Best Truck Air Compressor

Joined
Oct 12, 2013
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1,153
i run 37z on my truck, i have the arb portable and an arb plug kit.
the smaller compressors take way to long and heat right up.i gave them away
 

Poser

WKR
Joined
Dec 27, 2013
Messages
5,562
Location
Durango CO
For quality, your best large brand option is likely ARB. That being said, I own a GSPCN which has a lot of use (pretty much every weekend in the summer) and is doing fine.

Notes:

At a minimum, any compressor you buy should connect directly to your battery.

A digital gauge with an auto shutoff (vs analogue) is a very handy feature.

The digital gauges on these units seem to be consistently inaccurate so you’ll need to cross reference with an accurate gauge to figure out your settings.

They are all slower than you think they should be and there’s no way around that without a supplemental C02 tank.

For mint to go from 18-20 psi to 35 psi takes 4-5 minutes per tire. Took another truck to 55 psi recently and it was more like 8-10 minutes per tire.

If you are going to be airing up and down, carry spare valve stems and valve stem caps. You’ll loose caps and stems go bad.
 

NB7

WKR
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Jul 8, 2020
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383
I have a Dewalt 20 volt. Can run on 20 volt battery or cig lighter or 12 volt . Best one I have found yet.
Dial in the pressure you want and you don't have to babysit it.
I got one and used it last week when we got off the mountain. It was convenient with the dial to set the pressure, but in my experience it took forever. I had pressured down to around 30psi to deal with the washboards, and it was taking 15+ mins each just to get back up to 40, which is where I got and decided to get air in town. I wanted to be back between 55-60 in the end. It did work, but just seemed to take longer than I would have thought. Maybe it was just mine though. This was on 35s
 

tdhanses

WKR
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Sep 26, 2018
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I got one and used it last week when we got off the mountain. It was convenient with the dial to set the pressure, but in my experience it took forever. I had pressured down to around 30psi to deal with the washboards, and it was taking 15+ mins each just to get back up to 40, which is where I got and decided to get air in town. I wanted to be back between 55-60 in the end. It did work, but just seemed to take longer than I would have thought. Maybe it was just mine though. This was on 35s
Unless you have compressed air none of these are fast but they work.
 

realunlucky

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Staff member
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Jan 20, 2013
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13,085
Location
Eastern Utah
I have 37's and have two mv50's because I air down alot.
Yes they take a few minutes longer than a larger compressor to get aired back up, but having one on each side sure speeds it up.
I've use just a single in the past and other than taking twice as long and getting twice as hot it worked fine.

Sent from my SM-G996U using Tapatalk
 

tdhanses

WKR
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Sep 26, 2018
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5,890
Not to crap on the other options, but the dedicated pumps like a viair properly sized for your tires are extremely fast, I'd go so far as to say shockingly fast (at least I was shocked).
Oh i agree but think some feel they will be or should be as fast as compressed air, not gonna happen.

The dewalt is perfect for those that aren’t constantly airing down and will be a tad slower but it’s still plenty fast, i aired up all 4 of my 33” tires from 30-40psi the other day, took around 15mins total or that’s what it felt like, lol.

I use it mainly for when i air down the 30’s on my utv but also use it to top off all my vehicles. To air up a 30” tire from 0 to bead locked around 20psi was about 15 mins. It never once over heated but it also got a break between each tire as i mounted it and bolted the bead locks down.
 
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Joined
Feb 5, 2014
Messages
1,433
Location
Tulsa Ok
I run the viair constant duty system, which pairs the 450c compressor with a 2.5 gallon tank. It is a jeep and we are constantly airing up and down tires. I can start the compressor from my cab and have a readout in the A pillar. Can pretty much air up one 37" tire before I need the compressor to start back up again. I have a chuck located in the front bumper as well. They make great compressors.viair.jpg
 
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