Something interesting happened in our offices the other day. We were talking about the road trips we were planning for this summer and when we were on the subject of being prepared, I was asked what kind of stuff I keep in my truck in case I have a problem with my air suspension. I kind of have a whole bunch of random stuff I keep with me – just in case – but most people wouldn’t be able to make heads-nor-tails out of most of it because it isn’t very well organized.
But it made me think of the little kit that Jeff from Devious Custom put together years ago for one of his customers. He calls it a Road Trip Survival Kit and he started offering them to his customers who take their trucks on long road trips because it is difficult to get replacements parts for an air suspension system when you’re 200 miles from a major city. And there is no sense in waiting until you’re stuck on the side of Interstate 10 in West Texas between El Paso and Fort Stockton with a leaking air line to decide that you need to be better prepared.
So after a couple of phone calls to Devious we found out that Jeff didn’t have any of his handy Road Trip Survival Kits made up and sitting on the shelf, but one of the employees at Devious, Jon Poverelli, had one of the kits in his truck. Jon has a laid out Extended Cab Chevy with a full air ride suspension that he uses as his daily driver and he keeps the kit stashed under his rear seat along with a 12-volt Firestone compressor. He has also tossed a couple of additional items into the kit like a couple of extra nuts and bolts for his 4-link, a voltage tester and a flashlight. And it is important to remember that this bag full of parts was intended to be carried with the tool kit that you should already have on your list of things to bring with you on any road trip.
And because we’re pretty sure that there are other members out there wondering what they should pack should they need to perform an on-the-fly repair to the air system this summer, we grabbed a camera and headed up to meet with Jon to check out his bag of tricks. We would like to thank Jon for taking time out of his busy day to answer all of our questions and Jeff for letting us steal one of star fabricators for two hours in the middle of a busy at Devious Customs. If you would like to get one of these Road Trip Survival Kits to keep in your truck – just in case – feel free to contact Devious Customs using the information in the source box.
DEVIOUS CUSTOMS
DEPT. TEN
915 E. Grevillea Court
Ontario, CA 91761
(909) 947-1800
 |  EMERGENCY AIR COMPRESSOR__One element of any air ride system that can fail is the air supply. Just in case there is a problem with the compressor, or any part of the air supply end of the system, Jon carries one of these handy little back up compressors available from Firestone. The compressor comes in this handy carrying case and includes all of the necessary accessories. |  In the front pouch of the bag is where the filler hose is kept. |
 The filler hose connects to the compressor with a quick-disconnect union just like the ones you’d find on your air compressor at home. |  At the other end of the hose is a standard Schrader valve connection just like you would use to inflate tires. |  The compressor just connects to the posts on any 12-volt battery like a pair of jumper cables. |
 THE ROAD TRIP SURVIVAL KIT__Take a look at how much stuff Jon has packed into his bag of tricks. It is hard to believe that he has this much air-ride related stuff stashed under the rear seat of his truck. |  The first thing he pulled out of the bag is a small roll of ½-inch air hose. It’s hard to believe, but there is just shy of 8 feet of hose coiled up here! It is always a good idea to carry spare air hose – just be sure your spare hose is the same diameter as the huse that your truck is plumbed in. |  Jon also keeps a roll of ¼-inch air hose in his bag as well. The ¼-inch hose is what all of his gauges are plumbed in and if he ever needed to splice in a Schrader valve, he would need a short piece of this hose as well. |
 The kit comes with four feet of ½-inch heater hose as well. No it isn’t used for actual air hose, it is used to protect air lines from heat or abrasion. |  Here, Jon shows how that a piece of ½-inch air line is fed into the heater hose. |  And as you can see, the air hose for the right front air bag on Jon’s truck is pretty close to the exhaust manifold and shielding it with a piece of heater hose protects it from direct exposure to heat. Heater hose can also come in handy when running air hose near moving parts (like 4-link bars) where the part could potentially rub a hole in the air line after a long period of time. |
 The next item Jon pulled out of the bag is a replacement air bag. Jon just carries a small bag because the bolt pattern is the same as the larger bags that he runs in the front of his truck and it takes up less space under the seat of his truck. |  And as Jon pointed out, be sure that if you are going to carry a spare that it is the same bolt pattern as the bags you have installed in your truck. If it isn’t the same pattern, you might as well just leave it at home because it won’t do you any good on the side of the road. |  Next is an electric valve of the same brand and port size as the valves on your truck. Just like with the air bag, it won’t do any good to bring a spare valve if it won’t fit as a replacement for one that has gone bad. |
 Another necessity is Teflon tape. This is the magic tape that seals all of your threaded fittings to keep them from leaking air. |  And don’t forget electrical tape either. There is a lot of wiring that goes along with an air ride system and if you have to repair it on the road, you’ll also need to protect it from the elements. |  The kit from Devious didn’t come with a flashlight, but Poverelli tossed one into the bag just in case he needed it. |
 Tucked in one of the side pockets of the bag was this Ziploc bag full of air fittings and a couple of other small parts. |  From the Ziploc, Jon pulled out a spare 30-amp relay. There are a couple of relays wired into the average air suspension system and it is a good idea to carry a spare. |  The next item he pulled out was a pressure switch. This is the switch that tells your compressors when to turn on to refill your air tanks. If it goes bad your compressors either won’t kick on to fill up the tanks, or they won’t ever turn off. Either way you’re going to need to replace it should it go bad. |
 This is a 1/2-inch T fitting and it can be used to replace one that has gone bad in your system, or splice in a new air line should you need to route a new hose around a valve that has gone bad. |  Here Jon is holding a ½-inch union. You would need two of these to splice in a new piece of hose to replace a section that is damaged and leaking. |  This is a ¼-inch union and it does the same job as the ½-inch union but it works with the ¼-inch hose. |
 Here Jon shows one of the ¼-inch T fittings from the kit that is used to splice into any of the ¼-inch line running on his suspension system. |  The kit comes with an adapter to splice ¼ inch line into a ½-inch fitting, this is necessary to have on hand when you want to splice a Schrader valve into your system to add air to your system from an outside source. More on that later. |  This is just a run-of-the-mill Schrader valve that will plug directly into a ¼ inch line. |
 It is a good idea to have a couple of plugs incase you have to cap off one of your air tanks to isolate it from the rest of the air system. |  Zip ties work great to hold wiring or air hoses out of harms way and you should carry plenty of these handy little gadgets. |  Jon also tossed a very basic electrical circuit tester to help solve any electrical problems that he may encounter. |
 With those rolls of air hose, you are going to need some way to cut them cleanly so that they fit into the push-lock fittings without leaking. A simple single-sided razor blade does the trick. |  Hardware to bolt the spare bag into place is stashed into one of the inside pockets of Jon’s bag of tricks. |  The last thing Jon had in his Road Trip Survival Kit was a handful of assorted wiring connectors that he keeps in one of the inside pockets. These would come in handy to help get his compressors, valves or any other electrical component of his air system up and running in a pinch. |
 SPLICING IN A SCHRADER VALVE__Jon thought it would be a good idea to go over the basics of splicing a Schrader valve into an existing air system to allow the air tanks, or bags to be filled up from an outside source. First, Jon installs the ¼-inch to ½-inch adapter onto a section of ¼-inch air line. |  Then, the other end of the adapter is pressed into the ½-inch T fitting that you would splice into your air system. |  |
