Portable vs Onboard Air?

[s-one]

Hey guys,

I understand the general idea of portable vs hardwired onboard air units but is there a substantial difference with either other than one being portable and the other not? I like the hardwired idea and from what I understand some affix tanks to their systems for fast air ups and the compressor refills the tank when it's depleted. But of course the portable units are just that.. portable but may be slower? From your experience was there ever a time you hardwired guys wished you went portable and the portable guys wished they went hardwired? My main purpose would be to have a quick way of airing up after trail runs. Oh! I should mention that I'm not interested in CO2 or Nitro portable tanks.

Thanks much!

 

[Ulfr]

An Icelander's view:

Onboard. It's more reliable, it's always there, easier to air up (just one airline to the tire, not the whole pump sitting out in the snow and rain and what other weather that can be)

Reliable: Less likely to get filled with snow when airin' up.
Faster: just take your airline out and plug it in and start pumpin'...

The cons are, of course, you can't borrow it to your friends, unless borrowing the whole truck. But who needs friends anyway...


I've had a small compressor in the rear, but that thing died on me this summer so I'll be goin' for A/C compressor instead. Still onboard tho' but alot quicker.
If you don't have an AC already and don't need one, I'd try to go for that instead of normal electric drivin' pump.

But that's just me!

 

[s-one]

Hey thanks for responding Ulfr! You have some great points!

btw, your Runner is freaking awesome!

 

[ric]

you said you not interested in CO2.. where are you located ?
Out here in Denver, at altitude any compressor will be very slow compaired to CO2. now most people will say it doesnt matter, IMHO it does matter, if its raining, cold and/or snowing, you want to fill back up ASAP.
That being said, Ive had the MV50 http://www.amazon.com/Industries-MV50-SuperFlow-Hi-Compressor/dp/B000BM8RT8
This thing was a waist of money. It lasted less than a month, and was VERY VERY slow.
Then I went with the Extremeair http://www.extremeoutback.com/index.cgi?cart_id=8285330.17270&pid=31
again, at thing was STUPID SLOW.
Now Im running CO2 with NO regrets.

I do want to get an Oasis compressor http://www.oasismfg.com/ these are very spendy, but very worth the money. They are as fast as a freshly filled CO2 at 8K feet. we tested them side by side.

If you want something REALLY cool, do the York compressor http://pnwfab.com/YorkOBAmount.htm (cant remember what rig you got)

Heres a compairison of the different compressors: http://www.parksoffroad.com/prodreview/inflatortest/inflatormain.htm

 

[s-one]

Hi Ric! Thank you for the info and the links. Very helpful!

That Oasis York is a monster! 200 amp draw?! No wonder it can do 4 tires from 10 to 35 psi in just over 6 minutes. I'm afraid though its way out of my price range even though I didn't mention costs. Anyhow the reason I wasn't interested in Co2 is because I didn't want to bother with the refills nor storage of it. Which is also why I'm trying to justify the extra cost of a permanent mount over a portable that I gotta pull out and back in storage (cargo area). If there is an overwhelming reason that I'm missing from a portable (other than it being portable) I may just go with a permanent mount.

btw, I'm in SoCal so high alt's shouldn't be a factor here. Again thanks for your help!

 

[Thai]

That being said, Ive had the MV50 http://www.amazon.com/Industries-MV50-SuperFlow-Hi-Compressor/dp/B000BM8RT8
This thing was a waist of money. It lasted less than a month, and was VERY VERY slow.

I have this...works as advertised for me in Texas...so far...knock on wood!

 

[ric]

Hi Ric! Thank you for the info and the links. Very helpful!

That Oasis York is a monster! 200 amp draw?! No wonder it can do 4 tires from 10 to 35 psi in just over 6 minutes. I'm afraid though its way out of my price range even though I didn't mention costs. Anyhow the reason I wasn't interested in Co2 is because I didn't want to bother with the refills nor storage of it. Which is also why I'm trying to justify the extra cost of a permanent mount over a portable that I gotta pull out and back in storage (cargo area). If there is an overwhelming reason that I'm missing from a portable (other than it being portable) I may just go with a permanent mount.

btw, I'm in SoCal so high alt's shouldn't be a factor here. Again thanks for your help!

glad it helped, the Oasis is about $1200 pretty spendy IMO.. CO2 lasts a long time, most people can fill a bottle and it will last all summer..


Thai,
thats great, I got my MV50 back when they was $25 at checkers, got 2 of them, sold one for what i paid, Ive heard most people are happy with thiers, glad yours is still working good

 

[s-one]

An Icelander's view:

The cons are, of course, you can't borrow it to your friends, unless borrowing the whole truck.

CO2 lasts a long time, most people can fill a bottle and it will last all summer..

I guess that would be another reason to get permanent or portable compressor over Co2 so you can help your buddies with air as much as you want. I can see doing so with Co2 would cause many trips to the refill station. (Provided if you wheel a lot)

Thanks guys!

 

[ric]

yeppers, well I wheel every weekend, and have a 20# bottle, Ill fill mine up about once every 3 months, and using the airhorns dont help any :
Ive heard out there in Ca. its pricey to fill up a tank, here its only $12 for a 20# tank.
I would LOVE to get a compressor thats FAST, to have the unlimited supply of air..
IMHO if you dont wheel much a compressor will work out well.

Another thing to think about is total cost.. heres my break down.
20# tank- FREE ( have a buddy that owns a bar)
hose- FREE (got it from where i worked)
Airchuck- $20
Mount- $50
Air- $12 about every 3 months
Sifon tube- $30 so I can keep the tank on its side and fill tires.

so I got about $100 in my set up

 

[SportRunner]

I have this...works as advertised for me in Texas...so far...knock on wood!

I have the same one as well but hard mounted in the engine bay and it works great, no problems yet but who knows, you pay for what you get, but so far she's been great....

 

[Ulfr]

Talkin' bout 12V compressors... My father has a Fini which I have borrowed when goin' on longer trips.

It's pretty fast (at least for the 44s it's pretty fast, don't know 'bout the larger tires, but I guess you're concern are the 31s-35s)

In Icelandic weather, they've proven themself almost unkillable. And sand and dirt doesn't seem to have *much* effect but I haven't tried it in extreme sand...

I think Fini is the only electric driven compressor I'd ever buy. I'm not sure what it costs in the US but over here it's around 400-500$

But I'll still go for the A/C compressor...

 

[CSL]

I was thinking about the viair system with a tank and dual compressors. I am suprised I have not heard any mention of it in this thread.

Thanks for the links and info Ric and others. I will bookmark this thread for later when I get my funds back in order (start my new job soon!).

I just recently started deflating on the trails, and WOW what a difference it makes...put the air system high on the list of wants.

 

[techno]

I owned an ARB protable compressor for a long time. It wasn't the fastest thing available but it was very reliable. When I bought an airlocker I decided to convert the compressor to a hard wired setup. I was very happy with it this way (operated the locker and could inflate tires) and will always go for the hard wired option now. I no longer had to make battery connections and the compressor carry box no longer took up cargo space.
I haven't used portable CO2 tanks but I only hear good things about them.

 

[Stick Figure]

if the on board compressor take to long, why not just add a small tank, that way you have the best of both worlds. The tank should fill up of the tires when you need to, and the compressor will fill the tank back up as your all ready driving home. At least that was my plan, did i miss something here?

 

[s-one]

Yea that was my thoughts exactly. I was wondering about that too.

 

[fourwd1]

Most people with OBA do have a tank, especially to run air tools. Even a converted A/C compressor won't keep up without a tank.
Being able to run impact guns, grinders, etc on the trail is priceless.
When my A/C quit that's what I did.

And I still use my MV50, it's a great little compressor.

 

[s-one]

Does an an onboard compressor with a tank have the same fill speed as a Co2 portable tank?

 

[ric]

Does an an onboard compressor with a tank have the same fill speed as a Co2 portable tank?

NO, not at altitude, the only one that will, is an Oasis Compressor, but they are like $1000.
Now if your closer to sea level, a good compressor should work pretty good

 

[s-one]

Gotcha! Ok thanks again Ric.

 

[G.I.G.]

I have the same one as well but hard mounted in the engine bay and it works great, no problems yet but who knows, you pay for what you get, but so far she's been great....

Do you have any pics or a write-up of how you mounted it? My MV50 seems to be pretty durable but only time will tell. I'm not a heavy 4-wheeler (maybe once a month) but I've used it at least a half dozen times so far and it seems to be holding up well. I guess time will tell but I'm a little apprehensive to mount something that might need to be replaced frequently.