The Stovebolt Site Forums The Parking Lot Big Bolts Air compressor on a 54 4100

I just acquired a 54 4100 for $50. I needed the radiator and the rest of the truck came with it but on closer exam it seems to be a possible restoration project. It has what appears to be a factory installed air compressor, belt driven off the engine, with hoses going to other places and an air tank underneath the bed. Since it's still sitting in the cactus patch I haven't crawled under it to see where the hoses go. Can anyone tell me what this might be for. It is not a dump truck nor does is appear to have air brakes.

You could get a factory air compressor just for general use on these trucks. My 59 1 ton had a tank and compressor mount on the old 235, but the compressor was long gone. And the PO put on some big truck air horns to go with that.

There were Dealer installed, Air Brake Conversion Kits,(air assist, for exsisting hydraulic brake system) available from, Bendix-Westinghouse, Wagner, & Midland. Full Air Brakes, & Air, Over Hydraulic Brakes, were not available, from the Factory, on Chevrolet Trucks until 1956.

This truck was a flat bed farmer. The sheet metal is pretty good but not the glass. The engine won't turn by hand but beyond that I have no idea of it's state. How exactly did the air brake system work in assisting the hydraulic system and would it be worth restoring i.e. can you generally get parts for these things?

The air assisted, the system, in place of the vacuum assist. Parts, would not be available, for these air assist conversions. It's "Rare" to find one of these setups period.

The one point I would like to make in this discussion is that my 51 Chev 2 ton also has the air compressor. I have been under the truck many times and there appears to be no connection between the compressed air system and the truck's brakes. However, because the truck is setup to be a tractor, the air lines are located at the back of the cab. I can only assume this is for the air brakes for a trailer. Spanky informed me long ago that Bekins used many of these trucks and sure enough I can barely make out the Bekins logo on the front of the truck. So that's another possible use for the compressor system in these trucks.

Joe

I have to correct my previous post as this weekend I crawled under the '51 5100 and the compressed air system does seem to be connected in some fashion to the brake booster. All the hoses and tubing are a plumber's nightmare. As always, Spanky's the MAN when it comes to AD big bolts.

Joe

Bekins Moving and Storage used those tractors locally all over the West. All the old trailers had air brakes and the Chevy was cheaper than a GMC with full air. Only in an emergency did these tractors ever leave the state. Here in Arizona it was awful to try and pull a 32' trailer up through the mountain passes. It was avery slow going. When I started working for them during the summers some of those old tractors were still around. Redcoat

Air brakes or vacuum brakes?

Hey Redcoat, that is great information though what did you mean by "the Chevy was cheaper than a GMC with full air".

Joe