Product Review: Tire Inflator

I promise that I will put up my Sunday story, but first I want to rave about two little items I added to my arsenal this summer and got to use this past weekend.

Item 1:

Have you ever tried getting air at a gas station for your trailer tires? I don't know if it is just this area or my lack of trailer maneuvering skills, but it is next to impossible. Either the station doesn't offer it or has it crammed into the back corner where I couldn't possibly fit with the truck and 2 horse. I know every station between the barn and the trails I frequent and have eye balled them all looking for easy access.

Why?

Because the back right tire on the trailer has slowly been leaking its life blood over the summer. I last filled it up prior to Biltmore in July and the pressure gauge read 10 psi when it should read 30. Ooops. Since then I noticed it slowly getting lower and lower and have tried on numerous occasions to swing by a gas station to fill it, but just can't get in. We do own a large air compressor at the house, but getting the trailer to the house isn't ever really going to happen and it is just too heavy for me to get to the barn.

Enter this:

I spied this while spending an eternity at Sears waiting for my van to get new tires before our trip up north last month. There were several different versions ranging from $20-100 and we grabbed the $20 version.

On the right hand side you see the power cord which goes into the plug in your car (you know - where the cigarette lighter used to be). I can't remember off hand how long the cord is, but it is plenty long to fill the tires on your own car. The center is the actual machine with a regular pressure gauge. The fancier ones had digital read outs, but they also needed power to work the gauge which this one doesn't. Then on the left is the air hose that attaches to the tire. It came with a normal attachment for vehicle tires as well as ones for bike tires and balls.

It is very simple to work: just plug into the car, turn on car, plug into tire, turn on machine and watch as it fills your tire back up. Working with the trailer, the cords are not long enough to hook the truck up, but I planned for that and just pulled the truck up beside the trailer. It filled all 4 tires without a problem and without draining the truck battery.

PROS:
Super compact: easy to store in the truck or trailer.
Light weight
It works! It was a little slow and noisy, but all 4 trailer tires were filled and ready to go in short order.
It didn't drain my truck battery even filling 4 tires (one of which was extremely low)

CONS:
Can't hook truck and trailer up and have it reach. This may seem silly, but think about being stranded along the road or at a gas station and having to unload the horses, unhook the trailer, and then fill them up.
Noisy

All in all it was a great purchase to have and it worked super well. Much faster than I expected being so small and using the car battery. I like having it on hand in case I show up and the trailer has a flat. I can see using it at the barn, at a ride camp while Gem is in her paddock, or even at a trail head while Gem is tied to the trailer (once she gets used to the noise). The only situation where I don't think it is usable would be once in transit.

I highly recommend getting one to have on hand. It really was so simple to use and I wished I had it earlier this summer.