's no lack of mud and boulders, but the most challenging off-roading can be driving home from work an inch or two -above- the pavement during an ice storm. Traffic almost never completely disappears and the few times it did a friend and I would slide around on the iced roads on our dirt bikes. The nearly empty roads became playgrounds for drivers with vehicles that could handle them, mainly small foreign cars capable of controlled sliding. Full time all wheel drive is somewhat disappointing because it doesn't allow locking only the rear axle with the handbrake to enter a spin or a J (bootlegger) turn. I could spin and recover my Ranger on ice though I didn't see much stunting with full sized trucks.

Smart.

"Jim Wilkins" snipped-for-privacy@gmail.com on Tue, 11 Jun 2024 07:32:44

-0400 typed in rec.crafts.metalworking the following:

At the cost of trucks these days ... no surprise.

... and yet the money some folks spend on their off road rigs just to go out and try the hardest trails and beat them up is crazy.

... and yet the money some folks spend on their off road rigs just to go out and try the hardest trails and beat them up is crazy.

Bob La Londe

---------------------------------------- The craziest vehicle misuse I've watched was snowmobiles on water. Powerful ones can stay on plane at sufficient speed but none turn very well. Surprisingly the failures could eventually be started again after being dragged out of the water.

I think the biggest reason snowmobiles manage to "ski" on water so well is not just the ski, but also the track can get a grip on the water to keep it going fast enough.

I seem to recall dirt bikes with some types of tires can also hydroplane/ski across water, and I think Mythbusters did some short tests with cars.

If you lose "traction" and slow down its all over.

You do the same thing with a fast (ish) boat, but you have the advantage of floating when you fall off plane in most boats. LOL.

We used to say 4wd just means you need to carry a longer chain - or it just gets you stuch THAT MUCH farther from help

I seem to recall dirt bikes with some types of tires can also hydroplane/ski across water, and I think Mythbusters did some short tests with cars.

------------------------------ I helped rescue a VW Beetle floating in a pond in a sandpit. The water line was almost at the top of the rear fender opening. We were on dirt bikes without much equipment, fortunately someone had line to pull it to shore and the VW didn't weigh much.

I skidded my VW off an icy road in the Black Forest while trying to slow down at a garage. The husky owner came out and lifted the rear end back onto the pavement by himself, then sold me tires.