What about using a portable air tank with the compressor? The up side is that you can take it directly to each tire. The down side is that it's more stuff to haul around.
Small Compact Air Compressor
- Thread starter silvercreek
- Start date
MikeM
TJ Enthusiast
I have always used a cigarette lighter plug in type of air pump for emergencies one for each vehicle we owned. For the jeep I changed to a direct connect to the battery with jumper cable grips as shown below from O'reilly auto parts and the deflator/inflator device on the right. I did buy a longer hose of the same diameter and put female quick disconnect ends on it. I can on the four door reach all four tires without moving the compressor around. Time to reinflate the tires is under two minutes and a little longer to deflate them. The deflator/inflator without the air line hooked will take the tires down using the same lever that inflates the tire when the air line is connected and there is a small button to allow precise pressure when your close to your desired pressure. The deflator I bought at the jeep supply store when they did the free inspection and re torque of the lift kit. The compressor does get warm after four tires but not that bad. I think the compressor was around $80. and the pressure deflator,inflator was around $25. Also the deflator is neat in that when you release the handle you get an accurate pressure reading going up or down on the tire pressure. Sorry this is so long but it works.
Ill add my 2 cents.
I wheel with a good mix of compressors. I have had a smittybuilt compressor and it did fine, i have used that compressor to fill up 4 jeeps at one time and it kept working. I know a lot of people run MF-1050s and they do alright too.
I finally upgraded to an ARB hi output compressor and of course I love it. I was able to get mine for $170 shipped from amazon. My close friend has the Viair 400p It is a good compressor, but he was sorry he bought it when he found out that I was able to get an ARB for cheaper.
One more thing to point out when looking at air compressors is that a lot of them rate CFM at 0 PSI which doesnt help you any since you are filling tires under pressure. I know the ARB that I have will have a CFM of 2.34 at 29PSI which means it will pump a lot more air than an equivalent compressor with a rating of 2.34 CFM at 0 psi.
If expense is an issue. I would buy an MF-1050 its a durable little compressor that works, many many offroaders use this model because of its price and ability to air a tire up decently.
I wheel with a good mix of compressors. I have had a smittybuilt compressor and it did fine, i have used that compressor to fill up 4 jeeps at one time and it kept working. I know a lot of people run MF-1050s and they do alright too.
I finally upgraded to an ARB hi output compressor and of course I love it. I was able to get mine for $170 shipped from amazon. My close friend has the Viair 400p It is a good compressor, but he was sorry he bought it when he found out that I was able to get an ARB for cheaper.
One more thing to point out when looking at air compressors is that a lot of them rate CFM at 0 PSI which doesnt help you any since you are filling tires under pressure. I know the ARB that I have will have a CFM of 2.34 at 29PSI which means it will pump a lot more air than an equivalent compressor with a rating of 2.34 CFM at 0 psi.
If expense is an issue. I would buy an MF-1050 its a durable little compressor that works, many many offroaders use this model because of its price and ability to air a tire up decently.
Keep in mind one thing when buying a compressor to refill big Jeep tires that get aired way down for offroading.... CFM, or cubic feet per minute. CFM Is king, nothing else. I'll take a compressor that can put out 5 CFM at 40 psi over a compressor that can put out 1 CFM at 200 PSI. PSI is nothing, a small hand-held bicycle pump can put out 120 psi which I used to regularly inflate my road bike's tires to for long rides. But that hgh PSI bike compressor would take all day and a sore arm to refill a 35" tire from a low psi all the way up, I doubt it could put out more than .25 CFM.
And keep one more thing in mind that Overlander mentioned above... some disreputable compressor manufacturers will include a totally misleading CFM rating... like 3 CFM into 0 psi which is a useless rating. That means once the tire starts to fill up that its CFM rating will fall off dramatically. You want a CFM rating into a meaningful pressure, like 30 PSI.
What are good CFM rating? I wouldn't want any compressor with less than a 2 CFM and even that wouldn't be real fast. My previous York compressor put out right at 7 CFM and it would inflate a 35" tire from 6 psi to 26 psi in under a minute. My CO2 tank probably puts out maybe 5 CFM so it still only takes about a minute to do the same thing.
Cheap/small $50 compressors generally all put out well under 1 CFM into 30 psi. They're useful for inflating air mattresses or adding air to a tire that just needs a little air. But for refilling four big Jeep tires that were aired down for offroading? They're just too slow unless you don't mind them buzzing for 30-45 minutes. Not to mention they don't have 100% duty cycles so you have to stop and let them cool off. I borrowed a friend's Smittybilt compressor once years ago and it would shut off even before it would refill one 35" tire all the way.
So don't let the compressor box's big advertised 200 or 250 PSI pressure rating impress you, that is a useless and misleading spec where filling tires is concerned. The only spec that means anything for our needs is CFM. Buy the the compressor with the most CFM you can afford.
And keep one more thing in mind that Overlander mentioned above... some disreputable compressor manufacturers will include a totally misleading CFM rating... like 3 CFM into 0 psi which is a useless rating. That means once the tire starts to fill up that its CFM rating will fall off dramatically. You want a CFM rating into a meaningful pressure, like 30 PSI.
What are good CFM rating? I wouldn't want any compressor with less than a 2 CFM and even that wouldn't be real fast. My previous York compressor put out right at 7 CFM and it would inflate a 35" tire from 6 psi to 26 psi in under a minute. My CO2 tank probably puts out maybe 5 CFM so it still only takes about a minute to do the same thing.
Cheap/small $50 compressors generally all put out well under 1 CFM into 30 psi. They're useful for inflating air mattresses or adding air to a tire that just needs a little air. But for refilling four big Jeep tires that were aired down for offroading? They're just too slow unless you don't mind them buzzing for 30-45 minutes. Not to mention they don't have 100% duty cycles so you have to stop and let them cool off. I borrowed a friend's Smittybilt compressor once years ago and it would shut off even before it would refill one 35" tire all the way.
So don't let the compressor box's big advertised 200 or 250 PSI pressure rating impress you, that is a useless and misleading spec where filling tires is concerned. The only spec that means anything for our needs is CFM. Buy the the compressor with the most CFM you can afford.
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I have the Viair Heavy Duty kit. It's a 400c that I have bolted to the ABS tray and a 2.5-gallon tank that I have temporarily mounted to a piece of plywood. I picked it up on craigslist for $50.