Air Compressor - Ridge Ryder

[njclifford]

Just a heads up - besides having MaxTrax on sale at SuperCheap, the Ridge Ryder air compressor is also on sale - $75 off.

It ranked 3rd in the review done on unsealed4x4.... top was the twin ARB at $800+, but this came in third... so a great buy.

Never dropped $600+ at SuperCheap before in my life, but am nearly ready!!

[grhyso]

May be worth mentioning price, their website says $249? I have the same compressor and have been very happy with it but it is quite large. I paid roughly $175 for it and compared to the similar 4wd supacentre thumper I at least have Auswide warranty in all major cities and many regional centres.

[Jim_James]

This is worth a bump. Was going to buy one of these yesterday for $175 before the sale ended. Glad I missed it, because it's advertised to go on sale tomorrow 28/9/16 at $162 for a couple weeks.
Should be able to justify that...

http://www.supercheapauto.com.au/Product/Ridge-Ryder-Air-Compressor-12-Volt-Ultimate/299651

[vladguan]

This is worth a bump. Was going to buy one of these yesterday for $175 before the sale ended. Glad I missed it, because it's advertised to go on sale tomorrow 28/9/16 at $162 for a couple weeks.
Should be able to justify that...
http://www.supercheapauto.com.au/Pro...ltimate/299651

I was told not to get the single cylinder ones as they take a lot longer to pump up 4WD tyres.

[Jim_James]

All the performance reviews I've read of them seem to favourable, and you have to keep in mind these are a 60mm piston compressor too. While I've never used one of the larger style pumps, I always found the smaller generic 75L/min style compressors to perform adequately.

Longevity and build quality is my concern, as the last cheap air compressor (Repco branded one) I bought failed on the second tyre the first time it was ever used.

[KiwiNTPajero]

i got one over here as they rated very well in the test also mentione d above,but they are a big and heavy item.They would be nearly twice the size of some of the smaller "4wd" compressors

[grhyso]

I was told not to get the single cylinder ones as they take a lot longer to pump up 4WD tyres.

My experience is the dual piston is unnecessary, the time pumping tyres us negligible with it, it takes more time until packing and re-packing it. If I'm down at 16psi I'll start pumping up the first Tyre, then walk around and pull off all the valve caps and by the time I'm back to the first Tyre it's at the most another 15 seconds and I'm up to 36psi.

And longevity was a worry when I bought mine too, but I've had mine nearly 3 years and it hasn't missed a beat, even on our 5 week Kimberley trip where it got a solid workout sometimes multiple times a day. While I wouldn't put it on part with an ARB compressor it is significantly cheaper and I'm happy with it.

[Tuba]

If thats the case, pay $75 for the Thumper.

[dhula]

If you're able to walk into a Supa center store and pick a Thumper up I reckon go the Thumper for $75.
If you need to have it delivered it is still a pretty good deal at $95 to your door.
One of the things that put me off the RR and the Thumper was the soft bag it all comes in so I ended up with a Repco branded compressor a while back for ~$90 that comes in a hard case. Only downfall is it's a bit slower to fill all 4 tyres

EDIT; Just noticed the Best Price Guarantee line on the SCA catalog, wonder if they'd drop the price of the RR compressor to beat the Thumper

[grhyso]

If thats the case, pay $75 for the Thumper.

Yes the thumper are basically the same but there aren't 100s of stores I can walk into aus wide to grab one or chase down warranty which was a consideration when I wasn't sure of quality.

[Tuba]

Yes the thumper are basically the same but there aren't 100s of stores I can walk into aus wide to grab one or chase down warranty which was a consideration when I wasn't sure of quality.

I was going off your 'significantly cheaper' part re: ARB v SCA. At $75 ea you can buy two Thumpers and its still cheaper than SCA and you have redundancy (not that the were always that cheap). Walking into Supercheap still requires you to get there on 8 or whatever PSI.

In all honestly, Im not convinced they are the same. China is a wild place for production, looks the same means nothing. The same factory can make 50 brands look identical but internally they vary from cheap and nasty to half decent quality, to as good as any on the market. Yet all can look identical on the outside. Or they might all be the same. You wont know until you strip them and test the materials used. Getting brand new hand picked units tested prior to delivery to the test facility, and firing them up for a few minutes or 4 tyres is not a real test IMO. Run the guts off them for an hour, then fire them up again in 6 months and do 10 tyres or inflate a number of super single truck tyres and see where were at re outputs. Or run it for 1 hour once a week, for a year.