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Re: Air compressor question, nothing to do with Ford trucks

First off, I hope you find a better job. When a door shuts, another opens. Secondly, more bad news. You wont find a good 12v. air compressor, what you can do is look into under the hood belt driven compressors, they are extremely reliable. I work on fire equipment, and have been around alot of compressors. I have replaced 2 on board 12v. air compressors, on the same vehicle. These units keep the air up on firetrucks (for the brakes, horns, pumps, and even windshield wipers) when they are idle in the station. Lastly, I replaced the 12v. units prone to failing with a 120v.AC unit. Its been holding strong ever since.

12v. DC is in my opinion the worst supply of air. You want to fill a tire, go get a lil pancake compressor for 150 bux and extension cords. You can even run it at the house, unplug, go to the flat tire, and inflate the tire with the pressure in the tank. And the thing takes up a lil more room than a milk crate.

Personally, I have a small electric 120v compressor, a converted freon tank with quick connects for garden tractor tires, and for when I have to inflate a fire truck tire on he side of the highway, I keep 6 SCOTT breathing air packs (fire dept. equipment) ea. charged at 3000 psi.

Sorry, edited your post to exclude the curses.

Reply to
djdave
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along these lines, I have seen a second hand airconditioning compressor connected to an air tank under the vehicle. When you want to use it, or more appropriately not long before you want to use it you hit the switch that brings in the electric clutch (fitted to probably all aircon compressors) and the compressor starts. You could get technical and get a pressure switch fitted to your tank to switch the compressor on and off automatically. Then you have a standard nozzle fitted to the outside of the vehicle somewhere and carry the hose in the trunk. A bit fiddly as you need to mount the compressor and add a fan belt, especially on a new-ish truck where anything new would have to be shoe-horned in, but better than anything you could buy 12V.

Darren

djdave wrote:

Reply to
woodee

The best ac compressors to use for this are the old Chrysler 2 cylinder compressors, They have an oil sump and an oil pump to lubricate the bearings, wrist pins and piston rings. This was a hot set up back in the 70's on 4X4s, using a "hobs" pressure switch to cut the compressor on and off, and an 8" diameter pipe bumper on the rear of the truck became the compressor tank. There is no decent 12 volt compressor out there on the general market.

Whitelightning

Reply to
Whitelightning

You might think about an inverter under the hood to convert 12VDC to 120VAC and using a small 120VAC compressor. Hell, that way you could run all sorts of other stuff to keep you entertained while you're waiting for the tire to inflate - maybe even a small fridge to keep the beer cool..

Reply to
klutz

Keep looking. You can find decent 12 volt compressors. Don't have the time right now but I have a catalog with some. I'll try to get back here later today with the info. BTW: Bought a compressor like the one in the link at Pep Boys. Had to have the first two replaced. One had a bad connection and was missing some parts, the other was a dead short. But the third one works well.

Al

Reply to
Big Al

Let me ask, what are you going to use this compressor for? I found the one I told you about, it's over $400! I could get along a long time with a lower cost unit.

Al

Reply to
Big Al

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