David Wilson, director and lead instructor at Adventure 4WD has been a 4WD trainer since a time before the internet. He lives and breathes life off the beaten track and is passionate about sharing his knowledge. We want to help Dave spread the word, so every Wednesday; Toyo Tires will be sharing one of his snack sized 4WD tyre tips.
What goes down, must come up.
Letting air out of tyres when you get off-road is part and parcel of 4WDing. When you inevitably get back to the road though, reinflation can be a little trickier.
You’re pretty unlikely to encounter a perfectly positioned servo at the end of every adventure, so you may need to take things into your own hands.
In concert with that flash tyre pressure gauge you bought earlier, you’ll also need a 12V compressor for inflation duties. If the unit is going to live in the one vehicle permanently, you can mount it up in an accessible place and hard-wire it directly to the battery; just make sure you run about six metres of air-line so you can get to every individual wheel.
A word of warning - don’t get suckered into buying a cheapie. Plastic bodies and innards get hot and bothered and they will fail you at critical moments. I’ve waited while cheapies have taken 45 minutes to pump up one tyre and got so hot they’d scald you upon touch.
Get something with some grunt, that doesn’t get hot and bothered. My double-motored compressor powers through inflation duties, try under 30 seconds to pump my Open Country A/TII’s from 18psi back to 30psi, that’s a blinder!
