John Dunn of Vanair Manufacturing Inc. talks about the manufacturer’s new PTO-driven underdeck systems during a 2020 Work Truck Show press conference.
A new power take-off-driven underdeck air compressor system from Vanair Manufacturing Inc. features such innovations as an advanced air-oil separation tank, the company’s new VTech II controllor, and options such as a dual-sensor redundancy system and ether protection kit.
“Frankly, this is the biggest change in the industry for PTO underdeck systems since we invented the system in 1972,” said John Dunn, a strategic account manager with Vanair, during a press conference at the Work Truck Show in Indianapolis this March.
A key component of the new underdeck system is the advanced separation tank design launched at show. Inside the tank is an “ultra-life coalescing element” that promises 6,000 hours of operation time, “probably somewhere between 15 to 20 years of usage for most major fleets,” Dunn said. “Chances are they’ll probably dispose of that asset before they ever have to service that element.”
Aluminum manifolds
The sleek design, while similar to the same 10-inch design in place for several years, now employs aluminum manifolds to support much of the equipment and devices for monitoring the system. For example, “the aluminum manifold has built in the blowdown valve, the minimum pressure valve, the scavenge line assembly, the pressure regulators and the transducers,” Dunn said. “Before this design, all of that equipment was randomly plumbed and hung underneath the truck and no two trucks were ever the same.”
On the opposite side of the tank, another aluminum manifold is O-mounted to the tank. That manifold contains the oil filter housing, a built-in thermal valve, and the thermistor mounting.
“Again, those items used to be mounted somewhere randomly underneath the chassis,” Dunn said.
Streamlining of the chassis affords uniformity of build to the customer. The design also reduces plumbing connections that previously required NPT (national pipe thread) fittings, Dunn said. “So we’re eliminating potential leak points by up to 60 percent.”
The new V-Tech II controller isn’t just an enhanced version of an older controller. “It’s a completely new control box, and it’s really the brain of the system,” Dunn said. It has infinite variable precision speed control, which precisely regulates engine speed based on air demand. “So our previous design if an operator called for just a little bit of air, it automatically ramped up to high speed,” Dunn said. “With this new V-Tech II controller, when they call for just a little bit of air, it’ll ramp up just a little bit. That saves fuel, that’s less wear and tear on the truck, and it’s less noise in the environment for the operator.”
Torque management
The system also has built-in torque management that in combination with a soft-start PTO helps protect a truck’s drive train. The system’s data-logging capability can store up to 100 faults in its history and display problems on a screen such as a fault with a thermistor sensor.
“It’s clear, it’s concise, and it’s intuitive,” Dunn said. “It tells the operator what’s going on with the system.” It’s also an analog display. Its various screens provide pressure and temperature reading as well as a pre-prescribed maintenance program that alerts the operator when it’s time to perform service such as oil and filter changes.
The new system’s solid-state brushless fan assembly, which is part of the fan cooler package, is IP68 rated and boasts a 40,000-hour lifecycle. “It truly is a smart fan,” Dunn said. “It eliminates In the need for a relay in the circuit. And it has stall-block protection. For some reason, if the fan blade was blocked because a stick got jammed in there or snow and ice got packed in there, it’ll sense that and it’ll actually shut itself down to prevent itself from from being burnt out.”
FailSafe sensor
Among the options on the compressor system is the trademarked patent-pending FailSafe dual sensor. Under the previous design, should a sensor like a thermistor or a transducer fail, the entire system would shut down.
“Now it will seamlessly transfer over to the backup sensor and the operator who’s using the air tools won’t even know it,” Dunn said. “They’ll be able to finish their work and when they get back to the truck, they would see a warning on here saying, ‘Hey, one of your sensors needs to get changed out.’”
Another option, the trademarked patent-pending ThermalGuard weather protection kit, preheats oil in the tank to enable cold-weather starting as well preheating the airside manifold, building regulators, and blowdown valve to help to eliminate moisture. Yet another option is a weather-protected box for mounting sensors in a service body compartment or high on the truck where they won’t be exposed to road splash, brine, water intrusion and the like.
Jeff Steer of Vanair Manufacturing Inc. goes over the features of the company’s Start-All jump packs.
At the press conference, Vanair’s Jeff Steer also went over the features of the company’s Goodall brand Start-All lithium ion jump packs. They include the 10,000-amp, 12-volt model “designed specifically to start heavy duty Class 8 vehicles,” Steer said.
For more information about Vanair, which is headquartered in Michigan City, Ind., visit www.vanair.com.