harbor freight on board air compressor

[Joe]

i had mine for 6 months, works pretty well, except some of the screws i had to locktite in place (comes loose). inflates a 31 inch tire in about 5 minute or less..... not bad for a less than $100 compressor

How did you get it to inflate a 31" tire in 5 minutes, when I aired my 33" tire in 4 minutes from 10lbs to 30lbs? 4 can live with that 4 minutes a tire not to bad for a $60 pump.

 

[Joe]

If that were the case everybody would build their first rig with Fully loaded Dana 60s, Atlas T-Cases and 40" Red Lable Krawlers right off the bat. I'm personally a fan of trying out the low end alternative first for many things, if it never dies I just saved a ton of money, if it does die, I usually already got my $$ out of it.

I say, try it. It may never let you down, you may realize you don't use it as often as you imagined, making it even better that you didn't drop the coin on a big dollar compressor. If you end up using it all the time and it does break, well, then you can probably justify a better unit.

That is what I am saying, since I don't do that much wheeling $60 pump that will fill my 33's from 10lbs to 30lbs in 4 minutes is well worth it. So what if it takes me about 20 minutes to fill all 4 tires. I am not racing to see who can fill their tires up the fastest. If I wanted to race I would change hobbies. I bought one and it is working great. Just my .02cents.

 

[SCW]

I had a friend killed doing this on his tractor--trailer. Something about a ring on the bead of the tire flew off and hit him in the head.I would think just as long as you arent standing in front of it when you touch it off you should be ok, but I for one will not do it.

This is the problem- he was using a split-ring rim. Those stupid things are death traps to anyone, no matter how they are inflated. I would always but a length of very heavy chain around the rings and use a locking air chuck, then stand way in the hell back while it seated. Many farm equipment places have cages specifically for splitring rims that limit how far they will go when they blow apart. Split rings are not to be messed with, period. Many tractors, old trucks and heavy equipment use split rings, but passenger cars don't for the past 30 years or more.

For a regular rim, ether is a great method of seating a bead. The only way to learn how to do it is trial and error. I've seated little pick-up sized tires and over 5-foot tall tractor tires withstarting fluid, many times it's the only way to go.

Another nice thing to use it an inflatable strap that goes around the tread of the tire. Push the lower bead on as well as you can, even using soapy water if you have it. The tighten the strap as much as you can and if it's the inflatable type, throw some air to itand it will tighten up some more, bringing the top bead a little closer. Simple ratchet straps sometimes works also.

Don't use the strap with ether, either.