Date: Fri, 22 Nov 96 21:54:42 EST
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@vanagon.com>
From: jag@cs.rochester.edu
Subject: Good AND inexpensive tire pump, where to find?
Derek mentions that lowering tire pressure for better traction.
This is indeed standard procedure for the 4 and 6 wheel drive
Scania TGB 30 and 40 heavy trucks I used to drive. It makes
a great difference!
In my own Westy, lowering the pressure is no problem ;-), but
pumping it up again (in the "field", far from a service station) is!.
I've tried:
Hand pump: Forget this. My arms are worn out before adding 10psi
into ONE tire.
12V Walmart (or insert generic department store name here) pump:
Does pump the tire, but:
Taking my four "small" LT195-75-R14 from 20 to 45 psi takes
40 minutes!!! (including "cool down" intervals for the pump
to keep it from smooking.)
After 1 year of use (only maybe 10 or so of these cycles,
plus occational topping off) the pump performance seems to
have degraded significantly.
The pump I'm talking about is the "250" psi 12v one. It comes in
a dozen different outsides (with and without: pressure gauge, extra
12 V outlet, various color lights etc), but with the same pump inside.
Prices range from $9.95 to 39.95. Surprisingly I havent found any alternative
to this pump. Any 12v "candidate" I've examined, regardless of brand name
contains the same pump inside the varuious shape housings.
Two alternatives that comes to mind: 1/ Buy an inverter and a 110V
pump: Price >$100, way more than my student budget can devote to
this.
2/ Buy a foot pump: Real cheap ($5-10) but do they work? Do they last?
And how long would it take me to pump the tires from 20-45 PSI?
I hate to buy potential junk that break on me when I really need it.
3/ Pressure tank (3 or so gal): Too bulky to motivate its place during
extended trips, and how many tires does it fill on one "charge"? Less
than four is my guess.
Any other suggestions?
/Martin and '82 diesel Westy. (2WD but never stuck so far! Had a close call
in a river bed once. Now wiser)
