so which air compressor would be the best to get, both in size and reasonable cost? is a portable compressor better to have than a mounted one? ARB and Warn are the two most popular types among others that i have come across and still have no idea as to which performs the best. any suggestions are welcome! thanks

 

It's a little bit of a vague question... Give us some more info... What are you ideally looking to use said air compressor for? Air suspension? Air horns? Tools? Or just tires?

 

Have you thought about where you plan to put the compressor? What about the tank?

 

I'm looking to use it just for tires, nothing else. I know theres room under the hood for a smaller tankless unit but is there any advantage to having a tank when just using it for tires? and would a portable last longer being that its in a case when not in use? thanks

 

I kinda know where you are coming from.
I had a onboard ARB compressor and a small tank strapped to the under side of my old truck.
I had fittings for an air hose at both the front and back and I used it for tires and an occasional air tool. It was a cool system, but lots of money for parts and labor.
Was it worth it, maybe.
I now have a portable dual cylinder compressor and it works great for the tires.
It is reliable and fast in inflating 33" tires from 15 LBS to street pressure in minutes
I did install and electrical PTO on the front of my current H3 truck, directly to the battery, which is dedicated to the air compressor. This beast draws about 45 AMPS

Here is what i have
Q Industries Air Compressors

Good luck

 

The best CFM for the money. Don't go by cost or brand name. Go by CFM's. If it can't move a lot of air in a short time, you'll be forever filling up a tire. There was a great, and cheap, little unit that was available years ago that could be bought for 24 bucks, and had a very good CFM rate. Better than some of the "trail air" models. Having a tank just means you won't have to rely on the compressor to do the actual filling at real time. It will allow the compressor to fill the tank at a given rate, will you can use more flow from the tank. Eventually though, the tank will be emptied, and the compressor will need to catch up. But you can have it putting air into the tank, while you are using it, and you may never have an issue with lag time, depending on how much air you are moving.