Air Dryer Desicant filter

[Jerry Emert]

Anyone know exactly where it is on an 03 Patriot and how to check/change it?  Thanks in advance.
Jerry

[Lee Welbanks]

Jerry,

You probably have a Meritor/Wabco air dryer, from your air compressor follow the discharge hose probably around your trans on either frame rail you will find your air dryer. Service is 2 or 3 yrs depending on service according to the manual, in our case probably 4 or 5 yrs. I just ordered and received one from AnythingTruck.com. cost around $35. On my 06 PT it is mounted on the driver side frame rail next to the trans.

[Keith Moffett]

Jerry
All the air driers I have seen are Immediately behind the battery bay near the air tanks.  It will be canister shaped about 10 inches in diameter and a foot or so tall.
In addition to a new filter there is a whole service routine such as cleaning the exhaust port and servicing the heater.
There is a kit available from Beaver Coach Sales.

Good luck
Keith

[Gerald Farris]

Jerry,
Your air dryer should be just inboard of your battery compartment. There are many schools of thought on the proper service interval for our coaches. The system was designed for an 18 wheeler that averages 300,000 miles a year, so I do not subscribe to the service interval in the manual. I service the dryer if I ever get any water from my air tanks when I bleed them. If there is no water in the tanks, the dryer is functioning normally, so I leave it alone.

Gerald 

[LaMonte Monnell]

I agree Gerald. There is no reason for servicing the air dryer if you ar not getting any moisture from the bleed valves.
If you get damp air or water when bleeding, that is the right time to service it.

[Edward Buker]

There is a fail mode where the desiccant containment ruptures and contaminates the air system....big problem. I have no idea if that fail is related to ageing materials or some latent defect in the individual containment cartridge causing it to fail. If the rupture is caused by ageing materials then there may be a reason to change the cartridge before you get residual moisture at a drain as a telltale.

If anyone has any experience regarding this problem let us know. If none of the members on BAC with all our collective travels have ever had the rupture issue then that tells us something, so let us know if you ever had the fail. I did have a rebuilt dryer unit installed in my 89 Contessa preventatively after 17 years of service.

Later Ed

[Keith Moffett]

We had ours rebuilt last summer with a complete kit.  The air release when up to pressure was not right.  Turns out that the release or purge valve can become blocked.  Someone had used our coach in the dirt quite a lot.
Now that it's done I will be surprised if I need do anything to the drier for many years.

[LaMonte Monnell]

I rebuilt my air dryer with new parts last year just because I was bored...no, not really....

Just for my own knowledge of never knowing if or when it had ever been done. previous owner didn't like documenting very much if anything at all.

Now everything has been replaced, repaired or serviced to specs and ready for many many miles...would have been a lot cheaper and easier if previous owner had used a pen and paper once in a while...oh well.....

[Keith Moffett]

I'm right there with you on that Lamonte.