An off road board I pay a bit of attention to had a number of discussions
recently about onboard compressed air, and the merits of an onboard
compressor system versus a CO2 tank/regulator system. The general thoughts
were. . .
1. Powertanks work well for reseating beads on tires on the trail, you
need a lot of reserve volume to reseat a tire with an onboard compressor
system.
2. Powertanks work well for inflating 1 set of 38" tires after running at
low pressure on the trail. If you're filling up everyone else's tires as
well, you need a compressor.
3. If you're running any air tools, a compressor is the best alternative.
4. Powertanks are portable. . .a big plus. Compressors have unlimited
volume on the trail. . .
Overall, it seems that cost of either system is about the same. . .it's more
a question of how much room you have to store the tank and how much air you
really need.
I built my onboard system using an AC compressor from an old ford ($45 from
a junk yard), an air brake reservoir tank from a trailer (abound 4 gallons,
$40 from the local Kenworth distributor), a pressure cutoff switch,
miscellaneous plumbing/electrical/filters ($40 from the local Princess
Auto). Mounting the compressor is the hardest part. You need to wire the
A/C clutch into your pressure switch to cycle the compressor at 80-120 psi.
If you have a blown R12 A/C system that you're not planning on fixing, you
already have all the hard work done -- you just need to mount the tank and
plumb it in.
At engine idle, it takes about a minute and a half to run the tank up to
120psi.
Lots of articles out there on the net describing what people have built. .
.google 'onboard air'. . .
Steve Dillen
----- Original Message -----
From: "Mark J. Andy" <marka@telerama.com>
To: <shop-talk@autox.team.net>
Sent: Wednesday, October 23, 2002 6:57 AM
Subject: co2 vs. nitrogen?
>
> A friend is investigating onboard compressed air solutions and came across
> the "powershot" (I think it was) that uses compressed co2.
> snip <
> I'm thinking about sticking a welding bottle with compressed gas in the
> trailer vs. getting a gas powered air compressor. I need to run air tools
> and fill tires at events.
>
> Any advice out there?
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