Onboard Air Compressor

[phonemannn]

The power wire on the WirelessOne's harness is protected by a 15 amp fuse and the small compressor that came with the WirelessOne system has a label that shows it pulls 12 amps. That got me looking at the wiring harness I was planning on hooking up to the VIAIR.

I have a gauge that showed me the red power wire on the WirelessOne's harness is 12ga. 12ga has a max current carrying capacity of 20 amps. The 450RV-P (per VIAIR's website) can pull 23 amps during normal operation and it's wiring is fused to 30 amps. The 12ga wire on a 30a fused circuit is an issue. It's not that the truck will explode in a fireball mushroom cloud when I turn on the VIAIR (if connected to the WirelessOne's harness) but over time and with a lot of use something could go very wrong.

So I'm going to use the WirelessOne's compressor and hook it all up as designed by the OEM. I'm then going to mount my VIAIR in the truck's bed and wire it through the Upfitter Switch.

Just run the VIAIR thru a relay, controlled by the upfitter switch. Power the relay from the charge wire, to the 7way plug in your bed. not sure of gauge tho, but it should be 10.

[FT4NOW]

Thought you'd be interested--I checked the wire coming from upfitter switch/relay 6 and it is 8ga (rated to 40a).

Thanks. I guess they changed it in 2017 when they went to 6 switches vice the 4 they've been using for awhile. I def do not have any that are 8ga and I think my highest rated switch is only 25 or 30 Amps.

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[howson]

Just run the VIAIR thru a relay, controlled by the upfitter switch. Power the relay from the charge wire, to the 7way plug in your bed. not sure of gauge tho, but it should be 10.

Ugh. Why didn't I think of this?

So that everyone can follow along, the first picture is the OEM setup.


This is what I'd originally contemplated doing. (The black arrow is pointing to the 12ga wire that is too small.)


After reading Phonemann's post (and slapping myself silly) here's what I think will work:

[FT4NOW]

... here's what I think will work:

That's what I originally recommended in post #13 [emoji3]

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[phonemannn]

After reading Phonemann's post (and slapping myself silly) here's what I think will work:

It looks good! Glad I could help. Sometime it hard to see the forest fro the trees. Fresh thoughts help. That is why these kinds of forums exist.

[howson]

That's what I originally recommended in post #13 [emoji3]

Sorry! It didn't register. I thought the manifold itself would be good enough to be the "relay" (I assumed the wiring was up to the job).

[gbkims]

Howard,
Your idea reminds me of what I ended up with on a WirelessONE Gen1?, I'd installed on my Ranger(sadly neglected) several years ago in 2015.
It came with a relay back then
I added a rocker switch to give ignition switched power the the WirelessONE relay so I could control when the compressor came on.

[howson]

I added a rocker switch to give ignition switched power the the WirelessONE relay so I could control when the compressor came on.

A Ford Ranger! Now that's a truck we don't talk much about on this forum. I had a 1988 Ranger (manual) that Fran hated. When I made E-5 first words out of her mouth was, "You're buying me a car."

I making progress on the WirelessOne. I mounted the filter MadDog55 recommended and the manifold. I also ran the wires for the manifold and the additional 10ga wires for the VIAIR through wire loom. My hands hurt after wrestling with that loom! After lunch, I'm back at it...

To your point I also decided to use Upfitter Switch #1 for the relay power instead of hooking it directly to the battery. With Upfitter 1 and 6 off there's no power at all going back to any part of the WirelessOne setup.

I'll explain why I mounted the components where they are when it's all done.

[SouthTX]

My hands hurt after wrestling with that loom! After lunch, I'm back at it...

Worth its weight in gold.
https://www.amazon.com/s?k=wire+loom...f=nb_sb_noss_1

[howson]

A few lessons learned in no particular order:

- Took me >12 hours to install. Getting the wires and air lines "just right" and secured was exceptionally time consuming. I still need to go back and add clamps to the air lines for long-term security. (The lines are fine right now with the zillion zip ties I used, but I want something more permanent.)

- The nut needed for the "Emergency Fill" schrader valve is an 8mm x .75 pitch thread. I could only find 1 and 1.25 pitch threads locally, so now I have an extra 48 nuts. (50 cost $7 on Amazon.)

- I used a lot of tools to get this done! This is not a project to do away from home.

- There's a lot of extras needed to do this right that's not in the kit. Wire loom, weatherproof crimp terminals, the previously mentioned nuts, and a cap for the schrader valve. (Same as any cap for a tire valve on a bicycle, motorcycle or car.) Obviously a relay, too, if you plan on using a VIAIR like I did. 10ga wire is what I ran for the VIAIR (powered from the relay).

- There are knock-outs in the front left and right of the truck's bed. Made it easy to run the power and air lines from the VIAIR. I just drilled two holes in the right knock out since it is simple to replace if required at some future date. (I'm going to circle back to the compressor and secure it in the bed better soon.)



- Maddog55's recommended filter installed easily enough, but it probably took me the most time to figure out where to install. The driver's side framerail has a lot of extras like the emergency brake cable and other "stuff" that impeded the installation of the filter, manifold and relay. On the passenger side the filter was orientated in the wrong direction (I'd have to loop back the air line to the manifold). That's why I ended bolting it to the aluminum side frame (the sheet metal screws won't hold the filter). Worked out OK, but wow it took a lot of time to figure out the best spot!

As previously mentioned, I changed the final electrical configuration so I can completely isolate the WirelessOne system from power as desired. This is the final configuration:





The valve at the hitch is slick!



Many thanks to the forum members who helped me with the configuration, suggestions and encouragement. I'm glad it's done!