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Does anyone have, or know who makes, and "manual" type air pump with enough volume and quality to reliably and efficiently pump up a auto or SUV tire ? I'm adding to my emergency road kit for an upcoming vacation. I'm buying a nice portable tire plug kit, now I need a method to pump up the tire. I've given up on 12v DC electric models because they seem to come in two camps: cheesy-slow-unreliable, and high quality-fast-very expensive. So I was thinking maybe a foot operated model, but it cannot be cheesy, it must be fairly robust and reliable with plenty of air volume per pump so I won't have to pump for three hours to inflate a tire after an emergency roadside tire plug job. A pre-compressed bottle of air would be nice, but I've never heard or seen anything like that, don't know if they even exist. That's why I'm thinking hand or foot pump with plenty of air volume. Any experience or ideas ? Lover of the US Constitution Wile E. Coyote School of DIY Disaster | ||
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| Free men do not ask permission to bear arms  |
For a manual, go to a bicycle store, or get a cigarette lighter outlet port powered electric model at Harbor Freight. A gun in the hand is worth more than ten policemen on the phone. The American Revolution was carried out by a group of gun toting religious zealots. | |||
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| Member |
I went to the auto parts place and bought a 12V model . The brand name is Slime . Damn thing works pretty well . I don't know if your going to find a manual pump that will work for what you want . | |||
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| I started with nothing, and still have most of it  |
I use a regular bicycle pump for emergencies, but it might not be for everybody. "While not every Democrat is a horse thief, every horse thief is a Democrat." HORACE GREELEY | |||
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| Member |
Good luck with a bicycle pump. You will be pumping for a LOOOOOONNNNNNG time to fill a car tire to capacity. I'd just buy an inexpensive 12V one. They work fine for the occasional emergency. | |||
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Member |
Auto and especially truck/SUV tires are high volume, low pressure, so any manual pump will be tedious. Anything manual that displaces a lot of air will require it to be large and require a ton of strength to displace that large volume. I often use a bicycle floor pump to adjust auto tire pressure. For a couple psi adjustment, it's no big deal. For a flat tire, it will require a few hundred strokes per tire. It's good exercise, so I don't mind, but it is slow. If you go the floor pump route, choose a model that has a steel - not aluminum or worse, plastic - barrel and base. Here's an example of an inexpensive yet durable model that also has a lifetime warranty through Performance. Spin Doctor Essential Floor Pump | |||
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Member |
I bought a Schwinn bicycle pump at WalMart. It has worked great for so long I don't remember when I bought it. IIRC, it was between $10 and $20. I use it to top up tire pressure on the car tires. It would be a daunting task to pump one up all the way from flat, but it could be done. ... stirred anti-clockwise. | |||
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| Dances With Tornados |
Viair 87P portable air compressor. $45.98 at Amazon. I have one. It's awesome for a 12 volt compressor. | |||
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Nosce te ipsum |
I once pumped, I swear, 30 minutes with a small lightweight bike pump to fill a completely flat spare on an El Camino. But it worked. Bet a stand-up bike pump would have done the job in 10 minutes. | |||
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| Woke up today.. Great day! |
+1 on this brand. | |||
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| Member |
Why not get a small portable air tank, fill it to 120 psi or whatever its max is and haul that around in the trunk? A lot quicker if you ever need it and you won't require biceps like the Incredible Hulk! | |||
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| california tumbles into the sea |
I got the 74P. Works great. | |||
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Member |
I have a fancy, expensive Lezyne bicycle floor pump. I used it to air up a Suburban tire that was low but not flat once. It took forever. It'll work if it's all you've got but I'd have a strong preference for a better option. | |||
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| Just because you can, doesn't mean you should |
What you are asking for defies the laws of physics. Efficiency isn't why it takes so long to fill the tire to operating pressure from flat.
Think of effort and volume required much like leverage. If you want more leverage, the effort goes up but you will move the object farther. To make the effort go down you'll move it less. In theory, you could use two pumps, one for first pumping the tire when not much pressure is required but more volume is then switch to a higher "leverage" pump to build to the final pressure. I don't think that's what you're looking for here. Unless someone makes a two stage manual pump this won't happen. If it were me, I'd work on having a better jack and tools to change to a spare them go to a tire shop for the repair and air. And remember to check the spare tire pressure when you check the other four. Having a flat and discovering the spare is flat or really low is discouraging too. ___________________________ Avoid buying ChiCom/CCP products whenever possible. | |||
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| Member |
A mountain bike pump would work best. It produces more volume than a road bike pump. However, having done this before, I highly suggest a 12 volt pump. If you have a medium speed leak, as when there is a screw in the tread, the tire will leak down just as fast as you can pump it up. It takes about 20 minutes to pump up a tire by hand. With an electric pump, you can fill the tire in 5 minutes or less, and drive another 20 miles until it becomes low again. -c1steve | |||
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| Member |
Yea, based on this and everything I'm hearing, I was not aware of the apparent physics of the situation. I guess that's why they have large tanks with compressors at garages for filling tires. My mistake. I did look at the Viair products though, that brand appears to be the current leader for a portable model that runs off the car battery. I'm thinking battery clips instead of cigarette lighter power connection, I'd hate to blow a cigarette lighter circuit in the middle of a long road trip. And it would take longer of course. Lover of the US Constitution Wile E. Coyote School of DIY Disaster | |||
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| Member |
A friend of mine bought an Air Hawk, cost 60 bucks, and swears by it. He found it in the As seen on TV section of his local store. I bought one myself but haven't used it yet. It's light weight, comes with a re-chargeable battery and also plugs into the car cigarette lighter outlet. Nice little package. | |||
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| Member! |
If you demand a manual pump, look up "Foot operated air pump" on amazon. Lot's of them there. It will still take forever to pump, but your leg takes a lot longer to wear out than your arms when pumping.. | |||
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Striker in waiting |
+1 for Viair. You'll hear the same thing if you take a look around off-roading forums. They know compressors since they're airing down and up constantly. They mostly use Viair. -Rob I predict that there will be many suggestions and statements about the law made here, and some of them will be spectacularly wrong. - jhe888 A=A | |||
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Member |
I got the Viair 450P. A bit pricey, but it had a few features I was after: * 100% duty cycle - designed to run continuously. doesn't have to cool down. * Clamps directly to battery. Not power port (cigarette lighter). No fuses to blow. * Very good ratings. * High volume, high pressure. I can air up my RV tires (~120PSI). I know, doesn't quite fit your requirements, but I figured I'd weigh in. Thus the metric system did not really catch on in the States, unless you count the increasing popularity of the nine-millimeter bullet. - Dave Barry "Never go through life saying 'I should have'..." - quote from the 9/11 Boatlift Story (thanks, sdy for posting it) | |||
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