Kobalt Tire Inflator Review

I received this little air compressor for Christmas. I thought it might come in handy. The usual price is around $59 at Lowes. I played around with it today and so far like it. I will start off by saying that 85% of my offroading has been at URE. There is a gas station a mile away where I can inflate my ties up again. So I did not want this for my usual tire inflation. I wanted this so when I go to other places (Brown Mountain, Richland Road, Hurricane Creek, etc.) I could air down a little.

Here is what it is. This little inflator can run off of 120V AC, or run off 12V DC plugging into the power outlet (cigarette lighter). It come with a few adapters for various other uses. It even come with room for extra valve stem caps. There is a digital pressure reader that reads as it inflates. It fastens to the valve stem so you do not have to stay there bent over. Best of all it has a target pressure setting and automatically switches off when it is reached.

I practiced with it today and here are the results. The below times were with my 255/85/16 KM2s. I was using a 20' drop cord when using the FJ AC power outlet. The shorter the cord, the less resistance, and more current you can get out of the AC outlet. I think 20' would most likely be the shortest that would still reach all four tires.

Plugging into my home power outlet:
from 20psi to 30psi - 3.5 mins.
from 30psi to 40psi - 4.5 mins.

Plugging into my FJ AC power outlet:
from 20psi to 30psi - 4 mins.
from 30psi to 40psi - 5.5 mins.

Plugging into my FJ DC power outlet (cigarette lighter):
from 20psi to 30psi - 5 mins.
from 30psi to 40psi - 6 mins.

As expected it was slow, but all in all not too bad. With the automatic pressure setting I can be doing other things as it inflates. I run my tires around 42psi. I usually air down to 22psi when playing. However all I really need is something to get me from the mid 20s to the mid 30s to get home. I can air up further there with a larger compressor.

Now the pics

Brian, looks like you got a nice helpful toy there...your right...not very fast however as you said you can be doing other things while its airing up the meats...ive seen them at lowes and have pondered them myself...keep us informed about how it works over the long run..

I should get to try it out on the trail in the next few weeks. I will report back.

I used it today to air up after Richland road. However in my haste I forgot to bring the extension cord to use the rear AC power outlet. I had to use the cigarette lighter power supply. It was very slow airing from 24psi to 36psi. Next time I will make sure I take the extension cord and see how it performs.

Used it several times now and has done well. Aired up 8 tires once in one sitting. I also use it when I get back from uwharrie to fine tune the tire pressure while I am cleaning the interior. It's not fast, but no other complaints.

That looks like a good rig. I am running a slime bag compressor. It akes about 20 plus minutes to get me from 15 to 40 on all 4. What is the time for yours? Also ya'll have done uwharrie a thousand times lets get creative and explore some new turf. We have a ton of trails. I used to live in chapel hill and it took at least 2 plus hours to get to uwharrie. So one more hour and most of yall will be in asheville. So then we can get off the overbeaten path and some real trails and real new ground braking. Along with the repeated views all over the place. I just found a new super disturbing trail system fully legal. Just over the tn. border horse creek campground/ extensive trails swimming fishing etc. I only prowled about 3 miles up but absolutelt georgious.

im down for anything...

I put the times in the first post. It really depends on the power source. It is slower than your slime one, but I like the fact that I dont have to stand there with it. Automatically shuts off when it is at the desired pressure.

Not oppose to that area, but to hard to do on a weekend. Takes me 2 hours to get to Asheville plus any time to get to the trail. Most likely another hour to get to the trails. This is to hard to do in a weekend and unless I am camping (in my camper) over night. Put something together for down the road. I would love to have you show us some of the trails out there. Speaking for me only, I need more time to plan as it will be more of a trip than just a trail ride. Again, not opposed just need some planning time.

I bought one at Lowes for my trip to the beach. Have not tried it yet, but thanks for the extension cord reminder, I would have forgotten to bring that.

Make sure you at least try it at home to verify it works before you let the air out of your tires! lol.

I've used mine on a handful of trips so far and also to fine tune tires at home. Good little unit. Glad I bought it.