Viair Question

[Jopopsy]

Assuming you are plugged into shore power, do you guys use the trailer or motorhome house battery to run these things? Or do you guys fire up your tow vehicle or chassis engine and run the Viair off the tow vehicle/chassis battery?

I always wondered if the Viair can safely run off the trailer or coach battery assuming you're plugged in. It would certainly be more convenient and quieter to not have to fire up the engine.

Thanks !

[MikeThompson]

I run mine off the coach batteries. Always works fine.

[Jopopsy]

I figured whichever battery you're running off of needs to be charging, be it the Progressive Dynamics off the house or the alternator off the chassis/TV. Otherwise it would seem you'd run a risk of running the battery too low too fast, right?

It just seems a pain to have to turn over the engine to run the Viair.

[Jopopsy]

Anybody else run theirs off the house battery?

[TCNashville]

I have a travel trailer and have often wondered he same thing. Since my camper is plugged into the pedestal and my converter is charging/maintaining the battery, would the converter provide enough recharge after running the Viair. I doubt the converter would be charging as much as my alternator while using the Viair. Maybe I'll give it a try and see, that is if I can even go camping this summer.

[Jagiven]

I have a tt. I'll run my compressor while plugged in or not (house battery). If I am extended boondocking, I prefer run off the TV battery, typically while running.

[SloPoke]

Originally Posted by Jopopsy

Assuming you are plugged into shore power, do you guys use the trailer or motorhome house battery to run these things? Or do you guys fire up your tow vehicle or chassis engine and run the Viair off the tow vehicle/chassis battery?

I always wondered if the Viair can safely run off the trailer or coach battery assuming you're plugged in. It would certainly be more convenient and quieter to not have to fire up the engine.

Thanks !

I have a continuious duty Viar unit on our FJC, and it draws around 10-25A of power at 12V, depending on where in the pressure cycle it is running. We always run our vehicle that is powering the compressor. Consider the same when you are connecting it to the power source of what you are inflating. VIAR is an excellent product and works very well when it has plenty of electricity to run them.

Originally Posted by Jopopsy

I figured whichever battery you're running off of needs to be charging, be it the Progressive Dynamics off the house or the alternator off the chassis/TV. Otherwise it would seem you'd run a risk of running the battery too low too fast, right?

It just seems a pain to have to turn over the engine to run the Viair.

If you have enough air hose... it may not matter.
Either way... they draw a good amount of power (about the same as Leveling Systems) and they can draw down a charged battery... If you wish to keep that battery charged, you need to either run the genny, shore power or Chassis engine.

[RetiredOne]

Originally Posted by Jopopsy

Anybody else run theirs off the house battery?

I ran a similar compressor off my two house batteries, it was fine and didn't pull that much down on the batteries.

[Screwby]

I’ve run mine off my camper several times but I also have a large battery bank. I’ve also ran it on my vehicles without starting them though when topping off tires. It may pull a lot of amps but it’s not like your running it for an hour straight unless something is seriously wrong. I can’t imagine a scenario where you drain a TT battery running a Viair unless you got a tiny battery and your airing up some serious items

[Pickledill]

I guess it comes down to amount of time you need to run it to accomplish task. I have no problem inflating a low tire or two off of house batteries. Duty cyle is the key you can pull significant amperage for short durations and it does not equate to large amp/hr. draw.

[CAG]

As I recall the instructions say to start the vehicle when running it. Probably because of the 10-25 amp draw. Last air up I forgot to start the vehicle and when I remembered and started the Jeep there was a noticeable up-tick in the pumps motor. I would be inclined to run it off of a vehicle battery where I could start the engine. If you run it off of the house battery and have other, high amp items running it might pop the breaker or worse.

[SloPoke]

When we are using ours... it's to air up our tires from 12PSI to 36PSI when we get off the trail and back on the highway. It is mounted permanently on our Toyota with a #10 cable coming from the Aux Battery with a 2.5gal tank.

It's not uncommon for us to air up other rigs tires, sometimes 12 tires, some are 37's that take a lot of air too. Having the charging circuit running also helps keep the compressor running at full capacity, (14.2v vs 12.5v under load) and that cuts down the time we are waiting to get aired up.

[Jopopsy]

So it sounds like turning over the E450 to air up the tires is the way to go. I usually air up at sundown if I’m expecting to be on the road in the early AM. I just don’t like spinning up the chassis motor and then shutting it down after a few minutes - I guess in this case I’ll have to.

[RetiredOne]

Originally Posted by Jopopsy

So it sounds like turning over the E450 to air up the tires is the way to go. I usually air up at sundown if I’m expecting to be on the road in the early AM. I just don’t like spinning up the chassis motor and then shutting it down after a few minutes - I guess in this case I’ll have to.

If you're just topping off, I don't think you need to run the engine. The pump won't be running that long. Plus, running the V10 for 5 or 10 minutes won't be an issue for it.

In other news, I topped my tires off last week, after sitting all Winter. I was amazed that they only lost a couple of pounds sitting all that time.

[Cavie]

Originally Posted by Jopopsy

Assuming you are plugged into shore power, do you guys use the trailer or motorhome house battery to run these things? Or do you guys fire up your tow vehicle or chassis engine and run the Viair off the tow vehicle/chassis battery?

I always wondered if the Viair can safely run off the trailer or coach battery assuming you're plugged in. It would certainly be more convenient and quieter to not have to fire up the engine.

Thanks !

A battery is a battery. Doesn't mater which you use. But why would you use the chassis battery? or have to start a motor? The converter in the house will take care of the compressor voltage. The compressor is not going to run very long.

[SloPoke]

Originally Posted by Jopopsy

So it sounds like turning over the E450 to air up the tires is the way to go. I usually air up at sundown if I’m expecting to be on the road in the early AM. I just don’t like spinning up the chassis motor and then shutting it down after a few minutes - I guess in this case I’ll have to.

If you are airing up your Jeep tires after a day of wheeling - and need them to be at highway pressure for the trip behind your MH, you want them at full pressure!

We only air back up to the mid 30's for the road back to camp (sometimes 5-25 miles away) so we are not rolling on pavement at 50-MPH on tires with only 12-PSI. Sometimes, depending on how far we have to get back to camp, I might only air up to 25-PSI if the distance is short and we are planning on wheeling the next day. We rarely air up the tires to full pressure unless we are taking the Toyota on a higher speed highway as we always tow our FJ on the trailer. Sometimes the Toyota goes on the trailer with tires aired down too...

So if you are airing up for the next day travels, and your Motorhome is still hooked up to Utility power - use the House Batteries - as long as your charging system is up and connected.

[LuckyDuck]

I have the relatively small Viair 88p and use it top top off TT and TV tires on trips. I’ve always hooked it up to a battery in the truck with the engine running, after seeing this in the manual:

OPERATING INSTRUCTIONS:
IMPORTANT: Engine MUST be running while using this compressor.

May not be necessary, but it’s easy enough to do.