On-board Air
 

So i have been wanting to put an air supply on my Jeep for a while and i have looked at a few different options. No matter what i will have at least a one gallon air tank. It will be used for lockers, filling tires and air tools for repairs. So what are the thoughts on the
ARB CKMTA12 '12V' On-Board Twin High Performance Air Compressor at 6.16cfm constant duty electric
or the YORK MINI ON BOARD AIR KIT at 10cfm belt driven https://offroadonly.com/shop/on-boar...12-18-3-6l-v6/

ARB all the way. Belt driven is more to go wrong. With the ARB you essentially have 2 compressors, 2 leads from the battery, 2 motors. Redundancy is key. ARB stands behind their product and has replaced mine, which was older and came with my Jeep, with no questions asked, no qualms about receipts, transferred ownership, etc. The issue mine had has been corrected on the newer models, and I've had no issues with mine. I'm a huge ARB cheerleader based on my experiences with them.

Agree with Jordy. ARB is the way to go

I have the single compressor version of the ARB and love it! My lockers are factory electric, and I don't carry any air tools, so mine is generally used for airing up my (and other people's) tires, inner tubes at the river, kiddie pools for the back yard, and things of that nature.

I would have no qualms getting the dual ARB other than it seemed overkill for my application and I felt the money would go better elsewhere, like my Genesis dual battery set-up.

Happy Jeeping!

I was in the exact same place, and made the exact same decision in the end (other than the dual batteries). ARB's compressors are great, and their warranty service is outstanding.... they may be pricey but this is one place where you really do get what you pay for.

I'm an outlier among this group, but only because of the steal of a deal I got on my Viair 440C w/ 2 gal tank and all of the fixings for install. Admittedly, it was an eBay find but $180 for the lot didn't seem like a bad deal. My brother opted for the ARB dual. It is much simpler to the point where he can pull the unit out if he doesn't want the theft bait in the back of the Jeep.

ARB....suck it up and you won't regret it. You just need to drop the wishful thinking that you're gonna be running tools with it. :wink: I mounted mine under the front passenger seat. Most people wouldn't notice it's there, has plenty of airflow around it, and doesn't get hot and dirty like the engine bay does.

And now, from left field come the Warn Powerplant. I opted for one ten years ago as a one-stop solution for two needs. It has hardly been used as a winch, but routinely has done the job filling up tires. Speed wise the air function is comparable to a Viair, slower than the ARB Dual. Does the job as a winch quite well. Warn discontinued them a while back, but you can still find deals on them. I will continue to use it until it dies, which is what I said sen years ago or so. It won't quit. Once it does I will get the ARB Dual and shut up.

FWIW, on my previous rig I ran the Kilby belt driven setup and loved it.

You're coming from left field? LOL! I decided not even to bother to post my <$200 dual compressor solution which is still working great for the past 2 years. I'm sure the ARBs are great, they better be for the price. I just can't bring myself around to paying $500+ for a 12V air compressor. Just the same as I couldn't bring myself around to purchasing JWS LED headlights for $800-$1K a few years back which I'm sure are great as well. It's not like I couldn't afford paying that much, but when I start to feel I'm being ripped off for what I'm getting in return, I tend to turn the other cheek. I'm certain ARB has great customer service and a great warranty. Why wouldn't they? You're likely paying over 6 to 8 times what it costs them to make a 12V air compressor, so it's not like they're losing $ if they ever have to send out a replacement.

Plus, I wouldn't even consider putting a $500+ air compressor in the mounting locations I wanted to put mine. I purchased a $2 tube of silicone sealant instead.
https://doc-0o-6k-docs.googleusercon...XpIb2ZmcFZGSmc

I did have to do some rust maintenance last fall, since the salted roads don't agree well with my chosen mounting locations.
https://drive.google.com/uc?id=1y4dG...AuUy2an2nsvIvo
but nothing a little wire brush and paint couldn't fix up pretty easily.
https://drive.google.com/uc?id=1NXzb...1edQXB0Qt3_i15

I also feel onboard air for impact tools use is a waste. You would be much better off with electric and lithium ion battery tools, as well as good ole fashion wrenches.

Ya, i was leaning toward the ARB but i just hate seeing the price. Sooooo what is your solution?

You have a whole slew of people who offered up information to help you make an informed decision, and then someone so tight he squeaks when he walks comes in and professes to know manufacturing, marketing, development, and a slew of other costs, along with the profit margin, of ARB's product, and you take him seriously? That's funny!

I'm sure there are all kinds of cheap ways to have an air system on a Jeep. If you want to buy one, one time, and have something reliable, it's not going to be cheap.

Here, Harbor Freight has this beauty for a mere $62.99.

https://www.harborfreight.com/12volt...sor-63184.html

I bet it only costs them $12 to make it in China though. :rotflmao2:

Hilarious!

Well im looking at mounting locations right now and trying to figure out what would be best. I live in salt hell so anything outside the jeep will get rusted to all hell, which i would really prefer my almost $600 compressor look like the titanic after a year, but i also have no idea how much air lockers actually use. So if i have it mounted in side the cab, say under my seat, will i be having to scream at my passenger because its always kicking on to fill the tanks? When i am filling tires i could care less about it being mounted inside because i wont be sitting on top of it :rotflmao2:. And just because i ask someone about their cheaper solution dosent mean im going to jump all over it, if i wanted to stick with a cheap solution i would keep using my $30 compressor. some people come up with really great and creative solutions for Jeeps and i enjoy seeing that

Hahahaha... this is actually a great solution and one that I used for several years. The ONLY reason I have an ARB Twin now is that I lucked into a super cheap one. A place called Bargain Hunt (think a store that sells items that had been returned to other stores) had one on the shelf for $75.00 (yes, for real)... it was marked damaged. I bought it and $16 later I had a completely working ARB Twin (you can purchase all of the repair parts from ARB).

If not for that stroke of luck, I'm SURE I would still be running the HF compressor system I had. It worked and met my needs. It wasn't 100% duty cycle, but that was okay with me.

I made a write-up:
https://www.jk-forum.com/forums/jk-w...-build-341917/

I expected some criticism and doubts with my solution and I had some doubts myself going in if it would survive the elements that they would be exposed to. I purchased a 3rd compressor which I keep in a bag under my rear seat for "just in case" purposes. Just in case I drown them crossing some water and they decide to fail or if they some how get damaged. What I can say is that I've been pleasantly surprised and it's been installed and working well for me for over 2 years. I originally didn't plan on using it for air tools since I feel there are much better solutions which cost less.

Resharp can share his experience when trying to use an ARB dual compressor for air tools. This video should give you some idea, of what using an ARB dual with an added tank will be like. You're going to be doing a lot of waiting for that tank to refill while using those tools.

If you're planning on using a compressor for lockers as well, I'd stick with something that is intended for that purpose. Although a HF compressor will still air up a tire.....do you want to rig that up to run your lockers on? As with a lot of these things, your money isn't being thrown away. If you spend $465 on a dual ARB, and you use it for 5 years then decided to sell it, assuming you've taken care of it, it's going to return a good bit of that initial cost. Just another way to think about things.

Like I said, I expected criticism from some of the self proclaimed elitists. I had all the same concerns you outlined. The only target I missed in my original write-up is preventing the exterior rust on the compressors which was easily fixed with some gloss rattle can paint. I did put fluid film on the outsides of them but that stuff doesn't last. Paint is still the best rust preventative. After the paint addition, they just finished going through a Michigan winter of road salt where I also typically wash my Jeep 3-4 times per week in the winter and this spring no exterior rust with the added paint projection. I just fired them up yesterday and they're working great. Yes, I'm only using them for airing up tires which I'm able to air up 4 35s from 15psi to 35psi in under 10 minutes. It has worked well for me, it may not work for everyone's needs/standards but it is a good option to consider. I really like the fact that it's not under the hood or inside and that I'm not having to pull out hoses and attachments when I go to use it.

I just ignore him, he seems to criticize solutions he has no experience with. He's a joker and thinks he is funny. As long as he's happy.:thumbs:

Ya i figured i was going to also for asking, Just trying to justify the price as i am a full time college student that works full time also :rotflmao2:. So i dont exactly make alot and dont have cash just laying around to drop of expensive items, took me almost 2 years to be able to get my MC lift lol. So im trying to be selective in what i can cheap out of temp vs. what is important.

I've got a 3 gallon tank under the Jeep that will more than run the lockers all day long on a single fill up. I kick my compressor on, let it build pressure and shutoff automatically, then I kill the power to it. I've got a bunch of plumbing as I have air chucks at the front and rear, so I lose some via inherent leaks. Every few hours I might kick it on if I think about it and it runs for 30 seconds and shuts off again. I could likely go all day without hearing it, but it's not a big deal. The amount of air that is released when the solenoids open and unlock the lockers is probably half a breath, if that.

See, this is what you get when people actually have real world experience with a product. It has nothing to do with any "self-proclaimed" bullshit. It has to do with people who actually know what they're talking about because they've done it, not sat on their wallet crying about how hurtful the price of something is. Still hilarious. This place was better when you could actually block that self-proclaimed expert who has never experienced any of what he professes to know. :rotflmao2:

That's ironic as here you are talking out your ass about a product you have no experience with other than tire kicking and passing because of cost. Me? I have the ARB compressor that the OP had a question about. I have ARB lockers front and rear. You're still running metric tires. Come back and talk about something you know about as you've done nothing to help resolve the original question asked. That's pathetic. You not get enough attention at home? :thumbsup:

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. :D

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. :rotflmao2: 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. :thumbsup:

I just purchased a 1/2in battery impact, and I keep looking at it and asking myself, "Do I really need to bring this along?". I prefer to travel as light as possible and appreciate the available space. I mainly purchased it for convenience of not having to pull out hoses and extension cords for when doing work on my Jeep at home. No reason I couldn't throw it in the back of my Jeep. I'll likely leave it at home and just throw my bag of hand tools inside as usual. When I hear folks talk about air compressor tool setups on their Jeep, I start to wonder if they're doing engine and axle swaps out there on the trail. So far I've not seen anyone do an LS/Hemi swap or axle swap while out on a trail. :D Everything else can be done with hand tools where it just takes you 60seconds to remove a bolt instead of 10 seconds.

I also don't have to worry about air lockers. Trutracks are better for my needs. If I were to do lockers, I'ld likely lean towards an electronic engage/disengage since there's already a battery power supply there.

Interesting...I've had nothing but issues with mine. It has quit on me twice now in 2 years. First time required replacing the solenoid/contactor, which was a $260 part. Just quit again a month ago, and I don't think I'm gonna repair it this time. I don't recommend it at all.

I'll be going with the ARB setup and a Smittybilt winch (lol, that'll make my buddies scratch their heads).

Buy once cry once/you gotta pay to play. This holds true for ARB. Doesn't hold true for my Warn PowerPlant; A 1 year warranty on electrical parts is straight up disrespectful for the price tag.

We have several in our club that run Warn Powerplant winches, I don't know of any failures like that, but if itr's any consolatiion they dropped it from their line some time ago. Mine will sit on the bumper until it dies, at which time I'll do the ARB dual and a lighter winch.

So i recently [picked up a ARB CKMA12 and i'm not sure how to connect it. There are two cables,
Red-Yel = To Ignition
Blu-Wht = To Dash Illumination

Does anyone know where these two are located in the fuse box?
I'm kinda new to the Jeep world!

Not sure about fuse box locations, but I'm guessing these are for your rocker switch wiring.

If you have a meter or even a test light you should be able to find one that is switched for your ignition, if you want your compressor to only run if your key is on. If you don't care, you could just wire it to a hot terminal and the switch would always be ready to fire up the compressor, regardless of ignition position.

Your dash ilumination is going to be for the lighted portion of the switch. You'll have to find a wire that runs off the light switch to the dash lights and tie into it for that to work. I'd call this one optional. A little google search shows this is an orange and grey wire coming out of a loom under the dash. That could be different based on your year and model.

I would not recommend using the crimp splices as they have a high tendency to fail at the worst moment. Cut, strip, solder, heat shrink, and don't worry about it coming loose.

https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.jk-...9f35bf9440.jpg

Thanks. I'll look into this section.