Cigarette Lighter Air Compressor

Joined
Apr 1, 2013
Messages
2,666
Viair or the lessor smitty built.

don’t go cig lighter, nothing worse then stranded because of a $.10 fuse

I’ve ran Smitty, northern power, slime, Campbell, and Viair... Viair is king with out compromise
 
Joined
Aug 23, 2014
Messages
5,038
Location
oregon coast
Its pretty easy to burn up one of these cheap $40 compressors in one fill of a truck tire. I would think twice if your unit plugs into the cigarette lighter....these are light duty.

Big difference between a Subaru tire....and a 33" Toyo Open Country truck tire.

FWIW, there types of equipment; Compressors, Welders, etc have a Duty Rating and its worth looking at it. For those unaware, Duty Rating is essentially how long you can run it for...then how long it needs to rest before running it again. So a $40 compressor can't go for 5 min straight at 80-100#, you will fry it. Understanding duty ratings will give you long life.

Truck tires need a decent compressor capable of high pressure and at least a 30% Duty Rating IMO....50% or more is better. Plus these require more juice so they don't plug into a cigarette lighter but clip directly to the battery.

I use this one a fair amount on Tractors, Trucks....and its decent.
Viair 30% duty
i have used a cig lighter compressor a bunch, filled up lots of pickup tires, and i have had it for probably 6-7 years,.... slow, noisy, but has been super reliable. i recently got a new one just because the old one has more than paid for itself many times over.... might not be the best option, but it's small enough to always have, cheap enough to have no excuse for not having a compressor, and has not failed to work with a lot of use.... they are small and cheap enough to have 2 always in the pickup if you're worried about it.

a bigger unit would be left at home more often, the little cig lighter one will always be there. it's like a woods sidearm, is it better to have one big enough to be reliably effective no matter the situation, but it's big enough you don't always carry it, or a smaller light pistol you always have no matter what? not sure there is a clear right or wrong answer, just what makes sense in your head.... perspective
 
Joined
Apr 1, 2013
Messages
2,666
300 is almost twice air flow and more robust. I’d go 300 personally but I have an f250 with about 3 plugs in each tire :)
 

tuffcity

WKR
Joined
Nov 2, 2013
Messages
563
Location
YT
One thing to bear in mind is if you need to add an extension to the cig plug in case its not long enough to reach the rear tires is that the voltage drop might be too much to fire up the compressor. I found this out when my little 12 volt compressor won't reach my air bag valves on my P/U. No prob, just add a 12v extension ... wrong.
 

GotDraw?

WKR
Joined
Jul 4, 2015
Messages
1,297
Location
Maryland
Thread revive.

My wife and I are taking a trip and we were supposed to fly. Plans changed and I only have a couple of days before we leave, we are now driving. I can’t find any of the Viairs locally. Are there any that people have experience with that I could find at Lowe’s, Home Depot, WalMart, etc? I don’t have time to get one shipped in. I am going to order a viair and have it shipped to our destination so we can at least have it for the drive back but would like one just in case for the trip there.
Amazon- fast delivery!
 
Joined
Jun 14, 2020
Messages
343
I run the stupidly priced ARB. However I use it almost weekly and it’s 2-3 years old. For references I’d go through 6-7 slimes even though there my favorite affordable one
 
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