Any reason to NOT mount a Viair portable as a mounted OBA?

[Herbie]

I originally bought a Viair 400p (portable) compressor. It has served me well thus far, given the relatively light use I've put it through. I don't run huge tires, so the duty cycle, etc. has been fine.

I'm now considering moving to OBA, mostly for the convenience factor of not having to dig out the portable kit (or keep it packed on "top"). I see Viair makes a 400c which looks to be the same compressor with a slightly different fit-kit (power connection different, braided line off the compressor head instead of handle with air chuck, etc.) In a perfect world, I'd swap my 400p for a 400c and get on with it, but I'm guessing that if I tried to sell the 400p, I'd lose more money than I'd spend buying the extra bits to just "convert" my 400p to a 'c'.

Other than having to dink around with the power connection and add a pressure switch and buy a tank (which I'd need to do even with the 400c), is there any reason I can't just hard-mount the 400p?

The only thing in the 400c kit that I see might be hard to replicate is that it has a remote-mount intake filter option. I'm going to see if that part is available separately from Viair...
(EDIT: It is.)

Thanks.

 

[kwill]

I have a 480C mounted under my hood and it works fine. Do you plan to run air tools? If not, there is not reason for a tank that I know of.

 

[Kmrtnsn]

I have a built in OBA, the Viair Twin, and I love it but it is just that, built in. I also have a car and two "work" vehicles cluttering the driveway. Having a portable unit would sure be handy some times and prevent me from having to do the "driveway shuffle" to get what ever other vehicle that needs air close enough to the garage compressor. If I were in your shoes I'd keep the portable for those kinds of uses and get a different compressor (recommend the Twin) for your expedition vehicle.

 

[Ducky's Dad]

Having a portable unit would sure be handy some times and prevent me from having to do the "driveway shuffle" to get what ever other vehicle that needs air close enough to the garage compressor.

Perhaps a longer hose would help. Home Depot has their 3/8"x50' poly hose on sale for Black Friday for about $19, including a blow gun and bunch of small fittings and accessories.

 

[Herbie]

I'm covered on the "driveway" air situation - I have a big shop compressor and 50' of hose on an air reel. And "extensions" I can plug into that, so I could probably air up my neighbors tires in his driveway, if it came to that. (I did once feed it out of the garage and up into a 2nd floor window so I could install wainscoting and a chair rail using my air nailer without having to use a pancake compressor inside the room.)

With a bit more searching, I've found an example or two of people hard-mounting the "portable" units, and given that all of the "accessories" are available separately (or I already have in my parts collection), I'm inclined to go ahead down this road, since I just don't need another compressor.

 

[TripLeader]

I have a Viair 450P. I think I recall seeing somewhere that the difference in the portable models and the OBA models is their abilities to withstand heat, such as being under the car hood.

 

[LR Max]

Except for use in other vehicles, mount it. Which doesn't seem like a problem for you.

 

[trailscape]

Is it the automatic model? If it's not, that's the only thing I could really see making it a challenge.

 

[Herbie]

Automatic?

I know I'll need to add a pressure switch (would need to buy that separately if I bought a 400c anyhow), so that it will cycle on/off to the correct pressures, etc.

Or are you talking about Viar's "ADA" things that come with a small tank and a mess of pressure ports?

 

[trailscape]

My bad, yeah you're fine as long as you have the pressure switch on the tank. Looks like it'll work fine if you remove the sand tray, hard mount it, plumb it to the tank and just leave the compressor switched on.

 

[PIC4GOD]

Where would you mount it? Aren't there concerns with moisture and heat? I've seen some mounting options done with it in the interior of a vehicle but I would be hesitant outside the vehicle.

 

[Herbie]

The remote inlet filter gives me some flexibility.

I have two spots in mind, one interior, one exterior. My hesitation with the interior mount is heat - it would have to be inside a trim panel that didn't circulate much air. Not a good place to put something that gets too hot to touch during normal operation...

The Astro has some out-of-the-way spots on the underbody, and one is just the right size/shape. There doesn't appear to be much difference between the compressor on the 400p vs 400c, so I think mine should be fine underneath as long as I keep it out of the muck and the filter up high.