On Board Air? Power tank verses ARB twin compressor. Opinions Please

[MSparks909]

will be running my ARB twin comp on this rig.

Same

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[MVP]

Power tank is the only way to go. I have had mine for a year now. Just had to finally fill it up. I have the 15 pounder and it lasted about 4 trips and using my impact wrench to install front and rear shocks on my truck. The impact wrench is what ran it out of air, it would have lasted more trips.

The price to fill it up was minimal and it was super easy to find a good place. I searched on Yelp and found a shop that fills up all kinds of gas tanks.

The ease of use is ridiculous. With 300 PSI you are filling all 4 tires up in a couple minutes. Add in a trailer and you are saving a lot of time. With a small compressor it would take several minutes for each tire before. A truck with a trailer will give you 8 tires. With a compressor you are spending close to 10 minutes per tie to fill back up if you are running E rated tires. That is 80 minutes to do your truck and trailer.

With a power tank you can do it in about 30 seconds per tire. So for 8 tires you are done in 4 minutes.

80 minutes vs 4 minutes for about 40 PSI in each tire.

 

[TiredOldMedic]

Power tank is the only way to go. I have had mine for a year now. Just had to finally fill it up. I have the 15 pounder and it lasted about 4 trips and using my impact wrench to install front and rear shocks on my truck. The impact wrench is what ran it out of air, it would have lasted more trips.

The price to fill it up was minimal and it was super easy to find a good place. I searched on Yelp and found a shop that fills up all kinds of gas tanks.

The ease of use is ridiculous. With 300 PSI you are filling all 4 tires up in a couple minutes. Add in a trailer and you are saving a lot of time. With a small compressor it would take several minutes for each tire before. A truck with a trailer will give you 8 tires. With a compressor you are spending close to 10 minutes per tie to fill back up if you are running E rated tires. That is 80 minutes to do your truck and trailer.

With a power tank you can do it in about 30 seconds per tire. So for 8 tires you are done in 4 minutes.

80 minutes vs 4 minutes for about 40 PSI in each tire.

If you look at some of the photos under the hood there's not much real estate to put an ARB twin. Power tank all the way!!

 

[peta8368]

If you look at some of the photos under the hood there's not much real estate to put an ARB twin. Power tank all the way!!

The ARB showcase vehicle released yesterday actually shows a ARB twin under the hood. It looks to be under the ECU near the passenger side fender

Not debating whether powertanks are better or not, just saying that ARB has indeed figured out placement

 

[Rick Astley]

The ARB showcase vehicle released yesterday actually shows a ARB twin under the hood. It looks to be under the ECU near the passenger side fender

Not debating whether powertanks are better or not, just saying that ARB has indeed figured out placement

Having popped the hood of our Ranger for this very examination once the Bronco accessory guide came out, there is plenty of real estate in Ranger engine bay for the ARB-twin. It should be even less of an issue in the Bronco's rather larger and deeper engine bay. Also, the Ranger hood doesn't provide the additional clearance that Bronco's hood does.

FWIW, I mocked up an ARB-twin out of cardboard and would have only needed to re-purpose two bolt holes with custom stand-offs, plus re-rout a few wires to give it plenty of clearance for cooling.

2.7 ltr folks: No clue, you saved so much time at the drag strip and not having to shift your own gears that a hand pump should put you at net neutral.

Have had a little 85P by Viair in my trunk tool bag for years (just grab the tool bag and rotate it to whichever car you're driving that day), it's never left me stranded and helped more than a few other motorists with their flat spare tires, although it's entirely incapable of dealing with large off-road tires and gets hotter than a 3-balled tomcat in June. I'll be going with the ARB-twin once Bronco arrives and likely just buy a pre-fab mounting bracket if they look saucy.

 

[2Jeeps&PatriotX1]

The ARB showcase vehicle released yesterday actually shows a ARB twin under the hood. It looks to be under the ECU near the passenger side fender

Not debating whether powertanks are better or not, just saying that ARB has indeed figured out placement

wasn't that the 2.3 though? 2.7 might be a different story.

 

[2Jeeps&PatriotX1]

I have the ARB portable twin compressor, co2 tank & a viair 400p as a backup. I did a thorough comparison of all of them in a thread I can't find now lol.

 

[ferbm]

Most of my wheeling has been in the mud of the midwest, not a lot of need for airing down and rock crawling.

So, this might be a really dumb question, but why not integrate a tank with your front or rear bumper. You could run a fill line to it from whatever compressor you wish to run and you would have both high pressure and indefinite volume? If this is a good idea, take it! If it's a bad idea, I promised nothing

 

[AcesandEights]

That's a thing, the integrated tank/bumper.

 

[Ripcurl]

I have the ARB portable twin compressor, co2 tank & a viair 400p as a backup. I did a thorough comparison of all of them in a thread I can't find now lol.

Are there any concerns you've had with the portable twin?

 

[swooshdave]

In all of the KOH videos they made a point to say that they never air down. I'd like to know if the Bronco in the serious rocks like at Rubicon aired down or not.

 

[RG7]

In all of the KOH videos they made a point to say that they never air down. I'd like to know if the Bronco in the serious rocks like at Rubicon aired down or not.

Guarantee they aired down when they ran the Rubicon

 

[AcesandEights]

Power tank is the only way to go. I have had mine for a year now. Just had to finally fill it up. I have the 15 pounder and it lasted about 4 trips and using my impact wrench to install front and rear shocks on my truck. The impact wrench is what ran it out of air, it would have lasted more trips.

The price to fill it up was minimal and it was super easy to find a good place. I searched on Yelp and found a shop that fills up all kinds of gas tanks.

The ease of use is ridiculous. With 300 PSI you are filling all 4 tires up in a couple minutes. Add in a trailer and you are saving a lot of time. With a small compressor it would take several minutes for each tire before. A truck with a trailer will give you 8 tires. With a compressor you are spending close to 10 minutes per tie to fill back up if you are running E rated tires. That is 80 minutes to do your truck and trailer.

With a power tank you can do it in about 30 seconds per tire. So for 8 tires you are done in 4 minutes.

80 minutes vs 4 minutes for about 40 PSI in each tire.

If it takes 80 minutes, I think you're using the wrong compressor. I run E-rated tires and it takes several minutes per tire, maybe. A Viair OBA system fills a 35" tire from 15 to 30 psi in 2:45 min/sec, with 150 psi.

I guess if you're running a dually, with a 5th wheel toy hauler filled with toys you could include those in your calculations too, so you'd have at least 16 tires, and it'd be even more efficient, but that would only be if you had to inflate all 16 tires, which you wouldn't (ever). Well, I guess that 16 tires would be the same as going out four times, so it'd be one time in that scenario, that never happens, and your tank would be empty. So, you have to fill it every time you go out? I know, you can create a scenario that favors one or the other with any number of made-up situations. If you need to fill it once a year and it saved you 10 minutes (realistically), then you're the hero. You saved 10 minutes in one year and only spent (at least) hundreds of dollars more (more than twice as much) than a good compressor and tank ($350 hard-mount with tank vs $750+ CO2). The Viair 400P Portable (for 35" tires) inflates a 35" tire, from 15 to 30 psi in 2:45 and is $199 on Amazon; so it's $500 less than a CO2 set up and never needs to be refilled. You could buy a Viair and have enough left over to buy a Warn VR8k winch.

Four times out before it's empty is one month, not a year, for a guy like me. So what's it cost to buy and fill? What is "minimal"?

 

[swooshdave]

Guarantee they aired down when they ran the Rubicon

They sure were here.

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