I was looking at the small bed (stepside) on my plans for my project and thought about putting together a system w/ an air compessor to inflate and deflate the tires from a control in the cab.  Does something like this exist already that i can just buy?  Got the idea from my friend who brought his air compressor in the back of his s-10 to inflate the tires on his motorcycle.  Any one know how to construct something like this? Any tips? Thanks

Are you looking for a way to inflate and deflate you tires on the move, or just an onboard air compressor? 

The military has CTIS (Central Tire Inflation System) which would be extremely hard to duplicate, just sealing the air lines through the hub to the valve stem would very hard.  As for an onboard air compressor, there are a bunch of ways to do that, most use an old A/C compressor, or a heavy duty electric compressor plumbed in to a holding tank (2.5 to 5 gallons depending on what kind of space you have) Sun Performance is well known fo their off road air compressors and air tanks.  Summit Racing also sells air tanks and compressors made for this purpose cheaper than Sun Performance Air tanks.

I hope that helps...

I definately agree wiht the difficulty of duplicating the military system, however there are systems out there that can be installed to wirelessly transmit your current tire pressure to the cockpit.  That is a long way from being able to adjust of the fly but it is a hell of a start.

I cannot remember the company name however it is reported that the money you save on gas mileage and tire wear from always having the proper tire pressure eventually pays off.

Inflating and Deflating your tires from in teh cab is a pipe dream and a fabrication nightmare.

The only feasable way i can see of doing this is getting all the parts, including rims, from a hummer. Not likely.

Proper tire pressure is important, but i cant see a system like this paying for itself, an ordinary tire guage and an on board air system would be the best solution....only if you inflate and deflate your tires alot, or like the ability to run air tools off your truck........   

well guess that idea is out the window.  Just thought it would be cool to have something that you could drive to the trail, deflate the tires, do some offroadin, and then inflate them again and hit the road.  pluss having an air compressor would let you run stuff like an impact wrench like you said or other tools that would help trail repair.  How would I go about making a tire psi guage for the cab cause I'm still interested in that even if i cant inflate and deflate on demand.  

I dont know about making this system, unless you are an electronics genius of sorts. A pneumatic guage is just as mear to impossible as an inflation system. You are talking about plumbing air lines from a rotating object (tire) through the suspension or hub assembly to a non rotating object (cab). Therefore this leaves you with devising a wireless electronics system to transmit a pressure signal from each tire to a reciever in the cab.

I belive there are systems out there that calculate "potential tire pressure" through loads imposed on teh sock by the weight of the vehicle........but once again...........complicated.

Be as cool as everyone else and hop out of the cab with your parts store tire guage and check em the right way. 

I will do some research but I aam positive there is a mod already out there that has a wireless transmitter that mounts to the wheel surface that transmits real-time pressure reading to the reciever in the cab....hmm just another reason to surf more wheelin sites.  

As if anyone posting here needs more reasons to surf wheelin sites....8)  

check out the November 2003 isue of the magazine.  there is an article about the "smart tire monitoring system"  it has 4 transmiters mounted to the wheels, and a receiver mounted  in the cab. 

here is their website.  www.smartire.com

this might be what you are looking for.

mudrunner

wow things get more complitcated by the second.  And you now whats bad about complicated stuff on the trail.  It will break.  Thanks for that link though mud, that thing seemed pretty cool.  Problem is you would have to reset the warning levels everytime you hit the trails and reset them on the road and then set them again once you aired up ur tires.  Plus i hate it when they dont show you the price, that means that it costs too much.  GUess I'll just look cool like the rest of you and jump out of the cab with a tire guage.  (Since I'm not really an engineer *architect in training* I'm probably not going to go through and try to design the inflate and deflate system that can be used on everyday trucks.  I'll leave that up to someone else)  

Just having and onboard air compressor is worth the slight amount of work it would take to mount and plumb the tank and lines. You'll still have to get out and air up, but having onboard air will make it go faster! Of course, airing up tires at the trailhead on the way home is prime bull%*iting time!  

4 wheel and offroad has an article about a tire monitoring system called "smartire" it's in the Nov. '03 issue. you can also buy deflating devices that attach to your valve stems and they will deflate to a pre set pressure as you drive. still have to air them up on your own though.  

yeah I checked out that smatire site and that thing seemed pretty cool.  Thinking about keeping the aircompressor in there just so i can run air tools off the back of the truck.  I dont think the extra weight will matter that much, truck is going to be pretty heavy as it is.