Mostly I park my dump truck in winter, saving it from salt. Today I deeded to go 1/4 mile to retrieve a load of rocky crap from a septic project. It wouldn't move. Funneled in some alcohol, got a new air dryer, installed it, then the fun began! Every air line taken off the truck was full of ice. What have we done wrong? Air dryer blows off after every run & occasionally when I'm not stopped, tanks get drained periodically, but never have any significant water. Why all the hoses full of ice?
You need to do winter Maintenace in the late summer before it freezes. Bad Bob
Short runs are the worst for air brake systems. You want add the alcohol after the dryer, It will just purge the alcohol plus it doesn't do the dryer cartridge any good. The other thing as Bob suggests is service the dryer once a year no matter the mileage. which is change the cartridge- $26 bucks for a AD-9. If a dryer is opened up after just one month of everyday use it will have plenty of water in the purge cavity. Yard dogs at terminals can have a terrible time with frozen lines, run shut off 24 hrs a day. Many times shut off before the dryer pops of then run over grab a trailer use more air back it into dock use more air unhook and park-never reaching cutout psi so dryer never purges but compressor runs constantly.
IIRC they make twin dryer arrangements for that purpose so one purges while the other is running.
Like mentioned already, service the air dryer once a year. Spin on a new can, Check the heater and rebuild the purge valve. But, still check the tanks to make sure the air dryer is working. In the rainforest part of the state, I spin new cans on at six month intervals.
Here in dry California, nobody ever services the cartridge, and if you pull the cord nothing comes out any of the tanks. You will see a damp spot in the road under the purge valve, after the slow purge after the initial blast if you know to look for it.
They do but you don't see them.
OK, new concept. Air dryer I bought new yesterday. I didn't know they got services. No obvious way to get to the inside of it. Old dryer looks to be 1990 vintage Bendix. New one is identical, but Fleet Pride's store brand. Even the old one blows off after shutting down the engine.
Post a picture of it.