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Need to purchase a portable tank to add air to the tires. Is a 5 gal. tank enough or would a 11 gal. be better?

John

Bigger is better. It means more air and fewer trips back to the compressor to fill up. It would be a drag to fill up half a tire and have to go back for more air.

Remember, you can't completely drain a tank while filling something up. The tank will drain until the pressure in the item being filled equals the pressure remaining in the filling tank. The fill tank always has to have more pressure than the item being filled or nothing happens.

Johns wrote:Need to purchase a portable tank to add air to the tires. Is a 5 gal. tank enough or would a 11 gal. be better?

John

John, it depends on whether you are going to fill a tire that has no air in it or just top off a tire that is only a few psi low. For just topping off a tire, a small portable tank (say 10" in diameter by 15" long.......not sure of gallonage) is quite adequate. With one filling, it easily tops off all 4 tires on a car or pickup truck, or the 2 small tires on my Sonex even if they're 10 lbs low (40 psi instead of 50 psi). I used to have a larger portable tank but got tired of hauling the big guy around when the smaller tank would do the job.

Art,,,,,,,,,,,,,,Sonex taildragger #95,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,Jabiru 3300 #261

I use a foot operated bicycle pump. for the small tires I have it works fine. If it is low 10-15 pumps and it is back up to snuff. no electricity, no wondering if I have enough air in the tank.
Mark

Hey guys, I ordered a 10 gal tank from Home Depot. That should be enough. Just want to top them off.


Thanks, John

I just moved over to using a small/light weight Walmart HART 20V Cordless Inflator and keeping it in the hanger. I can do everything with it I need except for my annual cylinder differential testing of the engine. Same battery works for the drill and nut-driver I keep in the hanger as well. No carrying the heavy tank or moving the compressor every time I need to top off the tires! It's got a built in digital pressure gauge, weighs less than 1.5 pounds, and cost me $30.
Lorin