I'm in the process of looking at a new work truck, and am looking at my compressor options. Would one of those "wheel barrow" style compressors run things like an inch gun? It's just crazy to me how expensive these things are, but you gotta pay to play I reckon. Heard decent things about harbor freight's gas compressors but am still a bit uneasy, any brand or model recommendations?
Wheel barrow compressor is only 6HP single stage, 30 Gal are usually 12/13HP and two stage. Mine will run a 1" impact but only 30-50% duty cycle. IR T30 something
Ya gonna fix spendy equipment, you need spendy tools. Cheap out on the compressor you're wasting time and effort waiting on the thing or cussing because it won't break stuff loose. Built a PTO driven hydraulic drive compressor one time on the cheap, worked really well, dump type PTO setup, gear motor, variable flow control for speed and an unloader valve. Put the PTO in, everything turned, when it got to pressure it unloaded and kept turning. Big round air tank off some trailer under the service body and a water trap plus oiler. YMMV
It will with a limited duty cycle. If you have room an additional air tank will help. Big hose helps too. I have an IR like you're referring to and it'll run my 1" gun, basically hammer a short burst, let it catch up and move on. I've had several T-30's and they are better. My truck now is about 40 cfm and it's still not enough to hammer bolt after bolt. All depends on how much you intended to run the big gun. Junkyard
I've built my service trucks up from a pancake compressor run off a generator to a 10 cfm gas on an old electric compressor tank to what I have now. I tried to run my 1" off of the 10 cfm but even with a 20 gallon primary tank and a 10 gallon under my truck bed, it wouldn't even come close to RUNNING the big gun even with a 1/2" hose. I am now in a Chevy 4500 where I finally had room to build a good size compressor setup. I built a skid unit for up top with a 13HP engine driving a 22CFM dual stage compressor into a 35 gallon under bed tank. It will keep up with a wand blowgun all day but still won't stay up with the big rattle gun. It will go long enough to get several easy bolts or one or two stubborn before I have to let it catch up which doesn't take long. I use a 1/2" hose with matching quick connects as a small hose won't allow enough air flow. Having been where you are, don't waste your money on a big gun unless you can match it to a sufficient source of air.
If you are going to buy a wheel barrow compresser get a good one because it will do the job but its going to have to work hard when you need alot of air. The only time i ever felt like i had all the air i needed was when i used the rockdrills compresser i dont remember its cfms but it was powered buy a 8/71 Detroit.If i ever won the lottery one of the first things i would buy is a compresser that wouldnt make me weight.
Realistically no if your living relies on running a one inch gun its not going to cut it
If I had a choice in the matter I would get a VMAC underhood compressor http://vmacair.com/products/underhood/ because even with one of the t30 30CFM IR's like others have mentioned if you're going to use a 1" gun a lot you'll be waiting for it quite often.
I've run a 1" gun with a ~20cfm gas drive compressor quite a bit. With an 8 gallon tank probably 50% of the time I had to let it recover halfway through a set of lug nuts. That'd be my absolute minimum for tires on your own trucks. More frequent use than that I'd be looking at a 40cfm rotary.
Check the air consumption of the tool, in question. If the compressor won't put out that much, on an 80% duty cycle, get the next size up compressor. A 1 inch wrench don't do crap, if it can't breathe...
I ran a 17CFM Emglo for years for everything but the big gun. I ran a air wand for cleaning out radiators all the time, handled the 1/2" gun just fine and it was perfect for the engine and transmission work. If I had to do the big bolts I'd crack them loose first with a multiplier and then the half inch gun was fine. I didn't do big tires much but when I had to do a lot of stuff I got a tow behind running at least 85 CFM and used a 1" hose on the banger.
I took the service bed off a chevy 3500 (made it into a trailer tugger) And it had a grimmer Schmidt engine compressor on it. Wonderfull device, has a ford 302 v-8 running as 1/2 engine. Is really not that big, and puts out 125 cfm. So is shorter than the standard Joy screw compressors with the 4 cylinder ford industrial engine.
On a service truck there's no such thing as too much air. Better to have it and not need it, well, you know the rest. Mike
I can't imagine me working a service truck and a 1" gun with a wheelbarrow type compressor, even if it had an auxiliary reservoir, the catch up time would make me go bat **** crazy, not to mention you can forget about using an arc gouger.
I've had a VMAC 150 on my service truck since 1998. Hasn't had a breakdown yet, just a few leaks and regular servicing. Great product
This. The only thing worse than not enough amps to run an air arc is having to wait for the fudging compressor to build air so you can gouge 2", then wait again. A friend of mine went with the IMT 85 cfm direct PTO drive screw compressor on his rig, and still wishes for more air occasionally. Like the others have said, no one ever regrets having too much compressor. Greyson
I have a mitm 2 stage wheelbarrow, think its a 9 horse kohler engine. Works fairly well. Except when it comes to the 1 inch guns. And the .75 guns will tax it pretty hard, too. I say dead minimum is a 30g tank, 2 stage 175psi, 13 hp. I have a 20hp, 80g on my big truck, an antique ir with massive lungs. It just idles along when running big air suckers. Little truck has a 16hp 2stage 30g, does a good job, only lacking occasionally.
Really depends on what your doing, I have a Honda 9hp wheel barrow, it works well enough for what I do. I charge half of what the dealer's do, there is no way I'm going to have a truck & equipment to match what they have. Over head will kill you faster than having to wait for air to build up. I'm in my 21st year & have never printed a business card or advertised, I pull in with my 91 F350 and everyone stays calm.
I have a junk home depot wheel barrow compressor (ditched the stock 8 gallon tank) that I mounted on top of an 80 gallon tank. 8hp Honda. It will keep up with my carbon arc but just barely. I cobbled it together a few years ago to get me by until I found a real compressor but, it has not blown up yet. It's important to note that the wheel barrow compressors generally put out around 120 psi. My old service truck had a 30 gallon IR with a 2 stage compressor. With the 1" gun I had to wait a little for it to catch up but nothing unreasonable. That is the smallest unit that I would try to run a big gun off of. That's what I would buy.
Ive run into this situation. A little wheel barrow will work for most 1/2, 3/4 impacts, and some 1 inch work in bursts. Great for limited space on a truck. As for doing a pad swaps, renting a big compressor on a trailer runs about $125 a day for 185 CFM, might be looking into if you only do a few jobs like that a year. You could run a team of Mexicans on 1 inch impacts and get the job done in no time.