I was told many moons ago that it’s good practice to manually drain the air tanks once a week to get rid of any build up of water in the lines/tank.
Has this been a problem for anyone in winters past?
In truth I’ve never bothered.
Used to do it years ago, not these days.
not so often because draining water from the tanks is not actually a cure - if there is water in the tanks, then something is wrong, begging a further inquiry
Must admit I dont do it nowadays, used to have to drain the tanks on an old F10 every day back in about 1989 ish.
Just got some hired Mercs for the pre-xmas build up (Cider/lager sales etc), theres a sticker on the windscreen stating the tanks need draining every day.No one bothers to be honest.
Think you had to do it before trucks had air dryers. Now i think they do the job now. Im probably wrong tho
I do in winter if air leakage has been a problem (which it has with mine but then one air tank got bashed by a lump of concrete last year) and I used to do it as a plant op when driving early model Volvo A25 dumptrucks (these blew out enough moisture to shower in 
)
Rooster:
Just got some hired Mercs for the pre-xmas build up (Cider/lager sales etc), theres a sticker on the windscreen stating the tanks need draining every day.No one bothers to be honest.
They are probably old stickers 
milodon:
not so often because draining water from the tanks is not actually a cure - if there is water in the tanks, then something is wrong, begging a further inquiry
Why would there “be something wrong”
Colder nights = more condensation . . it happens.
Ill wager a lot of drivers would
A) Not know how to drain an air tank.
B)Couldnt be arsed with the risk assesment 
not regularly as air dryers are more efficient than they used to be.
Back in the day when I was running the ice roads I just used to ■■■■ in the air lines, never had a problem with freezing.
Denis F:
not regularly as air dryers are more efficient than they used to be.
I used to drive a Eurotech, “old habits die hard” 
i drain mine once a month but arnt most new ones sealed no drain plugs 
It isn’t possible to drain the air-tanks on my Merc, there are no drain valves.
The one I’m driving now is under a year old, my previous wagon was the same, no drain valves.
Where the drain valves used to be there’s some electrical gubbins. I’ve no idea what the electrical gubbins does, it certainly doesn’t check for moisture content. I know that because last winter my air drier packed up. Water in my brake system froze up and my brakes locked on eventually. I got to a workshop and it took several hours of searching for the fault before they found a tank full of ice instead of air.
Once they found that, the fix was pretty obvious.
On the rare occasion I do that nowadays, nothing comes out. Roll back 20 years and (particularly Volvo’s it seemed) you would be treated with a dollop of grey sludge.
I do mine once every few weeks and little if anything ever comes out. As others have said on a modern truck where everything is working properly there shouldn’t be anything to drain. Any amount of water/sludge/whatever in the tanks is a sign of a problem with your compressor or air dryer.
Paul
The sludge used to be smelly and grey, like a graphite grinding paste, but I loved draining “all my lorries” when I was about 10 because I got to sit in them all to build the air up again!
The only really modern trucks that seem to have sludge build up at the minute are stralis’s. And trucks that never have new air dryers fitted lol.
I am here: maps.google.com/maps?ll=53.524763,-2.503838
An essential daily task going back 20 years or so, especially in winter unless you fancied warming the pipes with a blowlamp and lighting fires under the air tanks to get the air circulating again! Mind you, the diesel had usually waxed up by then anyway so you wouldn’t be going anywhere, ah how I long for the ‘good old days’ eh! 
Pete.
doesnt matter if your trucks old or new you should drain your air tanks on truck & trailer (if possible) atleat once a week, moisture gets into the tanks via condensation not just through the air dryer or compressor. guarantee atleast one of yous who has posted on here saying you dont bother will become a cropper when the cold does come back by somthing silly as a shuttle valve sticking open & exhausting your air as you try to build it up, which could have been avoided by yous not bein to lazy or bone idle to pull the drain bung on the air tanks to get rid of the majority of moisture. then its left to daft [zb] like me who get called out of bed at 3am to a breakdown were a valve has frozen up. no offence but im only 24 but i was brought up in a proper truckers eviroment with real truckers/fitters my dad & grandad & uncles, who had to fix there own problems & new how to get them selves out the ■■■■ when it happend. nowadays most driver tbh are plain idiots.