What is the favored air compressor to carry?
3 gallon hot dog? Pancake? What specs do you folks like to see?
Forum Discussion
Depends on what you want to do with the compressed air and how much space you are willing to give up to carry it.
If all you want to do is inflate tires, a tankless inflator of appropriate capacity works fine. 120V or 12V, you can find one to do the job up to about 120 to 180 PSI. I carry a 120V Campbell Hausfield I bought about 50 years ago for $60. The Viair products also work just fine, as do similar inflators using other branding. But there is a lot of junk out there too, and if it costs to little it might be too cheap.
If you want to run air tools, you need a compressor big enough to keep up with the amount of air power (delivery rate @ pressure) the tool needs, or at least a big enough tank to take you through your bouts of using the tool, and enough capacity so you don't lose patience waiting for pressure in the tank to recover.
Not likely that you would be spray painting with post-mix guns, but you if you plan to use an air wrench to remove lug nuts, you need a compressor that can run the wrench.
If all you want to do is inflate tires, a tankless inflator of appropriate capacity works fine. 120V or 12V, you can find one to do the job up to about 120 to 180 PSI. I carry a 120V Campbell Hausfield I bought about 50 years ago for $60. The Viair products also work just fine, as do similar inflators using other branding. But there is a lot of junk out there too, and if it costs to little it might be too cheap.
If you want to run air tools, you need a compressor big enough to keep up with the amount of air power (delivery rate @ pressure) the tool needs, or at least a big enough tank to take you through your bouts of using the tool, and enough capacity so you don't lose patience waiting for pressure in the tank to recover.
Not likely that you would be spray painting with post-mix guns, but you if you plan to use an air wrench to remove lug nuts, you need a compressor that can run the wrench.
