A metal fabricator, an air compressor, and a diesel pickup

Detroit welder Josh Welton unearths an 80-gal., 600-lb. air compressor and finds a way to get it out of an old box truck and into the back of a diesel pickup truck. Photos by Josh and Darla Welton

I have a bad-ass two-stage, 80-gal. air compressor, made in Ohio by Eaton, that I love. Both of my shops in Detroit already had air when I moved into them, so the compressor has been in storage. And by “storage” I mean for the last four years it’s laid flat, buried under a bunch of miscellaneous junk, in the back of a 1981 Ford box truck formerly used to move around fireworks and Miller beer. The compressor is massive, over 6 ft. tall and weighing some 600 lbs. Every time we have to move this thing, it’s like battling King Kong stuffed with cement.

I have no idea if the box truck even runs at this point; it’s basically a storage unit that sits 40 minutes north of Detroit, and I wasn’t about to get it going for a trip down to the city. Lucky for me, my friends at Ram Trucks came to the rescue.

Every now and then I still need a truck to be a truck. The 2020 Ram Rebel Ecodiesel is that, and more. Over Christmas I drove this black-on-black, fully loaded beast across highways, byways, fields, and forests, and came away wishing I’d found it wrapped under a tree to keep forever. Outside of a military Stryker, it’s my first diesel-powered vehicle experience. And despite it being relatively small in displacement, the 3.0-l turbocharged engine doesn’t lack power. I wouldn’t call the large crew cab Rebel “quick,” but the torque is always there. And for the 10 days we got almost 25 MPG. That included a bunch of playing around off-road on my family’s property on the west side of Michigan.

Back to moving the compressor. I gathered up some straps, chains, and clevises, but I have no come-alongs or a winch, and my wife, Darla, was my lone helper. I figured we’d make it up as we went. Once we arrived at the “beer truck,” I assessed the situation. After unburying it, I couldn’t even budge the compressor from its resting place.

First, I used a pipe for leverage and pushed up the tank just enough to slide a large metal tray underneath. I figured that would help it slide. The top of the compressor was oriented toward the front of the beer truck, so I attached a couple of C-clamps (yes, I know I used the wrong kind, but it’s what I had) to the bottom of it to run straps through.  Then I pulled the Ram right up to the back of the beer truck, hooked the straps to the tow lugs in the Ram’s front bumper, and carefully pulled the compressor out just past the edge of the back of the beer truck, far enough that it wouldn’t fall out.

Then I turned the Ram around 180 degrees and backed up with the tailgate dropped as far as I could. And god bless its air ride suspension, because dropping the truck to its lowest setting put it just low enough to slide under the compressor. With no other way to budge the compressor farther, I took the chains and straps and hooked them up from the C-clamps to the tiedowns in the front of the truck bed.

Then, foot by foot, I drove the truck forward a bit, pulling the compressor farther out of the beer truck. Using the metal tray and a few boards, we made sure that when the weight transferred, it didn’t drop onto the tailgate itself.

Then I backed up the Ram until Darla gave me the signal to stop, and it worked out to where the compressor wouldn’t push back with the truck bed; instead it stayed put while the bed slid back under it. We did that a few times, occasionally using a jack and pipe and more boards to finesse the compressor. Eventually the majority of the weight was in the bed of the Ram itself. At that point I lifted the ride height and the top of the compressor inched up off the rear of the beer truck. Then we were able to push the compressor the rest of the way in by hand, as it slid relatively easily on the Ram’s bed liner. On the sides of the bed are a bunch of adjustable tiedowns, which made securing the compressor for the haul a snap.

We grabbed a few more things out of the “storage/beer unit” and threw them in the back seat of the giant crew cab. I needed to leave the tailgate down, so loose tools and straps were put in the rad Ram Box storage bins integrated into the truck bed sides.

The drive home was smooth, and back at the shop there was an A-frame with a hoist that made unloading a snap.

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