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hey everybody, i was looking into buying an air compressor to fill up my tires after the trail and wanted to check with you guys before buying. have any of you guys used the Viair 400c air compressor. i also saw the 400h, and was wondering if there was a major difference i should consider. if there are any other air compressors that you guys would prefer and have had experience with would also be helpful.
thanks.
The Viair 400H is the exact compressor I am looking at now and will possibly be ordering next week. I don't know what the heck the 400C is about since the specs from Viair website are EXACTLY the same as the 400H. I plan on running air lockers and using it to fill 33" - 35" tires.
Comparisons -
400H - $230 from Central4wd - 2.12cfm @ 20 psi
ARB - $199 - cfm??? word is they are not practicle for filling tires
QuickAir2 - $230 from Offroad toystore - 1.76cfm @ 20 psi
Both 400H and QuickAir2 have the same 33% duty cycle.
With higher cfm output, the 400H is the better choice.
Sure a belt driven compressor is the best for filling tires, but it may not be the best compressor for everyone's different rigs w/ varying setups. I plan on keeping the A/C so I don't see using a York in addition to keeping my A/C. I don't see how that would work with no room in the engine compartment at all. I don't want to relocate the battery... Plus rigging it for air lockers might be a chore as well (not sure on that one).
i'm also looking at the viair 400c. you can get them for $200 all day long off of e-bay. the only downfall is that they're the bling-bling chrome model that the sport truckers like.
the good part is, that turns into like $220 shipped.
i don't know what everyone else is thinking, but i'm convinced that i can put a 1.25 to 1.75 gallon tank and the compressor in the same location that my stock air box was in if i make myself a little bracket.
Look at the scfm at 90psi. 20psi is really low, judging scfm at this pressure doesn't mean a whole lot. My guess is all of those are right at or below the 1scfm at 90psi range. And that means it takes a good deal of time to fill tires. And you have to keep the duty cycle in mind. Don't want to burn the compressor out.
Look at the scfm at 90psi. 20psi is really low, judging scfm at this pressure doesn't mean a whole lot. My guess is all of those are right at or below the 1scfm at 90psi range. And that means it takes a good deal of time to fill tires. And you have to keep the duty cycle in mind. Don't want to burn the compressor out.
No, judging cfm at 90 psi is irrelevent to filling tires. Unless you fill your tires to 90 psi... Air lockers are operated between 85 - 105 psi I believe but requires a very small amount of air volume to push through the tubes to achieve that pressure. So in the case of air lockers cfm rate isn't all that important.
thanks for the info.
i was wondering if any of you guys have had experience in filling up tires with the 400c or 400h and how long did it take you. i want a compressor that can fill at least 30 inch tires fairly quickly and can be used for air lockers, and pneumatic tools in the future.
No, judging cfm at 90 psi is irrelevent to filling tires. Unless you fill your tires to 90 psi... Air lockers are operated between 85 - 105 psi I believe but requires a very small amount of air volume to push through the tubes to achieve that pressure. So in the case of air lockers cfm rate isn't all that important.
SCFM @ 90 psi is the industry standard. There's going to be more pressure and air flow resulting in quicker fillups. The difference between a 30 sec, and 5 minute fill.
A compressor rated .9 scfm @ 90psi is going to be a little slow filling tires. It'll do it, but it won't be horribly fast. With 100% duty cycle there's no need to worry about burning it out durning normal use.
I run a York compressor. It runs off a pulley and belt from the engine. With 9 gal tank hooked into the system and full, it'll air up a 31x10.5 from 8psi to 30 in roughly 30 sec. Without tank it's about 45 sec. I really have the tank just for air tool use now, at engine idle the compressor's not pumping enough air for say an impact wrench. With the tank as a buffer, normal use of a few secs at a time is just fine. If I had a hand throttle I could probably just throttle the engine up and the compressor could proabably keep up with air consumption.
I used a Quickair2 for a long time, and filled 33" tires. It did a decent job of filling the tires, and plenty of times I filled tires of other rigs too. It was considerably faster than an ARB compressor, but not nearly as fast as a York.
Now I have an ExtremeAir, and while it's faster than the Quickair2 it doesn't seem a whole lot faster. It is 100% duty cylce, which is nice, but I didn't worry about it with the Quickair2 and never had a problem. It's more money, but the Quickair3 has about the best performance specs for filling tires.
My front bumper is an air tank, but having a tank makes no difference when filling four tires. It is good to give you a shot to help re-seat a tire on the bead, or to run air tools, but for tires it means little. I used to carry air tools, but quit. It's just extra weight, and there isn't anything you can do with air wrenches on the trail that you can't do by hand, and the time saved on a trail repair is insignificant.
Here's a link to the best comparison of available compressors I've ever found.
here are the stats on the 400H compressor. do you guys think it would be sufficient for filling tires.
PSI cfm amps
0 2.54 15
10 2.26 18
20 2.12 21
30 1.94 23
90 1.41 29
these are just some of the numbers to give you guys an idea. do you think that its suffecient enough to fill up tires fairly quickly.
i have a 30/9.5/15 tire. i would like it to fill up from 15-30 psi in around 2 min. or under.
thanks.
It's one of those portable tanks with the handle on it. Supposed to be able to fill it though a tire chuck, close the valve ont he manifold then carry it where you need air. I put a female tool connector on the end of the hose rather than the tire chuck. Ran a hose to the cargo bay and capped it with a quick connector. Whenever I feel I'll need the tank I plug it in and strap it down in the cargo area. Really only use it when I'm using air tools. I did rig it up so that I can fill it, then take it to where I'm workin and be able to run air tools for a short while. Maybe 20 secs of usable impact wrench time on one fill.
If I had the ability to build a sealed bumper, I'd go that route. Didn't want to permanently give up room anywhere.
Well, I've got some experience with OBA, so I'll chime in. I used to run a Sanden air compressor and a 8 gallon tank on my Caprice with air bags. At idle, it took exactly 1 minute to fill all four air bags and the 8 gallon tank from zero psi to about 150psi. That's pretty damn fast. On my XJ I've got a York and the output is quite a bit more. I have a small 3.5 gallon tank mounted to the driver's side wall in the rear cargo area, fit's nice there. I used push-lock tubing & fittings throughout, 3/8" tube ID.
here are the stats on the 400H compressor. do you guys think it would be sufficient for filling tires.
PSI cfm amps
0 2.54 15
10 2.26 18
20 2.12 21
30 1.94 23
90 1.41 29
these are just some of the numbers to give you guys an idea. do you think that its suffecient enough to fill up tires fairly quickly.
i have a 30/9.5/15 tire. i would like it to fill up from 15-30 psi in around 2 min. or under.
thanks.
So a 30x9.50 you'd be looking at what, about a minute?
Unless these numbers are inaccurate, the 400H will be sufficient for my needs. (airing up all 4 tires in 10 minutes - 4x2=8, +30 seconds moving from tire to tire) And that is well within the limits of the 33% duty cycle. (max duty cycle 40 minutes @ 40 psi) But it would be good to hear someone with actual experience with this compressor on fill rates. Even Goatman's statement about the QuickAir2 being "decent" at filling 33's is good seeing that the 400H has a higher cfm rate.
I've also considered the ExtremeAir and sure I'd love it. But there are things to take into account in addition to the higher price. One thing is its size. 400H is about as big as I want to go. I'm planning on fitting it in the space across where the stock spare tire is located. At 11.25" compressor length, I'll be cutting out some of the plastic trim to cram it in there. Does anyone see a problem with mounting it in this location?
thats the thing about their information. i want to make sure that what they tell me is correct. i also saw that info, but im not sure if its accurate. if it is, it seems like a pretty good deal to me. i just want to make sure from the people who have used it.
I called Viair today and found out the difference between the 400H and 400C.
The 400H has a manual switch on the compressor itself to turn it on or off. 400C does not have this switch. As far as output and all that they are the same.
Since my switch for the compressor will be on the dash, there is no need for me to have one on the compressor. So I will be ordering the 400C which is also about $20 cheaper.
Does anyone else have any experience or opinions about these compressors before I order tomorrow?
I went to the junkyard and picked up two caddy air suspension pumps. I ran those to a 10 gal tank. That works great for me i can fill up from about 16 psi to 28 in no time. I run about the same setup as on this http://projectxj.com/mods/oba.htm
