I've been prepping the rig for some upcoming travel trips and this project came back to mind as I was working last weekend. I saw it done a few months ago for breaking the bead on a tire. It has many other applications and for me one is deflating air mattresses in the RTT for easier closure.
Find this unused vacuum port on your intake manifold and remove the spring clip and plastic cap. Yes, my engine bay is a dirty mess! I haven't removed the plastic engine cover in a while and didn't realize how dusty it was under there.
I keep a 25' long air hose in my rig for connecting to my air compressor (airing my tires back up). So I wanted to make a kit that I could use with it. It involved using some 3/8" rubber fuel hose, an air nozzle tool, and some scraps of larger rubber tubing. This section of 3/8" hose was just the right size to shove over the male nipple on the air hose. The other end of my air hose has a female connector, so I needed to rig something to it to attach to my air mattress cap. I used an air sprayer type nozzle. I kept adding larger OD hose until it fit over the mattress inflate/deflate valve.
It's not super fast, but it works well. And I've seen it deflate a 35" tire down until it turned into a square.
From 4" to about 1" in a few minutes time. The downside is I have to squeeze "open" the nozzle lever during this process.
Now with the mattresses deflated I can also store the sleeping bag system up here and keep all bedding in place during transit.
Find this unused vacuum port on your intake manifold and remove the spring clip and plastic cap. Yes, my engine bay is a dirty mess! I haven't removed the plastic engine cover in a while and didn't realize how dusty it was under there.
I keep a 25' long air hose in my rig for connecting to my air compressor (airing my tires back up). So I wanted to make a kit that I could use with it. It involved using some 3/8" rubber fuel hose, an air nozzle tool, and some scraps of larger rubber tubing. This section of 3/8" hose was just the right size to shove over the male nipple on the air hose. The other end of my air hose has a female connector, so I needed to rig something to it to attach to my air mattress cap. I used an air sprayer type nozzle. I kept adding larger OD hose until it fit over the mattress inflate/deflate valve.
It's not super fast, but it works well. And I've seen it deflate a 35" tire down until it turned into a square.
From 4" to about 1" in a few minutes time. The downside is I have to squeeze "open" the nozzle lever during this process.
Now with the mattresses deflated I can also store the sleeping bag system up here and keep all bedding in place during transit.
