Where did you mount your tank? I was thinking about cutting off the recessed storage think above where the stock muffler goes and welding in a flat panel and having the tanks mount there. I have an old "portable" compressor that the compressor died on and was going to rob the two tanks it has on it, they are small enough to fit between the frame rails. just havent figured out of mounting them there will get them ripped off when i come off ledges. (im in a jk so space is tight)

 

Assuming you don't have a leak in a line, that compressor gonna kick on and takes but a few seconds to fill the line and engage the locker. It's not going to sit there and run constantly. When filling up tires, you and your passengers typically aren't sitting in the cab while it's running, but even then, it's not like a freight train passing by.

I'd personally not even think about air tools.

 

The only thing I knocked on the ARB is what I have experience with. The price, as did the OP. Please just stop, and agree to disagree. The only one laughing at your jokes and personal attacks is you.

 

Mine is mounted inside my frame rail under the rear seat location wise, between the axle and transfer case essentially, above it of course, and protected with a skid plate. I live in Arizona so the only salt we deal with is on the rim of our margarita glasses. We don't have all the seasons like some of you guys do.

The rear storage area is a good plan, but I'd consider keeping the tanks inside if corrosion is an issue. Make sure you keep the pop off valve, or add one if it doesn't have one, so you don't create a pipe bomb.

With a tank, it shouldn't have to kick on much after the initial fill, and that's using the lockers a bunch. I just got done with a week in Moab for Easter Jeep Safari, and we wheeled some wicked trails, with lots of lockers on and off, front and rear, and as I said above, I could run all day without the compressor kicking on if I didn't want to. Minimal amount of air to pressurize the lockers from the manifold to the axles.

I've been thinking about this situation more and more in regards to the air tools. I've never had to deal with them on the trail, knocking on wood, but you'd be hard pressed to find any compressor out there that would run a 1/2" impact hard for much time without a big tank behind it. I've run them off air tanks on heavy equipment before to change out cutting edges and it's the same principle. Build air, run the gun, build air, run the gun. Pretty tedious operation, but it can be done.

Saw a few guys doing trail repairs in Moab with the battery powered impacts, and that seems like a more viable alternative. Milwaukee and Dewalt seemed to be the tools of choice. Personally, I'm a big fan of Dewalt and own a ton of it, but not a battery powered impact. I'm sure Harbor Freight makes some for the budget conscious.

If someone was set on running air tools, a CO2 tank from Powertank or the like would cover that base well. I use mine pretty much exclusively to air up as 40's take a while, even with the dual compressor, and it is handy should your tank on your kegerator run out unexpectedly.

OP could downsize the compressor to the single ARB and add some battery powered tools and cover all the bases, but airing up would take a while longer. It's a choice about which one you spend more time doing I suppose, airing up tires or running tools.

Hopefully that helped clear things up a bit.

 

My personal use case is that my wife, and son are typically along with me sitting inside patiently as I'm outside the Jeep doing the things they're not quite familiar/comfortable doing. The wife has the harder job in making sure the kid is behaving and with a compressor running inside, that would make her job more difficult.

Noise concerns aside, the main reasons I preferred not to mount an air compressor inside the interior was due to limited space in regards to compressor heat concerns and carpet fibers. We all know these compressors run hot. When you mount it under a seat like many tend to do, there is a very limited air circulation to help assist in cooling the compressor. Plus, it's often mounted on top of the carpeting, so you might as well be wrapping it with a blanket. So I worked in the designs/development of audio amplifiers, which also tend to get hot where mounting the amp under a seat was often considered. There were definitely additional challenges that needed to be tested and designed around to ensure the amp didn't over heat, which often resulted in adding cooling fans and additional heat sink to the amp design. Additionally, we found that carpet fibers and people spilling drinks on them in those locations to be very problematic. The fans would pull in carpet fibers, getting those fibers into the electronics, adding a risk of fire, damaging the electronics and also blocking the air flow passages. What does an air compressor do? It sucks air in one side and forces it out the other, thus you have the same type of concerns with carpet fibers and heat. No one ever comes on the forums and tells you how great their interior mounting of their air compressor was when it over heats or starts catching the interior of your Jeep on fire, or their kid spilled their McDonald's coke on it.

 

i ignore most everything rednroll posts. he likes to do a lot posting without any actual knowledge of what he's talking about.

 

Cool it fellas.

 

Y, we all have different builds, and stuff like this is one of those things where it's different on every jeep. My compressor hangs upside down from a bracket that is sandwiched in between the seat's frame rails. There is actually a lot of airflow all around it....top, bottom, front and back. It's off the floor so should a little water get down there, it's safe, and my tub is bedlined so no carpet to deal with. For me, it seemed like a better option to keep it out of the elements, and out of a hot/dirty engine bay. I have seen under seat mounts that definitely looked like it might choke the air out a bit more though.


In regards to tools, if you're really being honest with yourself, what are you gonna do with a compressor tank set up on a trail that is going to make life exponentially easier than having the proper hand tools available. More hassle than it's worth really.......ALTHOUGH, looks cool to people cruising by as you work on yo broke ass rig. For real use of tools, you need CO2 IMO.....but even then your lugging CO2 around, extra tools, etc. I just came to terms that almost all trail repairs are performed just fine with good hand tools.

 

^^^ This. OBA is great for airing tires and running lockers... the rest, I carry hand tools for. Though, I will admit I keep looking at those 1/2 battery operated torque wrenches...

 

It's not bad to have differing opinions and solutions. It sparks thought for some folks working through things. I don't necessarily agree with everything all the time, but what I like in general about this place is you have a group of people coming from different professional backgrounds, and with various builds and the way they use their jeeps. It's up to the people seeking help to figure out what might be relevant to their situation. Jordy and Rednroll will never get along, but both have valid points for an array of people. I might side with one for a particular poster, and the other for a different poster. It just depends on what the use is going to be. In this case, my personal opinion is if you're gonna be out using your jeep in places you need air lockers, and are concerned about tools and trail repairs (even though compressor ain't gonna help much), it tells me you're gonna be in more extreme situations that are often in more desolate areas. Pick the proper tool for the job.