Viair 88P hose upgrade

A few weeks TW stalker, first time poster. Actually I don't even have a truck.. or an expected delivery date yet. So thought I would start off with a quick upgrade I did on gear I already have. The

$91 Viair 88P Portable Compressor Kit (12V, 120 Psi, Forup to 33" Tires)

Viair 88P seems like a solid little compressor, except my gauge floats at 10 psi instead of reading 0 after a few years. The only real issue though, even on my SUV it was a PIA to reach the rear tire. Surprisingly I didn't stumble across much complaining about that, but I will share my quick upgrade.

FYI the pump and 25' hose still fit nicely along with a few short bungee cords in the Rothco mechanic tool bag I keep it in.
- Viair 88P
- Flexzilla Pro air hose 1/4" x25' (I got the Pro so the cutoff end fitting is reusable)

Opening the case is not bad, but you need a reasonably long instrument screw driver to get those 2 little devils on either side of the gauge out. Requires a lot of down force to not strip the head, everything else goes fine.

I wasted time trying to slide the spring coil off the hose. Spoiler it won't. Just attack the hose with a wire cutter right next to the coil on the fitting side. Don't go so deep as to mess up the plastic, but once that little end is trimmed then the hose can be pulled off.

I wanted to keep the factory spring coil since it seems to hold really well and it is cleaner than a hose clamp. Surprisingly it slides onto the new hose easily enough.. then you have to slide it up the fitting. From removing to reinstalling that spring coil took me about 30min to not break things. A channellock pliers ended up doing it by inching along side to side using the plastic fitting to squeeze the coil up. I am good with the results and it seems solidly attached.

Side note, wish I had got the 50' hose to start off so I had more to play with since I plan to get a little 4 port manifold and do a 2 tire connection similar to what I saw here.
https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/shellshocks-diy-inflator-deflator.613122/

 

Nice first post. Welcome to TW.

 

Badass

I'm sure plenty of people will find this useful

What's that little 88P used for normally?

 

My air gauge on my 88p is off by 10psi, so I always use a regular air gauge.

 

Yeah, the gauge on mine is off also.

 

Great modification! Thanks for sharing!

 

I have mostly used it for topping off 2 cars when the weather turns colder for 2 years. So it's not that old but looks to be a cheap 1/8" gauge. Since I plan to plug into a manifold I will just put a gauge on that.

 

solid write up. I'm trying to figure out a way to add a quick disconnect to mine so I can just mount the compressor somewhere and hardwire it to my truck. That way I won't have to pull it out of the bag everytime to use it. Just flip a switch and plug a hose in.

 

That is basically like my plan as I pull together the parts. Currently still easily fits into Rothco mechanic bag, but I want to mount it and just coil the hose with it. I should get the parts to setup a little manifold for 2 wheels at a time in the next week so I will update once that happens.

Most air hoses seem to be 1/4" hose, take a look at the flexzilla pro fittings that just screw on a cut end if you want a nice 1/4" fitting for doing something like QD.

 

Does the water separator seem to be necessary when you're airing up tires?

 

Are the inside hose diameter the same and the flexzilla is just that much beefier on the outside?