Just finished fabricating a set of custom sliders that double as air tanks for the on-board air system I will soon be installing. The skids are a lot like the Calmini ones with a few changes. They're painted with Dupli-color metallic black, which blends in well with the factory Night Armor color. 1/4" pipe fittings are TIG welded in two locations per side to allow for hose connections. Here are a few photos:

Nice. What's the capacity of them? How are they mounted to the frame?

They are 2" x 3" x 56" which gives around 500 cubic inches (2.2 gallons). They mount with 5/16" brackets using the same holes as the Shrock sliders.

Man thats awesome. Only one problem. what happens if you do this to them...



KAAAAAA BOOOOOOMMM!!!!

That looks damn good ...........Very nice job........

Hey "sexterra" , what kind of tires do you have on your x? they look sweet

That is not Sexterra's X and those are Interco's Trxus MTs

How far will that volume get you?

Rob (from AZ) with the SAR outfitted pathy has similar sliders, and he smacked them pretty hard in Moab while they were full of air and they held up very well. Also, so long as there's a compressor that is attached with a pressure switch to the intake fitting on the sliders set to the appropriate PSI they will constantly refil and you will never be without air.

Not very far at all. Maybe a good size for a locker and that's about it. Linked, is getting somewhere but no where near even filling one tire. MC

While the 2.2-gallon capacity may not be enough to fill up a tire, it's enough to allow the use of air tools, and possibly even seat a blown bead.

You will get maybe 2-3 lug nuts off with a 2gallon tank.

But it would also depend on how many CFM the compressor is. ExtremeAire has a 4cfm 100% cycle compressor. The problem is I couldn't find any place to mount it. I ended up with a 2cfm 100% cycle Viair.

Like the previous comments have stated- if used alone that volume might be enough to air up a tire. My intention has always been to connect it to an on-board compressor and use it that way. I don't intend to run air tools, just to have a way quickly air up after leaving the trail.

As far as the strength of the tubes- The wall thickness is 3/16" which would never burst with 150 psi in it, even if a rock cracked it completely. In fact, the 1.5" shrock tubes could withstand an internal pressure of around 9000 psi before they burst- so there is definitely some safety margin there.

Just a thought... would it be possible to convert shrockbars into a simlar setup?

I am sure the square tubes on the Shrock bars would hold air, but they wouldn't hold enough to make it worth while IMO.

Does anyone know if the 2 tubes of the shrockbars are connected as to have a single airspace?

I'd doubt it.

But you could just drill from the backside, all the way through both walls of the square tubing (to open up into the round tubes), then use the hole on the inside of the square tube as your tap location.

I had my rock-sliders plumbed to serve as a pseudo air-tank, just like yours. However, I have really never used them that way. It turns out that airing up just one tire isn't especially useful, and since I don't usually keep the sliders pressurized, it takes longer to pressurize them than it would to just start filling up the tire.

Another reason why I don't really use the air-holding feature of the sliders is that they're the lowest point in the air system, and will retain moisture that builds up, since there's no water drain-cock. This will eventually lead to rust from the inside-out.

At the moment, my on-board air is an ARB air compressor. I added a valve that isolates the compressor from the sliders ( Pic of valve here ), so if I don't want to pressurize the sliders, I don't have to. This makes for quick pressurization of the small ARB tank.

Pic of T-fitting connecting right-side and left-side sliders

Nice idea.

The drain issue is what kept me from doing it though.

The 2 gal is shy of truly useful, especally with a low capacity compressor to recharge it, etc. On the plus side, another 2-3 gallon tank wouldn't be hard to tuck in somewhere, and make up the difference/give a capacity to blow the condensation out of the sliders, etc.

I considered plumbing a flush valve at one end, so I could blow the water out, but in the end decided a 4 gallon capacity was really the minimum to reseat a blown bead on my 33's, as they HOLD about 4 gallons each.

I fit a ExtremeAir 4 CFM 100% duty cycle 150 psi compressor under the hood, and a 4 gallon air tank under the driver's seat beneath the truck.





I plumbed a drain into the bottom of the tank to drain condensation, and blow it out once in a while.

I also hooked the compressor up to a pressure switch on the tank, so that the compressor will kick on if the tank pressure drops, and turn off again when back up to pressure.