The cheap air compressor I carried in my truck finally died a very timely death. I'm looking for a replacement. My scanning Amazon brought me to the Viair 88p. It seems to have the most solid ratings of anything in my price range (under $100) . I'm definitely not looking for something permanantly mounted nor for off-roading, just something to keep the tires aired up on my truck/trailer/tractor/mower etc.  

So does anyone have opinions on this selection or a viable alternative?

UPDATE: got the Viair and OH MY GOD.  Bought it a few weeks ago but only had my first need for it today. This thing is a monster! In literally just a few seconds this raised my first tire from 37 psi to 44 psi. Then did the same on the remaining tires. In less time than my old cheapass pump would've taken to air up one tire I did all 4 and had stored the Viair. And this thing didn't even get warm using it AND was quiet to boot.

I had sprung for a hose extender so reaching my back most tire was no big deal so the advice on that point was spot on. My old pump I'd start it going and walk away to do other things. With this it'll have a tire ready to go probably before I could walk to the house and back.

Thanks to everyone for their advice.

You should be GTG with the Viair. I tried various cheaper options like MV-50s that never lasted more than several uses, before settling on my current setup, which is OBA with dual Viair 400s.

I bought an older version of this.  I've had it for about 15 years.  I had to replace the battery once, but this was due to my abuse of the original.  It contains a reasonably sized battery with enough capacity to do anything/everything you could ever want to do with one of these,... and due it twice.



•  Ideal for inflating car tires, bike tires, sports balls, air mattresses and other recreational equipment
•  Store in your trunk - perfect for emergency roadside tire inflation
•  Recharges at home (using 120 volt adapter) or from your car battery (using 12 volt adapter)
•  Includes 12 volt outlet that will power 12-volt televisions, radios, cellular phones, lights and similar appliances
•  Built-in tire pressure gauge so you can easily check pressure
•  Includes light for nighttime and roadside emergencies
•  Indicator lights show when battery needs recharging
•  Includes cooling fan for extended life and reliability

I have a Viair mounted in my truck it's one of the bigger ones but never a issue. Viair is good stuff

I've had a Viair for about 7 years. Never have gotten the thing to run right. Blows fuses for a month straight then runs fine for the next 4 months. Slow recovery time. Leaky components.
And I'm not some guy who buys used crap off of ebay and then whines about it . I'm a diesel tech and professionally install accessories for a shop all the time. I would go with an ARB.
Maybe Viair fixed their problems but I wouldn't recommend it based on my experience.

ETA: Didn't read the budget part. Viair is probably the way to go then. I'm sure there's something wrong with mine I just never picked up the phone to talk to customer support. Good luck!

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ARB is way outside his budget

I just looked at ARB and the cheapest unit they have is almost double what I've budgeted for this. I don't doubt they they make awesome stuff but I'm just not willing to fork out that much. The only minor annoyance to the Viair is that I'll have to hook it directly to the battery when needed rather than just plugging into the 12v outlet but I recognize that its a high vol pump and it pulls some heavy current. What struck me on the amazon reviews was than out of over 100 reviews NOBODY gave it a rating less than decent.

The 70-85 compressors have a 12v plug, and of course lower CFMs and longer fill times. The larger compressors draw too many amps for a normal 12v plug. Mine draw like 60 amps.

Update in first post

Got a link to which one you bought?

Pics?

Viair 00088 88P Portable Air Compressor
http://amzn.com/B005ASY23I

I hope my linking will work. This really is a very nice piece of kit. And really only takes up maybe 20% more space than the low vol compressor.