Airbag's for Lifting Heavy Vehicles

[Tim_w]

Hello  All 

Here is one of my latest project's which is based on a piece of 'rescue equipment' called an Airbag. These particular devices are inflatable heavy duty rubber bag's which can be placed under something that needs lifting. They are usually inflated using air from a Breathing Apparatus Cylinder and can lift quite a considerable weight. The pictures below show the airbag sitting on top of its non slip mat with the regulator and air cylinder near by.

[Tim_w]

Here are a couple of pictures of the equipment in use.

Thank you for taking the time to look at these pictures.

Kindest Regards  Tim 

[playmofire]

Excellent custom, Tim, your ingenuity never ceases to amaze me.  (How do you get the air in the BA cylinder in the first place before inflating the airbag?  )

[Little Jo]

  This is a cool customizing!  You always have such useful ideas, which -- if I had the time -- I would like to adapt to my rescue team immediatly.

First I thought that this is conversion of the jump crash mat from the rescue jump team (3881), but yours is quite smaller and more handy for the purpose you had in mind.
Did you build the airbag by your own or is this piece of equipment "lend" from somewhere else?

Also very clever the usage of the control suitcase, the lever, and the hydrogen bottle, although I must admit, that it seems from my point of view -- the one of a non-professional w.r.t. to those kind of equipment -- a little bit to small confered with the size of the airbag. I would have expected a bigger gas tank,  e.g. one from the 4422 offroad techincal trailer ... hm, thinking longer about this I ask myself why a tank is necessary at all, because it's an airbag and a compressor could fill this without any gas ... but mair airbrush tool kit has also a tank in which the compressed air is generated ...

Tim, please help me and explain your tool to me  (because you're that realistic I assume there is a specific purpose behind this)

[FireChief]

Hey Tim,


Thats an excellent custom.  All I'm wondering is how you made the airbag...

It looks great. Thanks for sharing.

Ben

[Tim_w]

Hello  Gordon, Little Jo, Ben and Harvey

First of all thank you very much indeed for the kind feedback and for taking the time to reply. Here are the answers to a few of the questions about the Aribag.

Hello Gordon:

(How do you get the air in the BA cylinder in the first place before inflating the airbag?  )

I used the special air compressor out of set 3176 Fire Command Centre I knew some day i would find a use for it !!

Hello Little Jo:

You have certainly raised some interesting questions and its a pleasure to answer them for you. The Airbag is indeed made from the jump mat out of set 3881. I carefully cut the centre section out because i discovered quite by accident that it had its own separate side walls. To make life even easier it has also got 1 small hole in the side which is just big enough to fit a hose connector. Infact i fitted a small piece of fire hose to the connector before pushing it in the hole to improve the seal.
I had not realised that scale wise the Air Cylinder does not seem to have to capacity to fill the Airbag but it certainly seems like it would. Unfortunately the airbag is a touch to big but it was the easier option opposed to making one from scratch. Most real airbags are quite compact and for ease of use, com-patability and space saving, fill from a standard Breathing Apparatus Cylinder. I am sure there are some Heavy Duty Airbags which fill from an air compressor but i have not researched this aspect yet. Here are a few pictures of some airbag's which i 'borrowed' for research purposes from a couple of cooperate websites.

Hello Ben:

The answer to Little Jo's question above also covers yours on how i made the airbag. If you need any more info i can allways post a couple of pictures for you on how it was made. I will PM you later with an update on your men, as they have been quite busy again.

Kindest Regards  Tim

[playmofire]

Hello Gordon:
I used the special air compressor out of set 3176 Fire Command Centre I knew some day i would find a use for it !!

  Nice one , Tim!

On the question of the capacity of the BA cylinder and the size of the airbag, I've seen pictures on the internet of equipment which holds two cylinders for larger items.

[FireChief]

Hey Tim,

Thanks for the info. I found a new use for my jump mat. 


Ben

[FireChief]

One more question Tim.   

What did you make your cribbing or wooden type support blocks out of?



Thanks
Ben   

[Tim_w]

Hello  Gordon, Ben

Gordon:
I had not thought about using two BA Cylinder's Gordon but its an excellent idea and solves the capacity problem. I will have a look at making an adapter to rig two up together.

Ben:
The non slip mat's were made out of foam sheet cut to shape. The mat's were a last minute creation based loosely on the real thing. They proved quite usefull in tonight's training exercise and will eventually find their way onto the Rescue Tender with the airbag's.

Kindest Regards  Tim
PS Here are the pictures i forgot to post for Little Jo yesterday !!