Ok, so a little project if your on a budget like me.
This will allow many airups and use of air tools.
I purchased a 15lbs bottle from
Airgas for $95. This included the gas. I can simply exchange the empty bottle for a full one for $20. It is possible to get aluminium bottles or steel but my local store didn't have one at the time in alum. so I got a steel one. Note I painted mine to clean it up and intend of just having airgas fill it when I need to. You can purchase bottles in 5, 10, 15 and 20lbs. For me the 5 was way too small, 10 was good but might limit use of air tools and the 20 was wider than I wanted. I wanted to keep the whole bottle setup within the width of the wheel wells for the purpose of easy packing of camping gear. Note that if you have time you can also purchase bottles thru ebay for dirt cheap. You will have to watch out for the service life and be prepared to have it tested. I like the Airgas deal as they have already tested the bottles before they give them to you.
A regulator from
Cramer-Decker offroad subsidary offroadair for $40. (this is the same reg forund on The Source and other well known CO2 systems)
25ft 300psi hose from
Harbor Freight $10. I preferred this hose to the coil style because I find the coils always get tangled.
1 tire gauge from
Harbor freight $14
2 Quick disconnects
same as these $4
Steel strap from Home Depot plus some nuts and bolts $7
Like me, many of you will probably have some of this stuff as home already. I had the flat steel , nuts, bolts, paint and quick disconnects. You could also skip the air gauge thingy if you already have an pen style gauge.
For me the total cost was approx $150. The cheapest onboard systems with a 15lb bottle without a tire pressure gauge was approx $250.
These are very nice.