So, I've got some pretty kick-*** Hadleys that I'd like to put under the hood of my truck which got me looking into Air Compressors.

Hadley makes one specifically for their air horns, but I started to wonder if I could buy something bigger and have functional air for inflating tires and maybe even running small tools.

This got me looking at something like this...

Kobalt 1.5HP 3-Gallon Air Compressor

I've already got a Cobra Highway Gear 2,000 watt power inverter. I figured I could mount the air compressor and the inverter in my tool box and drill through the box for an air intake vent and quick-connect fitting.

According to Lowe's website, the compressor draws 12 amps which works out to a 1320 watt requirement at 110vac. That makes the 2000 watt inverter more than adequate for the job.

My question, is whether it would be ok to run the inverter off of the vehicle batteries (I have two), or have a couple isolated batteries in the tool box with a charge line ran to them from the trailer wiring.

Obviously, I'm doing this on a budget and would prefer to use the vehicle batteries to save money. I've looked at the Viair systems and they're pretty proud of those things!

I would relay-control the power for the inverter through the appropriate auxiliary switch in the cab to avoid un-desired drain on the vehicle's batteries. I would probably also only run the compressor when the engine is running.

Does anyone use a set-up similar to this and how well does it work? I could see myself spending around $200 on this and installing it myself.

Thoughts would be greatly appreciated.

 

You can do roughly the same thing with an air condition compressor. one side is an air intake and the other side provides compressed air. Just have to figure out how to mount it to the motor and a belt to drive it. Also since The A/C has a 12v operated clutch you could turn it on and off with a toggle switch or even have a inline pressure switch.. The older pumps work the best. I've seen one set up this way, and would built to 120 psi.

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As for the inverter running the small air compressor. Ive done it before with my inverter . I was picking up an old truck had 6 flats. So I just took an extension cord and my little compressor. Hooked it all up, and let it run until tires were pumped up. I ran it off my truck batteries but I left my truck run while I was using the compressor off the inverter.