Onboard air: Save me from my own stupidity please.

@NashvilleTJ has the brushless

any4xx said:

Last time I ran an air compressor system was on a JK. I had a dual ARB mounted under the hood. And quite honestly, it seemed that the single would have been plenty. I’m planning to re-gear my axles and add ARB lockers to both. So naturally I started looking at compressor options. I see now ARB has not only the single and double compressors, but also a brushless double. My initial thought was to reign myself in for once and just buy the single. But now that I see that I can spend even more $$$ on the dual brushless motor unit, I figured that I’d better ask here before I either saved dumb money or spent stupid money.

So anyone running the brushless want to tell me it’s so great that I couldn’t possibly live without it? Or anyone run it and figure they just wasted several hundred dollars with the upgrade? I honestly don’t care about how long it takes to re-inflate tires. So long as the difference is measured in a few minutes and not like a half hour.

I’m all ears.

Thank you in advance,
Tom.

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Preface this with YMMV, but, I always run the teacup size ARB mini for lockers and they don't need to do anything else. Pretty much plug and play, no relay required, simple, easy, and they work perfectly.

If you need OBA, deal with that separately.

Apparition said:

@NashvilleTJ has the brushless

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Lots of us have them, we just don't use them for lockers.

mrblaine said:

Lots of us have them, we just don't use them for lockers.

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He's the only one I knew had the brushless.

Fewer and fewer will have the ARB locker compressor since they discontinued it. I did buy another recently though so they are still out there.

Not sure how much this helps, but figure I'll drop my experience. I recently installed the single motor brushless but have only used it once so far. I bought it because I had to upgrade to an ARB after I broke my rear Rubicon locker and figured that spending a little more to get a brushless motor would help with longevity and power. As far as general things, I really like the "quick" release mount which helped me position and wire it a little easier than what would I assume would have happened with the old style mount.

I had an issue wiring the thing because I wanted to use some two pin switches I had rather than the 5 pin ARB switches that were provided. Turns out the LED I had installed was causing issues and leading it to blow the 60 amp fuse near the battery. Swapped to a 3 pin switch with an LED in the tip and that worked, no exact clue as to why the LED I was originally using caused this to happen though. I bring this up because the new fault code system they have with the brushless motors helped me narrow down issues. One was the wiring as I stated since it told me it was drawing higher amps than was necessary (something to do with the LED) and a problem I had earlier where I had flipped the inlet and outlet ports of the solenoid without realizing, causing it to lock the locker anytime the compressor was on and freak out. Honestly that alone was super useful for troubleshooting and allowed me to not sit there forever trying to chase ghosts.

As for airing up tires, I only have the one experience this previous weekend so far. I have 33's (technically metric but who cares) and was aired down to around 13 psi. With my Viair 88P it would take a few minutes per tire, enough that I could do my sway bars in 1-1 1/2 tires. Hell, I'd walk away and talk with friends while a tire was airing up sometimes. With the ARB it took maybe 30-45 seconds per tire for me to get to around 30 psi (which I then had to drop to my desired psi).

I haven't used the brushless. I've used both the single and twin though on a couple rigs. The twin definitely cuts a lot off the time if you are running a multi-tire setup.

I haven't looked into the Brushless too much, so I made some charts to see how each model impacts, including depending on if you are using a multi tire setup. Kind of interesting:







The time savings on the better compressors with a single tire surprised me as I expected them to be valve limited, but AI's response was that the bigger compressors keep the line pressure higher, which increases the pressure differential. Overall, probably not perfect, but decent information to make a decision with.

For what it's worth I'm happy with my VIAIR setup.

-Mac

I can give some real-world experience - mainly comparing the ARB brushless twin to a Powertank CO2 system. I've not used the non-brushless twin, so no experience there.

To fill one of my 40s from 10 psi to 25 psi:

Powertank CO2 - 45 seconds.
ARB Brushless Twin - 1 minute 25 seconds.
Viair 450C (my old setup) - 4 minutes 30 seconds (and the reason I did not relay on this setup for OBA).

I was mainly looking to have a compressor that I could reasonably replace carrying on-board C02. Only loosing 40 seconds per tire to the CO2 was a very reasonable tradeoff for me. I no longer carry the CO2 tank - and it saves a bunch of weight and space.

I do use the brushless ARB to run the lockers as well. No relay required with the brushless setup, and it has been reliable so far (but after only one wheelin' trip, so still under review). It also provides some redundancy, as each motor operates independently. So if a motor itself, or the electrical path for one of the motors, fails, the other continues to operate.

It is definitely a more complicated install, as the dual draws 90 amps.

NashvilleTJ said:

I can give some real-world experience - mainly comparing the ARB brushless twin to a Powertank CO2 system. I've not used the non-brushless twin, so no experience there.

To fill one of my 40s from 10 psi to 25 psi:

Powertank CO2 - 45 seconds.
ARB Brushless Twin - 1 minute 25 seconds.
Viair 450C (my old setup) - 4 minutes 30 seconds (and the reason I did not relay on this setup for OBA).

I was mainly looking to have a compressor that I could reasonably replace carrying on-board C02. Only loosing 40 seconds per tire to the CO2 was a very reasonable tradeoff for me. I no longer carry the CO2 tank - and it saves a bunch of weight and space.

I do use the brushless ARB to run the lockers as well. No relay required with the brushless setup, and it has been reliable so far (but after only one wheelin' trip, so still under review). It also provides some redundancy, as each motor operates independently. So if a motor itself, or the electrical path for one of the motors, fails, the other continues to operate.

It is definitely a more complicated install, as the dual draws 90 amps.

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Monster valves, or is the brushless just that much faster? I feel like that kicks the crap out of my standard twin.

GATORB8 said:

Monster valves, or is the brushless just that much faster? I feel like that kicks the crap out of my standard twin.

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Standard valves. I've run monster valves in the past, and with a CO2 tank they make a difference. If memory serves, 10-25 on the 40s was way less than 30 seconds.

I guess I am old school, I like my ol York

NashvilleTJ said:

and it saves a bunch of weight

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