This may have been discussed before, but if i wanted to build air tight rock sliders out of 2x6 steel, what wall thickness would be appropriate? I am very new to fabrication.

 

If you plan on using them as auxiliary air tanks, I would recommend .250 wall.

Happy Jeepin'
TexasTaz38

 

Thanks!

 

0.250” is going to be your best bet.

You should know that making a pressure tank out of a rectangular vessel is very much sub-ideal. Every pressure tank ever made is sphereical or cylinderical to distribute stress evenly around the tank (think like an arch bridge) whereas the rectangular tube will create stress risers in the corners as well as cause the walls to bulge out under pressure. This will most likely cause your welds to fail over time as the tube expands and contracts from pressurizing and depressurizing.

Also, if you’re brand new to fabricating you should know it is much more difficult than you’d think to weld an airtight container because the weld will cause gas to heat up, expand and push the weld out.

Not saying you can’t/shouldn’t do it. Just food for thought.

 

If you're on the trail and you come down hard enough to break that weld with the combination of slam and pressure it'll make an awesome sound i'm sure.

 

I appreciate the advice. Im not stuck on the idea, im totally open to suggestions. My end goal is to hide an on board air tank somewhere not easily visible. I like people not being able to tell how not stock I am.

 

Slider air tanks is not a good idea. Air tanks rupture violently when they are punctured. Sliders by design are meant to get beat up.

Pull the interior panel on the passenger side of the rear cargo area. There is a big open space in there. If you modify the interior panel to go straight down, rather than having an indent in it, should be able to jam a fair sized tank in there.

Another approach would be to build an air tank into the rear bumper. Just don't air it up on the road, could be bad if you were rear ended. Should be able to fit a piece of 3" pipe inside the bumper w/ caps welded on it.

Next question, what do you need an air tank for? Not trying to be smart, honest question. Intended use has a lot to do with how big of a tank you need.

 

 

I would like the option to run tools, but mostly I want to be able to air down and up without having to find a gas station or something. I dont think i need more than 2 or 3 gallons of air.

 

your not going to be able to run air tools man let me tell you that hahah...if all you need is air to fill up, theres small compressors that run off the cigarette lighter port...take about 3 minutes per tire, but they are small, cheap, and work just fine..quite a few guys in the local club use them if they doint go full on board air like viar or something.

 

For tires get you one of these:


I've had mine for a bit over a year, used it at least a dozen times to air all four of my 33x12.5x15 tires from 12-18 PSI back up to 32 PSI. Takes 10 or 15 minutes. In that time I hook the sway bar back up and give the undercarriage a good look. Compressor barely gets warm, outlet hose gets HOT. Works great. Has clamps to hook to the battery, pulls too many amps for the cigarette lighter. My cigarette lighter doesn't work (one day I'll fix it, maybe), so it's nice it hooks to the battery.

Besides, I don't think a 2 or 3 gallon tank will be enough to bring all four tires back up to pressure. For air tools you will need to convert you AC compressor to an air pump. I don't think there is an 12v electric compressor capable of keeping up with air tools. An impact will suck an air tank down by the second or third lug nut. Most every 12v compressor pump will then take 5 minutes or so to press that tank back up for the rest of the lug nuts on that wheel. AC compressor will have the CFM output to keep up with most air tools. Good option if you don't mind losing your AC.