Sorry, a little late, but I would tend to agree with 18 bravo as far as the feed. I would think they would feed off one bladder at a time with shut offs so you could replace or refill them separately to keep a steady supply of fuel for the fleet. Wayne
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Thanks Wayne, I’m either going that route which means I’ve got to scratch or source a manifold - or, as I’ve got a spare pump like the one in the pic, I’ll add that and just run a bladder pump hose reel setup on either side.
I’ve ordered a bunch of tubing so I should be set to tackle this on Wednesday.
Appreciate your input.
ETA I’ve got a bunch of old 1/25 AMT Car kits off-stash. Maybe there’s a manifold in there?
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Basically a manifold is just a pipe with the inlets with valves and the outlet going to the pump. Simple to make. Simpified sketch. Wayne
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Accurate - Armour had a bunch of appropriate sets for this sort of setup. I’ve been trying to find the one I bought when they went under, but no success today.
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Thanks for the sketch Wayne and the efforts you’ve made too 18Bravo. I’ve been digging in the 1/25 stock car stash and found an engine manifold. It looks a pretty realistic shape having cut it in half and drilled 3 holes for the bladder hoses and an outlet. Once the 1mm hose arrives I’ll sand and paint it, then run it to the correct positions including a Y adapter from the pump to the hose reels.
This last stage will be like keyhole surgery!
Appreciate your help guys.
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Thanks Wayne, mine’s going to be that layout but with the manifold to the front of the bed, then the pump and hose reels moving towards the back.
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Just remember easy access to the shutoffs on the manifold.
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Thanks, good point. Looking into this (a lot) deeper, it’s evident the pump, manifold and filter housing had pretty specific locations so that throws my previous plan out the window. Pump on the roadside of the rear bed, manifold with shut offs on the other side - right next to the rearmost hose reel.
Gonna make plumbing this buggy a real fun time, but it’ll be really good to get it right!
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HA HA What’s the old saying? If it was easy anybody could do it! Anyway, the troopies wouldn’t want to climb in and out any more than they had to. Everything reachable from the back. Any way,Got the faith in ya.
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Well I’ll keep at it bud. Thought I’d got the right size tubing for the intake and discharge lines. Not!
Ordered today, but given (1 I haven’t got the special silicon-friendly paint/primer and (2 it takes 48 hours between sanding the piping and it being primed and top coated - It’ll be Sunday before I can get on with the plumbing.
I did build a different manifold though, like the one you sketched for me. So that’s a small step forward.
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Hi Gino, looked into this some more and running the two pipes to a tee would cause all kinds of turbulence in the fuel delivery process. A second pump seems a nice idea and very convenient plumbing-wise, but it has never been used in the FARS application. The answer is a manifold fed from the bladders and then one pipe to the pump which will feed a tee supplying both hose reels.
It’s a fun hobby!
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Sounds like a plan. I didn’t have the answer, just saw that the setup you had didn’t look right. Good luck with it.
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That looks great.
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Well I’ve got my head around the pump etc layout now. The pump sits at the back of the cargo area on the drivers side with the manifold ahead of it. Hose reels sit on the opposite side. Access to all controls is easy because the operator stands on the lowered tailgate during pumping.
I’ve got some scale 3” hose drying/curing and will get on with the project on the weekend.
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With you calling this a fun hobby, you hopefully won’t mind my pointing out another detail you might add: The hood on the exhaust stack on the left (cab heater) should be drilled trough horizontally - just sayin’.
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Thanks Peter. No problem with pointing these things out. A bit of research suggests that this a snorkel for the engine?
Originally installed for water operation it was also useful for raising the air intake above the dust cloud in dry/desert conditions. Time for the pin vise!
Cheers.
Denimo
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I’m sure you’ve thought of it, but different size wire with the insulation on makes good hoses. It can be bent and holds shape and comes in enough colors to use for air lines or fuel hoses. Just expose a small amount of wire on the ends and drill a hole to glue it in. Wayne
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Thanks Wayne, yes I ordered this after reading about the problems associated with silicon tubing. It’s arriving today.
I went ahead and scoured and painted some tubing anyway and I’ll try it today, figuring I could touch up any areas that flake off as they claim. If it doesn’t work out I’ll “go to the wire” tomorrow (Amuzin usually delivers pm around here).
We’ll get ‘er done and she’ll soon be in service!
ETA Wire arrived just now, so I’ll be looking at it today.
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I always saved/ scrounged wire from old electrical cords or whatever. When I did roadwork we often dug up old phone or cable wire. I still have bunches of it. And old phone and power cords. Wayne
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