The subject line covers it....any suggestions for a good, but small, portable air compressor? I have 29" bushwheels and dont know what is needed to keep them full. I am not looking for a compressor that can take a completely flat tire to fully inflated, but rather one that can be used to pump up a low tire.

thanks for any suggestions.

Sean

I have a cheap bell brand compressor that plugs into the cigar lighter on my dash. It keeps my tires inflated. Even successfully inflated my GY 26s from nothing when I mounted them, but it got a little warm doing it. I think it cost $12 at NAPA.

EDIT: the cord is long enough that I can inflate my mounted main tires while plugged into the plane, but I have to pull the truck alongside the tail and plug into it to fill the tailwheel.

One of the many bicycle pumps designed for fatbikes should work fine...reliable, no electricity, but slow.

I actually have a fat tire, and a pump specific for it. High volume. Having used it for tire changes multiple times, yes, it absolutely works. But I can not imagine having to use it on 31" bushwheels....whooo....in a pinch, better than nothing and not needing electricity is a plus. But it would be last resort, hence I am looking for a powered one. Unless some one out there can report using a hand pump on bushwheels and tell me it is a reasonable approach....

thanks

Sean

I haven't tried an airplane bushwheel, however I purchased one of the Black and Decker compressor/jump start all-in-one units, and have used it to fill up tires on my camper, as well as top off my standard Cessna tires. As long as you charge it before you need it, it's a great little unit. If you actually have 110 available you can of course recharge there, but I got this specifically for flying trips where that may not be available, and either need to fill a tire or give the battery a little love to get home.

Got one of these gadgets:

http://amzn.to/2gHijMN

It'll pump up to 120 psi (gets real hot but when you need it (and I do), you need it. Weighs 6 lbs and will fill a truck tire quickly. Even tractor tires. Power connection is cable clamps so you don't have to worry about power source being strong enough; it does use some juice. Been using small 12vdc compressors for years and this one is by far the best performer and at lower pressures performs at 80% of the ability of my gas powered compressor. And yes, I use it on the Maule regularly.

colopilot wrote:I haven't tried an airplane bushwheel, however I purchased one of the Black and Decker compressor/jump start all-in-one units, and have used it to fill up tires on my camper, as well as top off my standard Cessna tires. As long as you charge it before you need it, it's a great little unit. If you actually have 110 available you can of course recharge there, but I got this specifically for flying trips where that may not be available, and either need to fill a tire or give the battery a little love to get home.

I was going to say the same. My jump kit has a compressor, jumper cables (obviously), light, and USB charger all in one. And recharges with 110V. Good multipurpose tool, and doesn’t weigh a ton (although it is weighty).

For @ 6 psi I'd think something like a K-Pump or any other rafting pump with an adapter would fit the HVLP bill.

I bought this pump for the airplane "just in case". It's nice, because it's very compact but opens up and is used like a bicycle floor pump. I bracketed it to the avionics shelf behind the back wall, in the tail. http://amzn.to/2iiqWdo

After I received it, I let the air out of one of the mains, and I pumped it up again without excessive work (I have an air tank in the hangar, in case it hadn't worked). The stock tires only need something like 26 or 28 psi, and they don't hold a whole lot of air. Whether it would be practical for the bigger tundra-type tires, I don't know.

Cary

Bike pumps are cheap and always work. We quit buying the 12 volt pumps and grab bike pumps on 4 wheeling trips.

I have one of these that rides around in the plane, weight is claimed at 3/4 of a pound. I think with the bag it's about 1lb! Don't have enough use on it to claim how good it really is. It's not fast.. but it's light and cheap... and if it last a while that would be awesome imo

http://amzn.to/2ikxtEr

All three of my e bikes are 52 VDC, so I have a 52 volt cheapie air compressor, exactly the same as the cheapie plug in the cigarette lighter (I mean, "the 12 VDC power supply") types, just re purposed for the ebike crowd. I paid a little over 20 bucks for it and have worked it fairly hard, hard enough to pay for itself already. So as long as I am packing my emontague, along with its battery/batteries, i also have a air source for the plane.

Those little plug in thingies seem like one of those things that are too good to be true, but for the price you can't beat them, and I have yet to fry one. I have the 12 V version in my car and truck.

DeltaRomeo wrote:Got one of these gadgets:

http://amzn.to/2gHijMN

It'll pump up to 120 psi (gets real hot but when you need it (and I do), you need it. Weighs 6 lbs and will fill a truck tire quickly. Even tractor tires. Power connection is cable clamps so you don't have to worry about power source being strong enough; it does use some juice. Been using small 12vdc compressors for years and this one is by far the best performer and at lower pressures performs at 80% of the ability of my gas powered compressor. And yes, I use it on the Maule regularly.

Used this very model last weekend on a car tire after my AAA Walmart special started to smoke. I was impressed with its substantial construction.

I have a bell foot pump
from Walmart. It works great.
I had a hand operated bike pump without the hose. It wasn’t until I needed it that I found out the stupid thing wouldn’t fit on the recessed Bushwheel tire fitting.
The foot pump one gets all jacked up from sand witch seems to be everywhere that I need the thing.


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I have one of these ryobi pumps that works well. You can set the pressure and let it fill the tire while doing something else.it is great for inflating tires after installing plates on the Schneider wheel penetration skis. I still cary a bike pump as well in case it fails but I've never had a problem with it. I like the fact that it runs off its own battery and is completely portable.

http://amzn.to/2zkcBYU