Backup Tire Air Portable Compressor Recommendations

[scottk]

My onboard air compressor for filling tires is broken. It failed on the fourth tire after airing back up from a trail journey 3 days after delivery.

My service appointment to fix isn't for a few weeks, and I'd like to have a compressor while I wait on the fix (plus have a backup on hand in case of future failures while on trails).

What portable air compressors do people recommend for a Rivian? It seems like the "best" options are powered by a 12V car battery, which I'm guessing isn't a realistic option.

I'm wondering if a 12V or 120V option to plug into the R1S trunk outlets would be the best bet, or if a battery powered compressor could be an option. Ideally I'd be able to use this "backup" compressor concurrently with the onboard compressor for faster inflation, but I'm not sure if the onboard compress and outlets share the same kind of circuit and could "overload" it.

Thanks!

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[kozak79]

I'm a Milwaukee tool guy, but the Ryobi air compressor is much better and more versatile than the Red. You don't even need to bring a charger, a single battery will last for dozens of tires.
https://www.ryobitools.com/products/details/33287178780

 

[Revelation]

What do you mean it's broken? Without knowing what you experienced, I'd simply recommend to ensure you are operating it correctly. It is easy enough to not do it right. The first time I aired up my tires, even after watching videos, I was messing it up.

If you are sure you did everything correctly, then you can check out Amazon as they have a ton of inexpensive options that will run off of your 12V or you can even plug into your outlets in the bed if you find one with a traditional 120V plug.

 

[Donald Stanfield]

I'm a Milwaukee tool guy, but the Ryobi air compressor is much better and more versatile than the Red.
https://www.ryobitools.com/products/details/33287178780

Ryobi and Milwaukee are owned by the same parent company.

 

[kozak79]

Ryobi and Milwaukee are owned by the same parent company.

Ryobi air compressor is more versatile and is $69, the Milwaukee version is not so much and is $179. But yes, same parent company...

 

[Donald Stanfield]

If you're really that worried about it any 120V pancake compressor is going to work better than the internal Rivian compressor. You can get one for a few hundred bucks that will run all day long.

 

[Donald Stanfield]

Ryobi air compressor is more versatile and is $69, the Milwaukee version is not so much and is $179. But yes, same parent company...

If you're going Milwaukee this is the one to buy.

https://www.milwaukeetool.com/Products/2840-20

 

[scottk]

What do you mean it's broken?

The first issue was the hose connector wouldn't "clip" into the valve. I realized the panel was loose already, and thought maybe the panel was installed too far forward and not allowing the hose enough space to latch onto.

I pulled the panel off and the hose clipped in securely and easily behind the panel. Tested it at home fine, and then on the trail with 3 tires fine. On the fourth tire, I heard a loud "pop" noise and immediately turned the compressor off. Inspected the tire and it was only 1 psi lower than I needed it to be and our 1 year old kid was fussy so we drove off.

When I got home, I tried again. After a couple minutes, I realized the compressor should have shut off already. Tested the air pressure and it was down from 47psi to 28psi. Figured it was just leaking that whole time.

I assume some kind of internal hose disconnected from the compressor, but will let service sort that out.

----

Thank you others for the Ryobi suggestion - I already have 2 batteries that work with it so this seems a reasonable backup/secondary option. Then I can stop borrowing my sister's inflator for the kiddie pool, too ;-)

 

[zefram47]

I'm a Milwaukee tool guy, but the Ryobi air compressor is much better and more versatile than the Red. You don't even need to bring a charger, a single battery will last for dozens of tires.
https://www.ryobitools.com/products/details/33287178780

Something like this might work for one tire, but doing all 4 from 30 to 48 psi will be WAY over the duty cycle rating and will likely overheat and eventually damage the unit.

 

[zefram47]

Ordinarily I'd recommend something like a Viair 400P for off-road use when airing down, but all of their units that would have a high enough duty cycle require direct connection to a 12v battery.

 

[scottk]

Something like this might work for one tire, but doing all 4 from 30 to 48 psi will be WAY over the duty cycle rating and will likely overheat and eventually damage the unit.

Thanks for the thought. People seem to be leaning towards the battery powered options, but if you have a recommendation similar to the Viair 400P that could be plugged into the 120V 1500W outlet I'd be interested. But I'm worried the circuit may be the same that the onboard compressor uses, risking overloading if both are being used.

Do you think the Milwaukee M18 will suffer from the same duty cycle issue as the Ryobi?
According to Car and Driver, the M18 is much faster (2:26 vs 8:00 inflation time to 45psi)

 

[kozak79]

Thanks for the thought. People seem to be leaning towards the battery powered options, but if you have a recommendation similar to the Viair 400P that could be plugged into the 120V 1500W outlet I'd be interested. But I'm worried the circuit may be the same that the onboard compressor uses, risking overloading if both are being used.

Do you think the Milwaukee M18 will suffer from the same duty cycle issue as the Ryobi?
According to Car and Driver, the M18 is much faster (2:26 vs 8:00 inflation time to 45psi)

He tests both Ryobi and Milwaukee!

 

[moosetags]

I have been using the Dewalt 20 volt portable compressor for about 5 years. I have used it a lot and it always does the job. It can run on a 20 volt drill battery or can be plugged into a 12 volt outlet.

Brian

 

[jjswan33]

I have been using the Dewalt 20 volt portable compressor for about 5 years. I have used it a lot and it always does the job. It can run on a 20 volt drill battery or can be plugged into a 12 volt outlet.

Brian

I also have this compressor and it works fine. The air flow is lower than what is on the truck though so be prepared to wait a while if you are airing up 4 Rivian tires. I used to carry mine around with me but because it was more convenient for blowing up an air mattress or pressurizing my road shower than the truck's compressor.

 

[twvette]

I am wondering if the emergency 12V battery jumper cables located next to the rear hitch could be used? Seems like they should work as high amp charging required to use them, so should work in the opposite direction too for high amp 12V power.

The 12V battery is also a small one so a bit concerned in general running any more high power 12V to it. Seems if drain it might brick the ride home off the mountain which would really suck. Probably even a concern once get a few years on the 12V battery since it is just lead acid and those have not worked out well so far in EV's in general. A separate power source might still be the safest bet long term.

Related, the battery powered compressors above are slower pumps than what the Rivian onboard air does so going to take longer to fill up. The Rivian onboard pump is actually a modified ARB CKMA12 pump and already known in the off-road world to be good and reliable but also known that really want theire dual version of this pump (i.e. twice the speed+). The accumulator on the Rivian version is also about half the size so that does not help. The larger Viairs are going to perform similar to this pump too as they are also a single pump design. Dewalt does make a 120V adapter for their battery pump which might be nice but that is another cord will need to consider.

I am in need of a much better pump as went to D rated tires. I air down to 25 PSI and need to go back up to 65 PSI with my 35x11.5's. This took a very long time to do three of the four (~30 minutes) and only got up to about 35 PSI on the fourth before the Rivian pump shut down for being too hot (I was expecting this and still good performance). I think it will then need 20 minutes plus to cool off so would be about an hour job! Yes, I could have just aired back up a bit instead of to full pressure, but again I was needing max efficiency to make it to closest charger.

The hoses provided are also very basic (not surprising) and kinda sucks that not self sealing so when disconnect between tires loose all the pressure built up in the long hose which is a waste. One way or another will do something better or go to a four tire at once setup.

I had brought with me a NOCO GB150 battery jump pack (made for dual battery heavy duty diesel truck jumping) but it was on its last leg so did not have enough juice to run my Viair regardless. I am also not sure if anything on it that would prevent the high current by connecting the Viair battery clamps directly to the NOCO battery clamps, but also would think this should work. Not convenient regardless with clamps connected to clamps and can easily short when moving it. Curious if anyone had made this idea work for them or might be another option to consider (that is a $300 jump pack though ... good sized lithium battery is probably cheaper)?

Sure wish there was a 120V to 12V high amp power converter to battery terminals but I suspect that is complex and almost no market for it. Currently I agree a 120V pancake is probably the easiest but those are much larger to carry.

Maybe someone will figure out how to tee into Rivian onboard ARB pump power and hopefully find it will run higher power unit like the the dual ARB. Just started my search but seems the Thor Lightning dual is a good solution if stick with a 12V battery terminal pump.

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