Best mobile air compressor unit for Overland travel?

[Trail_pilot]

Your very well equipped , hang on to it for posterity .

It has been a long term project over the last 8 years. My wife and I do a lot of camping ( maybe not as much as some people get out but usually about 1 weekend a month at least) so the original plan was to build it to get to camp sites, then we got more into hiking and it took more of a rock crawler approach but now that I have a son that I want to get involved in the outdoors and cars, i have shifted gears back to making the rock crawler a little more comfortable for the family LOL. At this point I have way more money in then I will ever get back... I may be buried in this Jeep when I die.

 

[Itacal]

I've been watching this thread and doing research, based upon the suggestions offered ... I'm opting for the Viair 45043 (450-P). It seems no one here has mixed emotions about Viair products. ARBs are nice, but pricey.

 

[Brewbud]

Recently picked up the portable ARB Twin. I like it but dang is it big and heavy. I can move it between my Jeep and truck though. I still have two Masterflows but I need to convert them over to standard threads. One of the coiled hoses was split into 4 pieces when I opened it up recently

 

[Hilop]

I've been using the Viair 400P for three years with no hiccups. Good thing is you can take it from vehicle to vehicle.

 

[derekjhunt]

Viair 400P here. I think it's a pretty decent little rig, however, I do want a vehicle mounted compressor. I want to reclaim the space of of one of my gear pod minis.

 

[bshinn]

I’ve settled on a 15# Powertank for primary duties due to the speed of inflation and heat/noise generated by the compressor. The ARB twin air is still under the passenger seat for occasional light use/backup.

 

[Itacal]

I’ve settled on a 15# Powertank for primary duties due to the speed of inflation and heat/noise generated by the compressor. The ARB twin air is still under the passenger seat for occasional light use/backup.

I am seriously considering one of these. I'm headed to MOORE next weekend and am doing the trail run on Sunday morning, so I just bought the Viair 450P, but I may end up buying a Powertank in the near future. I have not seen one in action in person and I need to research where I can refill one, but, from all the videos I've watched, the Powertank fills a tire fast!

 

[bshinn]

You can get them filled plenty of places. Any welding gas location can do it, home brew shops or fire suppression Specality places can do it. A15# bottle costs about $20 to fill locally here in Charlotte.

 

[Brewbud]

I made up my multi tire inflator for my ARB twin. I went with a two-tire system since I seldom run the same pressure front and rear. Not shown is the pressure gauge that snaps on to the schrader valve. It still fills the tires faster pretty fast. I am debating on adding a pressure regulator so I can just set the pressure and go on with other tasks while it is filling.

 

[armyRN]

I use the Air Armor M240. Comes in an ammo can and everything fits inside, so is easily portable. It works for me for filling up my 33" tires. Hose and cord (which clamps to your battery posts) are plenty long. Cost is about $130.00.

MasterFlowAir

masterflowair.com

I also own a 10lb CO2 tank set-up. Works very fast, is quiet, and overall is great... until your run out of CO2 (yes - it happened to me after a trail run). Also takes up a lot more room than my M240 set-up, and if you wanted to move the tank between vehicles you need to have mounting brackets in that vehicle too.

 

[Lanlubber In Remembrance]

I use the Air Armor M240. Comes in an ammo can and everything fits inside, so is easily portable. It works for me for filling up my 33" tires. Hose and cord (which clamps to your battery posts) are plenty long. Cost is about $130.00.

MasterFlowAir

masterflowair.com

I also own a 10lb CO2 tank set-up. Works very fast, is quiet, and overall is great... until your run out of CO2 (yes - it happened to me after a trail run). Also takes up a lot more room than my M240 set-up, and if you wanted to move the tank between vehicles you need to have mounting brackets in that vehicle too.

View attachment 141795

This is a nice set up and within the financial means of most anyone. Thanks for sharing.

 

[smritte]

I use the Air Armor M240. Comes in an ammo can and everything fits inside, so is easily portable. It works for me for filling up my 33" tires. Hose and cord (which clamps to your battery posts) are plenty long. Cost is about $130.00.

Cool. I use to run my 450p in a 50 cal ammo can. Was able to put compressor, wiring and hose inside. Made it easy to swap between vehicles.

 

[Lanlubber In Remembrance]

I have a Viair 88P compressor. Recently I tried to put air in my old International truck with tube tires. The hose fitting would not screw onto the tube tire but works fine with my tubeless tires. Has anyone else found a problem with filling tube tire valves. They seem to be a tad bigger than my tubeless tire valves.

 

[Ralph]

I use HD dual-piston compressor. It's very efficient and not expensive.
But most important is to use it with at least 10l air reservoir.

 

[RandyD]

Taller but not quite as big around? Look up powertank and you should be able to see what I have.

Hi All, first post. A difference between C02 and compressed air is that a properly filled CO2 tank is liquid phase. As it gets released it turns to gas to fill our tires. There is a lot more capacity to fill tires from liquid C02 than from compressed air. One gallon of liquid becomes about 500 gallons of gas phase at room temperature and pressure.

 

[yeos]

I like my Viair 400P Automatic. Airs up my 33s quickly and the automatic shutoff function helps keep it cooler when moving from tire to tire. I don't like the bag though and am thinking about hard mounting it inside a hard case if I can find one that will accommodate the compressor, hose, and inflator.

 

[Jim SoG]

For some reason I thought I already replied in this thread, but I guess not. I use this: I'd like to do on-board air with a big tank eventually, but right now this gets the job done and is much easier to move from vehicle to vehicle. When I still had a big Class A RV that ran 315/85-22.5 tires and was over 40k lbs this compressor could get the tires up to the required 120psi (granted, if they were down much at all it took a looooong time). On my fullsize truck ('11 Chevy 2500 diesel) with 35x12.5-18"s it takes a good 10 minutes per tire to go from about 25psi back to 75psi. The compressor is rated for continuous duty up to 40 minutes at a time: 450P-Auto Portable Compressor | VIAIR so it'll just get all 4 before it needs a break. Often I just take my time and get one tire done, then let it have ~5 minutes to rest, so it takes a full hour to air back up that truck. On the WJ with 265/75-16"s (about 31.6x11.2") it is noticeably quicker... I haven't timed that one but it's definitely under 30min to come back up to 40ish from 18psi.

Again, in a perfect world I'd have something mounted and a big tank (it's the tank that would make things way faster) but right now moving it between vehicles and being that I already own it, this gets the job done nicely.

-TJ

Same one I use, love it, one day will get a tank but for now, it is not mounted and portable.........Not expensive either.

Jim

 

[Stormcrow]

Same one I use, love it, one day will get a tank but for now, it is not mounted and portable.........Not expensive either.

Jim

I had and used one of the portable Viair compressors for years. For performance, it was great - no complaints from me and it's a great option. The only thing I didn't like about it (compared to a true onboard air system) was that it took up cargo space in my rig. For a family of 4, cargo space is at a premium and that compressor would take up about 1 cubic foot of it and be used once during a trip. That's why I've moved to a true on board air system with an ARB dual compressor mounted in the engine bay. Yes, it's more expensive, but it gives me more cargo room in the back.

 

[smritte]

I like my Viair 400P Automatic. Airs up my 33s quickly and the automatic shutoff function helps keep it cooler when moving from tire to tire. I don't like the bag though and am thinking about hard mounting it inside a hard case if I can find one that will accommodate the compressor, hose, and inflator.

I was able to stuff mine in a 50 cal ammo can including about 15 ft of 10 ga power cord and 15 ft of coiled air hose. It was tight but it worked. Now it's mounted behind my rear quarter panel. It's more convenient there but I needed to get a longer hose. I have fittings on my right and left rear bumper. The hose and gauge are in a bag and take up about 1/3 of the room the ammo can did. Fortunately im able to stuff it under my passenger seat so its out of the way.

 

[Lanlubber In Remembrance]

I like my Viair 400P Automatic. Airs up my 33s quickly and the automatic shutoff function helps keep it cooler when moving from tire to tire. I don't like the bag though and am thinking about hard mounting it inside a hard case if I can find one that will accommodate the compressor, hose, and inflator.

An ammo can can be very handy if you buy the right size. They are bullet proof as well.