Vehicle-Mounted Air Compressors

Truck Mounted Air Compressors Come In All Shapes and Styles

The truck mounted air compressor business is something that is growing rapidly each day. These compressors can be the greatest investment you can make for your company and provide comfort and convenience by being installed under your hood or under your truck.

The most important aspect about adding a truck mounted air compressor to your truck is that it will allow you to have more room in your truck to carry only the most essential tools. Not having to worry about bringing a bulky air compressor or hydraulic pump with you to each job is vital.

When you install an air compressor directly to your truck, there are different ways in which it operates. Some of these compressors will operate off your engine, while others use hydraulics. Selecting the right type of air compressor for your fleet of trucks will go a long way in getting a healthy return on investment.

Things to Look for in Vehicle Air Compressors

Just like any piece of technology, there are many things that you should know about before making your air compressor purchase for your trucks. Depending on what you need these mounted compressors for will alter how powerful of a unit you need to get. These features are covered in the table below.

[table]Feature, What To Look For
CFM – Cubic Feet Per Minute, "Most compressors will come with the CFM posted on the packaging. This number tells you approximately how much air will be produced by your compressor."
Air Pressure, "In a mounted air compressors, air pressure, which can also be produced naturally, is stored in a tank and available for release and use."
Hydraulic Flow, "When you look at hydraulic flow, a perfect example would be with your brakes in a car. When you hit the brake, the flow of oil is pumped and will force the pads on your car to press on the wheel and stop moving."
Hydraulic Pressure, "The amount of pressure you get pushed out of your air compressor is the PSI, or pounds per square feet. The higher the number of PSI, the more powerful your compressor is."
Compressor Oil Capacity, "You can purchase mounted air compressors for your trucks that use oil to operate. Just like any other tool that rotates, an air compressor needs to have the same treatment you would give any other engine type tool."[/table]

Above Deck Air Compressor Options

Depending on where you plan to have your air compressors installed on your truck will alter the type of drive style. For compressors mounted above deck, you can purchase either rotary screw or reciprocating mounted compressors.

A rotary screw compressor is a gas compressor that uses two rotors to compress the gas and operate. These compressors can give you large volumes of high pressure air and are ideal for any company that used smaller compressors. They usually have two rotors that work to compress the air internally. There are no valves found on these units and they are essentially oil sealed.

A reciprocating mounted compressor is what is called a positive-displacement compressor that is driven by the crankshaft of your vehicle to give you high pressure air. At 100 PSI, these units provide 4 CFM per horsepower. The hydraulic flow of some of these models range from 13.5 to 22.5 GPM and typically run at 100 PSI.

Below Deck Air Compressor Options

Then there are compressors that you can have mounted below deck that will give you everything you need to function on the job. For those air compressors that are mounted below deck, you will find that they are driven by either rotary screws, multi-drive, generators, PTO, or hydraulics.

The rotary screw driven compressors for under the deck will work much the same as those mounted above deck. These models will typically have less CFM, pressure, flow and power than above deck models. Typical below deck models will have as much as 60 CFM.

Multi-Drive and PTO

Where you will see some change is when you look at multi-drive units, or PTO. These units have changed the way workers get power from their trucks forever.

Multi-drive compressors are the ultimate tool for workers driving trucks with mounted air compressors. Multi-drive systems usually consist of a powerful air compressor and a specific AC generator that are combined into a single unit. These systems rid you and your truck the need to have separate units for air compressors, generators, power inverters, or hydraulic pumps. These units give you the same productivity of all those different tools by giving you air, hydraulics, and AC power through a single PTO opening, and give the space in your truck back to you.

PTO stands for power take off. A shaft is usually the connection between the PTO and whatever objects are being powered and with these tools all being contained in a single unit, you can be assured that you are getting the best return on investment you could ask for.

We found this resource to be a helpful guide for comparing different air compressors.

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