12 Volt/120 Volt Portable Air Compressor

My Viair arrived the other day, they are big and heavy. I tried it out and was impressed. Since we have a short Class C, I was able to fill all of the tires using only one of the hoses supplied. I connected the compressor to one of the coach batteries, since the chassis battery in under the floorboard. It took about 3 minutes each tire to fill an additional 10 pounds. The compressor does get hot, as they all do, so I left it cool down before I packed it up again. I like the screw on hose end inflator. You don't have to hold the inflator on the tire and also squeeze the handle on the air gun at the same time. I had minimal air loss when I unscrewed the inflator hose, but my valve stems are pretty well positioned and accessible. I have had other rigs where the valve stems were shorter or poorly angled which could cause some problems due to the size of the screw-on inflator. A longer or better angled extension would help here.

Chum lee wrote:

Forget 12 volt compressors. IMO, those are for inflating your kids air mattresses or your bike tires, not your RV tires. If you want to be happy, get a 120 volt pancake style compressor.

Chum lee

The Viairs are heavy duty and more than capable of airing up RV tires. My Viair 400 weighs 11 pounds and draws up to 30 amps. However they are expensive and don't have a tank so aren't any good for air tools. I went with one because a pancake compressor takes up more room than I want to give up for a compressor.

Chum lee wrote:


Forget 12 volt compressors. IMO, those are for inflating your kids air mattresses or your bike tires, not your RV tires. If you want to be happy, get a 120 volt pancake style compressor.

Chum lee

True for the cheapies they sell at the big box stores, but the Viair offerings are head and shoulders above those water toy inflators. They won't run an impact, and they take longer to air up a tire, but if you want/need to have air where there's no 120V, they're the only way to go.

Grit dog wrote:
You have a class C with generator and storage room. If you want something that is going to air up tires, multiple tires and not break the bank, the best bang for buck and duty cycle is a 120V pancake compressor or similar.
Not sure how it lately "always shuts down in thermal mode". I cannot see needing to adjust pressure or air up tires on the same motorhome more than very occasionally. But for whatever reason if you're using alot of air, either spend $300 on a good Viair 12V that will work forever, but be slow, or get something that will put out some decent cfm at higher pressures.
Personally I can't handle spending more than about 2 minutes per tire airing up from say 40psi to 80psi. But I'm not retired and looking for a way to kill a couple hours rotating the air in my tires...

Forget 12 volt compressors. IMO, those are for inflating your kids air mattresses or your bike tires, not your RV tires. If you want to be happy, get a 120 volt pancake style compressor.

Chum lee

I ordered a 400P RVS today. Had a bit of a problem finding one in stock. Tried Amazon, but some I
of the options were a little misleading. Models matched, put the part numbers didn’t match up. Be careful.

$99 for a 120V pancake compressor that puts out close to 3cfm at 80psi vs $200+ for a Viair 400 that puts out less than 1.5cfm at 80psi.
And you can run air tools off the pancake 120V. + $400 for a decent cordless 1/2"impact wrench for changing tires, etc vs $100-150 for a good air powered impact.

All in what you want out of your system. The ultimate in small packaging and convenience for doble the $ or more. Or much better capability and versatility for less than half the cost at the expense of storing something the size of a baby weber bbq.

You have a class C with generator and storage room. If you want something that is going to air up tires, multiple tires and not break the bank, the best bang for buck and duty cycle is a 120V pancake compressor or similar.
Not sure how it lately "always shuts down in thermal mode". I cannot see needing to adjust pressure or air up tires on the same motorhome more than very occasionally. But for whatever reason if you're using alot of air, either spend $300 on a good Viair 12V that will work forever, but be slow, or get something that will put out some decent cfm at higher pressures.
Personally I can't handle spending more than about 2 minutes per tire airing up from say 40psi to 80psi. But I'm not retired and looking for a way to kill a couple hours rotating the air in my tires...

4X Viair. They actually work on high pressure tires

Another happy ViAir owner here. It stays in my truck full time. My son the mechanical engineer was so impressed with it, he got one too.

My Viair 400P airs up my truck and trailer tires to 80PSI no problem. Strictly 12V though, no 120V option. Can draw up to 30 amps as well.

When we are staying somewhere for an extended period I drop the rears on my truck down to 50 PSI. The Viair has no problem getting them back up to 80 in a few minutes.