I ordered an air ride system from Ridetech to control my air bags. It came with the compressor, tank, ECU, and controller. I chose this system because of the bluetooth controller. It has a wired controller that I plan to keep under the seat so I don't have a modern component mixed in with the old stuff and I'll primarily use my phone to operate the system.
The first order of business was to mount the air tank. I decided to mount it between the runningboard on the LH side and the frame and directly the frame. With the fittings all clocked straight up at 12 o'clock I had to drop down the tank such that the bottom fasteners did not land on the frame. I took some 2-1/2 angle that I had and made two brackets to weld on the bottom the frame rail to pick-up the lower bolts. I then tack welded in some threaded bungs at the top. I'll weld them in final when I remove the body from the frame but they should hold for now.
One thing that I noticed missing from the air tank is a drain outlet or bung on the bottom of the tank. I can't believe that it doesn't have one so eventually I'll have one welded into the bottom with a petcock.
After the air tank was mounted then it was on to the compressor. Since the remaining space on the left side was limited and the compressor is wired directly to the battery (and the battery box is on the RH side) then it made sense to mount it is the same spot as the tank but on the right side.
I considered mounting the compressor directly to the frame rail but it mounts thru rubber isolators with three small #10-24 screws so I doubted that I could get that small of threaded bungs welded in place properly. So I had some of the sheet metal that I used for frame boxing left over and fabbed up a small bracket to mount the compressor to that I can mount to the frame. I plan on putting some rubber between the fabbed bracket and the frame as well to help keep down the vibration noise.
I ran out of time. Next up, the air filter, valve assembly, ECU, and controller.
1949 Chevy Panel Truck A Project Journal I'm old but I make up for it by being immature.
