FJ Cruisers of Northern California
My switch to CO2
Over Memorial Day weekend I got kind of disappointed with the time it took my air compressor to air up my stock BFG tires from 18 psi to anywhere near street pressures so I decided to take the plunge so to speak into a CO2 set-up. I went with the 15 lb PolyPerformance kit and received a 2 year old tank, not bad. New regulator and coil hose and tire chuck with a lock, nice feature. I also ordered a second spare tank from JTC Valve Sales from Amazon, their tank was a 2016 tank. I got the first tank filled at River City Fire Equipment in West Sacramento for $22 for 151/2lbs. I weighed the tank empty and full in order to get the 151/2 lbs info. RCFE recommend weighing the tanks for contents as a pressure gauge is temperature dependent. I ran a test today in my garage with cold tires. I used my Staun deflators to get all four tires to 18psi. I hooked up the coil hose with ptfe tape to the regulator ( fixed 150 psi output) and got my stopwatch out and ran some tests. The first tire I charged for one minute 10 seconds and got 65 psi! Oops. Next tires I ran about 45 seconds and got between 45 and 50 psi. I don't have a tire gauge on the tire chuck so I had to guess then disconnect and use my separate tire gauge. I may see about a gauge built in to the tire chuck, but not essential. Interesting that even with an over-inflation or two, I used 2.9 lbs of CO2 after re-weighing the tank. In other words, a 15lb tank ought to inflate 24 tires to 48lbs each, or 5 trips off road. It is also possible to run air tools if necessary, i.e. for wheel changes, the tank runs impact wrenches etc easily. I changed a wheel out and used 1lb of CO2 with my 1/2 inch impact. I think I will keep the tank strapped down in the vehicle for runs and mounted on the wall in my garage in the supplied cool hanger bracket it came with when I am not on the trails. ps, not shown in the pic is the regulator.
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Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Yose FJ (David) on
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Sweet. Nice testing too. If I could squeeze in more than 1or 2 runs a year I'd certainly look at doing this too.
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Permalink Reply by JagyPNF on
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Steve, long time no talk. I'm currently living in Dubai. Last month I picked up a used '08 black FJ. I got the ARB compressor pack in the pelican case. It was very pricey but when winter comes around I'll be using it a lot when I go on dune runs. I was able to pump my BFG ATs in 1 min from 15psi. I have thought about going with nitrogen in my tires here because of the heat difference we get through out the year but I went with normal air.
How are with with you? How's your son? You guys still going on lots of adventures? I'll upload a picture of black beauty to show you.
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Here you go!
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image.jpeg, 1.8 MB
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Permalink Reply by Steve Hope on
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Good to hear from you Paul, nice ride. Ill send more soon on a private chat. Take Care, bro.
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Check your inbox Paul I sent a few things. Take Care Bro.
Steve.
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And to elaborate as a field test today. We drove a few fire trails off MET and the results for airing up are good. First 3 tires 45 seconds 18 psi to 48psi.
The fourth I think there was a little frosting at the hose and it slowed the last tire down to 65 seconds to 48psi. Yeah, a whole 20 seconds more!!!
Man, thats nothing compared to my little Viair 12V compressor, and I had to leave the engine running so the alternator could keep a charge going while the compressor sucked at the battery!. those days are over. Love the CO2.
Of course, the tires where hot, so I will verify pressure tomorrow and post here if drastically different.
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So not drastically different, 10% different. When I aired up HOT to 48psi it was really 44psi cold.
It was good enough to re-set the dash light and safe enough pressure to drive an hour home at freeway speed with no overheating of the tires.
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