DeepSouthS10
+1y
Fester hit it on the head. I used to only run the bottle and it only took one time of almost running out of air for me to go get a back up compressor lol. The pros and cons of bottles vs compressors is pretty simple. Pro for bottle is it is a quick, constant supply of nitrogen. However you have a limited supply and you also have a big ugly bulky bottle in your bed. More often then not, you have to swap your bottles out, so usually having a painted bottle is kinda out of the question unless you find a place that will fill it on the spot. I suppose you could get a bottle cover, but i have always thought they looked cheap. Maybe thats just me though. Also, on top of having to buy the 99 year lease on the bottle (not sure how much that costs now), you also have to pay everytime it gets filled, which can be pricey depending on how much you use it. Pro for the compressors is it is essentially an unlimited supply of air for a one time fee. Done correctly with water traps etc, you can run a compressor with zero problems for years. The con is that they are slow and obviously carry the possibility for mechanical failure. One way to alleviate the problem slower tank filling though is to go with an engine driven compressor. They can fill your your tank up to as much as 200 psi (or whatever your tank is rated for) in about a minute or less. It boils down to this, as mentioned above, if you are gonna use a bottle you need a back up compressor. If you run only a compressor, get an engine driven one. As a sidenote, I had access to my air tank so I put a screw in valve stem in one of the ports, so if my compressor crapped out i still had a way to put air in the tank and lift the truck to at least get where i am going. Just an idea, it came in handy a couple times and it only cost like 5 bucks.