When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.
JK Off-Road 101Bulletin board forum regarding topics such as general off-roading tips, tricks, techniques and equipment usage such as winching and vehicle recovery information.
I have the trailhead deflator. They take about 3 min to drop my 35s from 30lbs to 12. Not as fast as some options but I am not crouched down by my tire letting the air out so not a big deal to me. I set them 3 yrs ago and all four were still set at 12 last time I aired down.
I had an ARB, and somehow misplaced it.
I've since had 2 sets of the Trailhead deflators , and am now back to the old trusty ARB.
The Trailheads refuse to deflate if your starting pressure is below 28psi, then they do not fully shut off, rather they just bleed air at a slower rate once down to pressure. You end up monitoring them anyways, and to be honest, the ARB is nearly as quick... it however works every time.
I can be wheeling at 1200' elevation one trip and 6000'+ the following trip, so, the automatic deflators do not appeal to me... if you have to watch them anyways, and finish up manually, why not just go the simple and trusted system.
I have found that when you have to monitor the automatic systems, then double check with a guage, and possibly finish the job manually, that the ARB ends up being faster. And, since I had lost confidence in the system, I was always double checking in the end.
Yes, I have to kneel at each wheel for a couple minutes, but, all of my wheeling partners are doing the same (they too have given up on the automatic systems, well, some have never bought into the automatic systems, and saved money while the rest of us went down that road), or they are unloading from a trailer... now that takes some time.
I don't know if mine shut fully off or not ( maybe I should check sometime) I take them off when they quit hissing and have never had a problem. Of course I have never left them on very long after so they may still be slowly leaking.
Your right about a minimum pressure for them to start though. When I set mine I think I needed around 25 lbs for them to start.
I think they all have their good and bad points so it's a matter of what ever one works for the individual. It would be nice to try a few before buying to see what one likes best but all my friends still air down by pressing the valve stem in with a tire gauge, car key or what ever.
I tried a set of the auto deflators and finally just got a set of the simple Terra Flex ones that screw on and let the air out until you take them off. If you wait a few seconds between installing each one as you go around your vehicle you can make just one trip around checking and removing and your done. Simple, compact, dependable and cheap. I had smittybuilt, and maybe the Stauns are better, but mine just weren't dependable or accurate. KISS (keep it simple stupid) is the answer in my view. I've also tried several expensive digital gauges and have finally just gone with a simple dial gauge type with a pressure release button.
I have a set of "JT Brooks" Fully adjustable and made here in the USA supporting US workers. Great product will last the life of your Jeep and the next one.
I apologize for bump...
I have both. Stauns are nice and easy if airing down to the same pressure every time. You can vary the set pressure of two or four of them but that kinda negates the "ease of use" benefit of them. Be sure to crank the set screw down hard and maybe mark a line of paint to indicate non-movement.
The ARB deflator is nice if you often vary the pressure. No chance of losing the valve stem but deflation will be slower than just pulling the valves.
The quality of the actual valve-core puller is good. I believe this is the patented part by Burkey and is shared by all the various brands. I am not really pleased with the rest the pressure gauge on the ARB https://mechanicguides.com/best-tire-deflators/ Looks cheap and the protective rubber cover doesn't even fit snug. I have not had the opportunity to compare with the other brands. But I'd like to see a currie or accu-gage version. I have one of the regular dial type accu-Gage's gauges that seems to be of better quality. But perhaps these are all the same.
The Stauns have two problems;
1)They are never set for the pressure I want to run today.
2)They are all over the place on what pressure the actually shut off at. The ambient temp seems to change the shut off pressure, worse it does not seem to be uniform across the set I have.
With the Terraflex style, I put one on, wait a minute and install the rest. Every minute or so I check the first one. When it gets close I release it and the rest then air them down one at a time. It works really well, plus I can lend one or two out to friends and still get aired down pretty fast.
The other advantage is that at $10 I can afford to have a set in every truck, unlike the Stuans.
^^ Pretty much agree with everything Yator said above. One small detail about the TF ones that is nice....they screw together in to one link for easy storage, rather than having 4 little individuals rolling around. I've gone back to having my Stauns set (whereas before I just had em wide open), but nowadays I'm not as anal about having all the tires exactly at the same PSI. pop em on, air down...if one is 8, another is 10, another 11, another 9.....no bid deal. The one nice thing about the Stauns is throw em on and start rollin. Kinda nice if you have a long washboard road to drive to get to a trailhead. Still not worth the price tag IMO though.
Yeah, I use the TF deflators (link below) and have been happy with them. I usually do one side at a time though... I'll start one tire and while it's airing down get the next one going. Then go back to the first and start checking pressure... when that one gets to the pressure I want, I stop that one and move back to the second in time for it to be reaching the desired pressure.
I use this goofy home-brew contraption. Equalizes pressure between tires while it's at it. Bit convoluted, ended up not being the cheapest since I had some trouble finding some parts I wanted, but works like a dream! Airs down 2 tires at a time to exactly the same pressure, quick and easy as can be.
12-27-2016, 07:03 PM
