Power Tank or ARB

That’s not the norm for a co2 refill, but some cities/towns don’t have great refill sources. That’s the biggest draw with co2. If you have ease of access to a refill it’s certainly a plus for some people to have both a 10lb+ tank in addition to oba.

But if no one in the area wants to touch your tank, or want to charge you an arm and a leg then it sucks. And most larger suppliers won’t fill your tank but instead do an exchange. That’s the main reason I sold mine years ago. I moved from having an aquarium shop that filled it, to having no one wanting to fill it. By the time I’d use it enough it would be out of hydro.

 

Ok so here’s a question for bed side mounting. I have the dual cubbies in the bed of the truck. All I see is the mount that goes in the drivers side bed cubby. Why can’t an ARB single be mounted in the cubby spot with out having to replace and buy the bed side mount setup? IMO the cubby “seems” like strong enough plastic to hold an ARB single compressor. Any ideas on this?

 

Absolutely not a ton of work. Used to be very common back in the pirate4x4 days. Pneumatic switch setups were common but solenoids work fine too. You can wire up just a solenoid using one wire through a switch, plumb it in, and done. Problem is running out of CO2/N2 especially if you build a system that leaks.

 

You could. Most people just opt for a kit instead of diy. It could definitely hold the single

 

It hit me later in the day after that post, that power tanks have no electrical set up. I'm so used to the ARBs and running power.

 

I live in a city of 500,000+ and this was one of the only shops I found that actually refilled tanks (it’s mainly a fire extinguisher service company).

The reason they’d keep it overnight is they were closed on weekends and after 4 weekdays, so it’s all I could do to get there before 4 PM after work, and if they at all had anything else going on, they refused to refill it while I waited, so more times than not I got the “come get it tomorrow”. Royal PITA for me as they were 20 minutes out of the way, 40 minute round trip everytime.

Like you mentioned, most shops would only exchange and thus you can’t do it with a nice PowerTank. The better alternative would be to build your own with a generic silver 10-15lb CO2 tank and just take off your regulator and swap tanks. Cheaper, faster, easier…just an ugly tank you have to carry.

 

I’ve had many bad experiences with compressed air lines icing up while working outdoors in the northern states. Even with a dryer. A dryer that has to be continually serviced. Messing with antifreeze all the time. I haven’t had and don’t foresee there being much of a problem when airing up tires and any freeze up would likely be annoying but fixable by moving the frozen component inside the cab for awhile. I am worried about the air locker freezing problem though. Not being able to engage the locker because of a frozen line could be a big problem. I’ll likely add a Powertank to the current ARB Twin system to prevent this. Also adding a second tank to exchange can solve the running out problem for a lot of people. Or maybe I’m just coming up with excuses to spend more money.

 

Had an ARB twin tank compressor under the hood of a 2019 with a front locker and was very nice.
I now have a powertank for my 2022 (just picked it up) and I feel it's sufficient.
The tank airs up nineteen, 33" tires and is portable. I do t need multiple air ups any more. A tank full will last me a year, easily.
I'd say it depends on your usage, budget.
They are both great options

 

https://www.extremeoutback.com/product/extremeaire-high-output-12-volt-compressor/

This is the compressor on my Xmas list! They made a version of this that’s currently on Mars!

 

Just to confirm, I moved back to a Tacoma from the GX and did indeed go the dual ARB route.

I’ve had the power tank and I’ve had the ARB single…and I happily spent the ridiculous coin to get a dual ARB setup on my new truck, if that tells you anything.