Air Compressor

Brad Kotarsky

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Nov 4, 2015
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Im looking around and cant find a decently priced on board air compressor only to use as tire inflation. Im taking my tj to jeep week in august and just ordered some new shoes for her. Will definetly be needing to air down for the beach crawl. Any recomendations/help finding one? Thanks alot.
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Two pieces of advice... 1) Pay NO attention to the pressure a tire compressor claims it can achieve. We don't care if it claims it can get to 200 psi, we only need it to make it to 25-35 psi as fast as it can get there. 2) Pay all the attention in the world to its CFM (cubic feet/minute) rating which means how fast it'll take to get your tires reflated.

A $20 compressor bragging about being able to pump to 200 psi may take 45-50 minutes to reinflate four big Jeep tires and make a huge racket while doing so... many are loud enough they seem like they could wake the dead. Cheap air compressors are fine for beach toys and air mattresses but not for big high pressure tires. Many of those are lucky to make .5 CFM when putting air into a tire. Many will claim 1-2 CFM but that's into 0 psi which means no resistance. Our lungs can probably put out 10 CFM into the air with no restriction but they couldn't even put .1 CFM into a tire with its resistance.

Instead, spend a little more to get a compressor that can put out no less than 2-3 CFM into some amount of pressure (resistance) like 10 psi, like it'd see when reinflating a tire. Few cheap compressors will even mention their CFM ratings so don't expect to see a CFM rating until you get into a better/higher CFM compressor.

I installed a belt-driven York compressor into my previous TJ and it could put out 7-8 CFM which meant it took less than 5 minutes total to reinflate all four of my 35" tires from 6 to 25 psi. But few compressors can do that, so most will be lucky to get them aired back up in 15 minutes... but that's a whole lot better than waiting 45-50 minutes for a noisy low-CFM compressor to finish. Not to mention most small low-end compressors will overheat and shut themselves off to cool off before you've reinflated all four tires.

VIair makes good compressors but even they make some compressors too small to be all that desirable for refilling four tires. Look for their larger compressors with higher CFM ratings or you'll be frustrated at how slow even Viair compressors are.

OR, put a home-built CO2 tank system together. You can buy a 10 lb. aluminum CO2 tank for $80-90 on the Internet and $40-50 for a regulator. Add another $40 in misc. parts & you have a good refillable CO2 system for $160 or under that is FAST. When my previous TJ with its belt-driven compressor was stolen, I ended up putting a CO2 system together for my replacement Jeep. It refills all four of my tires in about 5 minutes total. It holds enough CO2 to last through maybe five wheeling trips. My local welding gas supply shop refills it for $17-18 or so. I miss my old belt-driven York compressor of course but my CO2 tank works damned well. It's fast and quiet too!
 
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Thanks alot for the replys guys! I appreciate it. Ill do some research and let you know what i decide.

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Got the new slicks anyway. Got a killer deal through work. Toyo open country mt's. Have great reviews i hope they hold up well.

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