Automatic tire inflation system

A central tire inflation system for a vehicle comprising:

• a control box mounted in a cabin of the vehicle, said control box including a multi-positioned toggle valve, a plurality of pressure regulators for providing fixed air pressures, a first outlet line for supplying one of the fixed air pressures, and a second outlet line for supplying pilot air;
• a brake system air tank;
• a manifold having an inlet and a plurality of outlets providing connections to the tires;
• a static pressure tank connected through a fixed orifice to the manifold, and
• an inflated/deflate assembly including a first shuttle valve with a first control input connected to the first line and a second control input connected to an output of the static pressure tank, operative to selectively supply pilot air from the second line to a first output port or second output port depending upon the pressure differential between its control inputs;
• a second shuttle valve with a first control input connected to the second output port of the first valve and a second control input connected to the first output port, said second valve having an exhaust port, an input port connected to an output of said brake tank, and an output port connected to the inlet of said manifold, operative to selectively connect the manifold to the brake tank for inflating the tires or to the exhaust port for deflating the tires as a function of the pilot air supplied to its control inputs.

A central drive inflation system for a vehicle comprising:

• control means mounted in a cabin of the vehicle for generating an output associated with a desired air pressure for the tires;
• a source of pilot air;
• tire pressure monitoring means for providing an output associated with the actual pressure within the tires;
• shuttle valve means having a first control input and a second control input, operative to shuttle to one position to apply compressed air to the tires for inflating same and to shuttle to another position to exhaust air from the tires for deflating same;
• and
• means for selectively coupling the source of pilot air to one of the control inputs of the shuttle valve means to cause rapid shuttling thereof as a function of the outputs from the control means and tire pressure monitoring means.