Harbor Freight Compressor to the Rescue

[mbspark]

After owning my Jeep for nearly a year then being away not able to drive it, I finally took it out this weekend for 2 days of dispersed camping and wanted to run my tires at a lower PSI (25) once I hit the dirt. Planning for the trip I had purchased the Viair 400p on amazon. Pricey bugger $306. Turns out the shipping was a range of days and wasn't going to make it in time for me to start my trip.

I headed down to HF and picked up the Pittsburgh "12v 150 PSI Compact Air Compressor" for $70. 30 minutes before I left for the trip the UPS driver pulls up and delivers the Viair. Decided to just take both and do a comparison.

Glad I did, because if I had JUST went with the Viair I wouldn't have been able to inflate my tires. It hooked up fine and ran. I could tell it was producing air pressure, but just wouldn't inflate the tires. The Pittsburgh on the other hand, took about 3.5 min to do each tire from 25PSI to 40.

The negative of the Pittsburgh, it was probably twice as noisy as the Viair which can be disturbing if it's a nice calm morning in the woods. The whole feel of it was cheaper and didn't have the nice nozzle and bleeder that the Viair did. Of course, all of this is forgivable to have a device that actually performs why it was purchased in the first place.

I have no clue why the Viair won't inflate.

Could be total user error, but then again, kudos to the Pittsburgh compressor for being more intuitive and user friendly.

I'm guessing I need to call the company or most likely I'll just return it to amazon as defective and take my extra $230 to spend on something else.

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[rcadden]

#Protip: 40 psi is *way* too high. Let them down to somewhere between 35-37 and you'll be much, much happier.

 

[mbspark]

#Protip: 40 psi is *way* too high. Let them down to somewhere between 35-37 and you'll be much, much happier.

I've tried all different between 35-42 and settled on the jeep loving to run at 40. Didn't intend this thread to be about my highway pressure, though

 

[mgroeger]

I've tried all different between 35-42 and settled on the jeep loving to run at 40. Didn't intend this thread to be about my highway pressure, though

Too late for that my friend You will learn on this forum you don't get to decide how, where or when your thread gets derailed... lol.

I found 32 to be the sweet spot on those crappy KO2 tires for daily driving based on chalk tests and airing down to 12-15 psi when off roading on non-beadlocked rims.
I'm shocked you don't have a lot of play or wander at 40 psi.

Also if you are only airing down to 25 psi you are plenty fine to drive plenty of miles at highway speeds to a gas station to air up. I run my Cooper STT Pros at 26 psi for daily driving.

My work is done here, I've completely ignored the intent of your original post and offered you advice you didn't ask for. If I can be of any other help just PM on any new threads you start.

 

[mbspark]

Too late for that my friend You will learn on this forum you don't get to decide how, where or when your thread gets derailed... lol.

I found 32 to be the sweet spot on those crappy KO2 tires for daily driving based on chalk tests and airing down to 12-15 psi when off roading on non-beadlocked rims.
I'm shocked you don't have a lot of play or wander at 40 psi.

Also if you are only airing down to 25 psi you are plenty fine to drive plenty of miles at highway speeds to a gas station to air up. I run my Cooper STT Pros at 26 psi for daily driving.

My work is done here, I've completely ignored the intent of your original post and offered you advice you didn't ask for. If I can be of any other help just PM on any new threads you start.

Quite the opposite at 40! 6.5 hours of driving yesterday from Steamboat Springs to Durango and I was amazed at how well it handed from 70mph open stretch to the twisting turns of Wolf Creek Pass.

How much does your gas mileage change depending on the pressure? I averaged just above 17.5.

Also good to know you can run highway speeds at 25psi, although it wouldn't have changed any of my actions as the intent was to field test the compressor.

 

[Some Random Guy]

What was the Viair hooked up to? Battery? What were you using to measure pressure?
I started with a 400p automatic.
My best guess is that you have a bad set of wires resulting in voltage drop. Or a poor connection to the battery, but that seems unlikely because the HF did good job for you.

 

[rcadden]

Lol, sorry, didn't mean to derail.

To your original point, I picked up a Viair 400p before my first offroad trip and I love it. Easily airs my tires back up to where I want, etc.

If I was going to complain, it would be that I wish the wires were ~2-3 ft longer. Getting to the rear driver's side tire is a bit of a stretch. Aside from that, on 3 different trips, it's been perfect. Not sure why yours wasn't working.

I've also picked up a bunch of stuff from Harbor Freight and had no issues with that, either.

 

[mgroeger]

Quite the opposite at 40! 6.5 hours of driving yesterday from Steamboat Springs to Durango and I was amazed at how well it handed from 70mph open stretch to the twisting turns of Wolf Creek Pass.

How much does your gas mileage change depending on the pressure? I averaged just above 17.5.

Also good to know you can run highway speeds at 25psi, although it wouldn't have changed any of my actions as the intent was to field test the compressor.

Well I'm running 37" tires on beadlocks with a 3.5" lift with with 4.88 gears and a manual transmission so on highway trips I average 16 mpg and around town around 14 mpg. Each tire/wheel combo is 118 pounds... I didn't buy a Jeep for mileage lol. But I am OCD about those tires having full tread contact and wearing as evenly as possible to get the best grip and mileage out of them.

I gotta tell ya 40 psi is freaking high, the door tag doesn't even call for that kind of pressure. Airing down to 12-15 psi will give you better grip, better comforts AND protect your sidewall better when off roading btw.

 

[mgroeger]

For what it's worth we started off our off road life with this compressor and it has done great. We've moved on to Power Tanks but still keep this puppy handy.

https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B005ASY23I/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

 

[Some Random Guy]

@rcadden

Regardless of brand, if you have a 7-pin adapter and a 30A or less compressor this fixes reach issues, and you never have to lift the hood! Gotta say I eventually got sick of squatting over tires though, so I build my own clamp-on whips.

 

[mbspark]

What was the Viair hooked up to? Battery? What were you using to measure pressure?
I started with a 400p automatic.
My best guess is that you have a bad set of wires resulting in voltage drop. Or a poor connection to the battery, but that seems unlikely because the HF did good job for you.

Hooked up to Battery, Jeep was running. My test was just pushing my finger against the air chuck and feeling pressure and seeing the gauge react, then doing nothing when attached to the tire. I'm guessing something faulty in the chuck. Whereas the HF screwed onto the stem.

 

[rcadden]

Hooked up to Battery, Jeep was running. My test was just pushing my finger against the air chuck and feeling pressure and seeing the gauge react, then doing nothing when attached to the tire. I'm guessing something faulty in the chuck. Whereas the HF screwed onto the stem.

On the Viair, you should open the chuck, attach it to the stem, and then close the chuck to clamp down.

 

[mbspark]

On the Viair, you should open the chuck, attach it to the stem, and then close the chuck to clamp down.

Yea, exactly. The clamp was a bugger on some of them. I spent probably 20 min trying various ways besides the obvious documented approach which didn't work. 2 minutes of running on a tire and barely rose 1 psi.

 

[blnewt]

For what it's worth we started off our off road life with this compressor and it has done great. We've moved on to Power Tanks but still keep this puppy handy.

https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B005ASY23I/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

X2, love this little workhorse, it gets hot as hell so you have to be careful when storing it after some long fills (so it doesn't melt the air hose). But this compressor is truly a "best bang for the buck".
It airs up my 295/70/17s from 18 to 32lbs in about 2 minutes per tire and can fill up 10 to 12 tires before the duty cycle is up.
Great deal at tirerack.com FWIW
https://www.tirerack.com/accessories/detail.jsp?ID=2709

 

[mbspark]

@rcadden

Regardless of brand, if you have a 7-pin adapter and a 30A or less compressor this fixes reach issues, and you never have to lift the hood! Gotta say I eventually got sick of squatting over tires though, so I build my own clamp-on whips.

Definitely want to do this modification, but even allow for hooking up to DC/AC converter for garage use.

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