On Board Air

[WanderingTs]

So for those of you who have followed and contributed to the thread I started on Air Down vs. Not, thanks for your input. Here is the followup -

One of the other reasons I haven't been airing down is that my most common wheeling areas are far from a nice air compressor. My little Wally World $19 air compressor takes all day to air back up one tire (great for emergency, not so great for regular use).

What do you have for on board air? How well do you like it? I am especially interested in those of you who do not have on board air integrated with your winch (Knappster, I love your setup, but I already have a winch). Anyone have a compressor that plugs into the winches power supply but is not part of the winch?

[NeilSmith]

There are good compressors at Harbor freight and such that will run you a couple hundred bucks for a nice one. If you wheel on a regular basis i would think it would be a good investment. They just hook up to the battery terminals. you can drive for a little bit to get to a station with air and be ok. Of course the quicker the better. I only went down to 22 psi, if you go on down to 15 or so, just drive a little slower on curvy roads so not to roll the tire and break the bead. I had to drive about 40 minutes on the asphalt to get to air when I left Flagpole Knob, but Im not doing that on a regular basis neither.

[LWM]

Hueypilot purchased several at Harbor Freight a few years back and I gave one of those away at Camp Commander 2009, They were small and worked well. Maybe someone who has one will share their experiences with it.

[HueyPilotVN]

The Harbor freight compressors were on sale and were only about 50 or 60 bucks each. I also got an aluminum case and an air down tool. Here are some pictures.

[El Cid]

I have the same kind of air compressor Huey shows -- though without the kickass case. Mine's a T-Max, but it's the same design. There are probably dozens of similar single-cylinder compressors. Can it air up as fast as the Conoco in Silverton? No. But it gets the job done.

I was keeping mine under the hood beside the Hemi until this summer. Moved it out and have been working on an underbody mount for it.

[Rocky Mountain Canary]

I also have the same I pump carry in back mostly for the chance that my wife comes out after work to disscover that a tire has gone flat she could air up and get to a service station or home so that i could take care of the problem she can get grumpy if she is stranded.

The pump seems to work fine and was about $60.00

A CO2 tank would be better but expencive

[07JeepXK]

I need to pick myself up one of those. Everytime I air down I have to jump through hoops to get them filled back up again.

[WanderingTs]

I am seriously looking at Puma PD-1006 that I found recommended on another generic 4X4 forum. Does anyone have experience with either this specific compressor or the Puma brand?

[IamJEEP]

ViAir makes good compressor. I use to run a Viair in my old bug with air ride. It would pump up a 5 gallon tank from 0psi to 180psi in 5 minutes. That one ran me $200 but, it wad well worth it. They also make smaller ones for tires for around $70.

[Doc in AZ]

i've pretty much tried them all...

i tried the harbor freight pump as recommended by many people both here and on another forum i'm on... it sucked. it didn't even air up one tire before it got a healthy appetite for fuses. brand new out of the box trying to use it in my garage... that's just my experience but others attest differently.

then i switched to co2. not a bad idea and there are less expensive ways to do it than a POWER TANK. i went to the welding shop and got a 10# bottle and a 150psi fixed regulator. the good thing is it airs up pretty quickly... that is until the fixed regulator starts to freeze up, then it slows down... but still faster than the HF pump. the really bad thing about it is that it's a consumable rather than a never ending supply. it cost me about $20 to fill it and a tank was only good for about 4 trips when filling 33" tires from 8lbs to 24. the worst thing is when you get ready to air back up and realize you forgot to close the valve the last time you went out. i had to drive about 10 miles on the interstate at 8lbs in my tires to get to a gas station. so that trip cost me $20 to air up one set of tires.

then i switched out to a compressor mounted in the back of the tub... i can't remember the brand anymore but it was a twin cylinder and cost about $400. pretty much worth the money in my opinion. i do a lot of hard trails and have had to air up flats for myself and others, so it's nice not waiting all day.

i currently have the warn powerplant... pretty much the best thing ever. i aired up my 35" tires and my buddy's 37" tires before another guy aired up two of his 35" tires with the HF pump.

there is nothing i know of that you can integrate into a standard winch that will work as an air compressor. if you want to go hardcore, and have the room in the engine compartment, take a look at york compressors. another idea, and i know you said you've already got a winch, but smittybilt is making a unit comparable to the warn powerplant for about half the money.