Air Line Plumbing

[ca180]

So, I'm trying to figure out how to run my air lines. I've seen lots of diagrams that are pretty useful, but have some questions.

1) Is it better to keep the valves close to the tank and run the lines to the corners, or put the valves close to the corners?

2) If I were going to put them close to the corners, should I hard line everything up to the valves and run only a short section of flex?

3) If I plumb the valves close to the tank, is it ok to run flex lines that long?

I'm wanting to stay as safe as possible, and not have to redo this all later. I have 8 1/2" valves, one 7 gallon tank, and a thomas 327 compressor. Hopefully I can do something....

Thanks in advance

[jlaird]

1) closer to the bags will result in a quicker dump/fill, but in my opinion, unless you want your setup to be real fast, I don't think it matters.

2) You can run hardline between the valves and bag, but it will make maintenance a little difficult. I would run a short soft line or hydraulic line between the valve and bag if you run the valve at the bag.

3) If you mean plastic line when you say "flex lines" then yes, this is the most common setup. If you mean braided stainless, I think you can run those but it would be pretty expensive.

josh

[ca180]

Well, don't really care for fast.... slow works just fine.

So, best to run one line to a "manifold" with separate tee's for each pair of valves and then plastic (single) line to the bag.

Make sense? Hope so... I guess I'm just not seeing where all these dang valves are gonna go an not look like total ****e. Not to mention hiding the lines..............

[jlaird]

if your worried about looks, get a manifold. Otherwise carefully plan the layout of the individual valves. Heres what I did:

[ENHANCED AIR RIDE]

My opinion is I like it all close to the tank. All ur plumbing and wiring are centrally located. I really love the manifold valves, saves lots of space and plumbing. But as jlaird stated a little planning goes a long way. I do them both ways depends on customer