I just came back from an awesome trip to Anza Borrego, one of my favorite places to camp. It’s secluded, quiet, and allows me to explore some off-road areas, all without having to go too far from my home in the Los Angeles area.
While I was out there, I was thinking about all the stuff I had to pack for my trip. It was a lot, even though it was just a quick overnight excursion. But in looking at all my stuff, I wondered, what’s the most important thing in my truck for off-roading?
I came to this conclusion: an off-road air compressor is the number one recovery accessory. Why? Let’s find out!
Table of Contents
- An Off-Road Air Compressor Aids in Tire Pressure Management
- An Off-Road Air Compressor Ensures Safety
- An Off-Road Air Compressor is Vital in Emergency Situations
An Off-Road Air Compressor Aids in Tire Pressure Management
First and foremost, an off-road air compressor is critical because of its ability to manage your tire pressure.
Tire pressure has significant impacts on your rig’s on and off-road performance, not to mention its ability to safely navigate terrain and give you a pleasant driving experience. But, because sand, rocks, gravel, mud, and other off-road conditions require different tire pressures, having an off-road air compressor is an absolute necessity.
For example, decreasing your tire pressure expands the footprint of your vehicle’s tires on surfaces like sand, thereby giving the tires improved grip. This, in turn, decreases the likelihood that you will get stuck. Conversely, airing your tires up can help on rocky surfaces. Why? Because the more inflated your tires are, the better the ground clearance of your vehicle. Additionally, more tire pressure provides improved sidewall stiffness for traversing rocky areas.
An off-road air compressor like the MORRFlate TenSix PSI Pro Gen2 allows you to facilitate these adjustments to your tire pressure automatically. Simply attach the hoses to each of your tires, set the PSI you want, and the TenSix will handle the rest. This allows you to attend to other needs – checking fluids, belts, hoses, and so forth – while your air compressor takes care of your tires.Â
In fact, this off-road air compressor can air up four 35-inch tires from 10 to 40 psi in less than five minutes, thanks to its 6.5 CFM at 30 PSI output. All this in a package that’s 14 x 7 x 9 inches. You can mount this unit to your vehicle or do what I do and have it in the backseat, ready to go when I need it.
An Off-Road Air Compressor Ensures Safety
Another prime reason to have a high-quality off-road air compressor in your vehicle is to ensure you have a safe journey.
Not only does the appropriate tire pressure help improve your vehicle’s handling, but it also enhances your ability to travel safely by reducing the likelihood of tire blowouts. When a tire isn’t inflated properly, they are more likely to overheat and fail. This risk can increase when you’re in off-road situations on rough terrain. At the same time, too much air pressure can reduce traction, increase the risk of sidewall punctures, and decrease the braking performance of your vehicle.
Again, this is where an off-road air compressor proves invaluable…
With a unit like the MORRFlate TenSix PSI Pro Gen2, you can quickly and easily adjust your tire pressure to adapt to changing terrain and road conditions. You can do so whether you’re on a pullout on a highway, on a Jeep trail in the forest, or miles and miles away from the nearest road. In any situation, an off-road air compressor gives you the ability to have the best grip and stability with the lowest risk of blowouts or flats.
An Off-Road Air Compressor is Vital in Emergency Situations
The whole point of off-roading is to explore remote areas and challenging terrain. But you can’t do this unless you’re prepared for emergencies of all types.
Now, the different kinds of emergencies you might encounter when off-roading are far too numerous to discuss here, but something we can discuss is a situation like a punctured tire on the trail. With an off-road air compressor, you can safely inflate the punctured tire after you’ve patched and repaired it, allowing you to get back on the trail and do so safely.
Not only that, as I mentioned earlier, when you find yourself in a situation in which more traction is needed (like mud or sand), a compressor like the MORRFlate TenSix Pro helps you do so quickly and easily. Then, once you’re through the sand or mud, you can just as easily air your tires back up.
This scenario actually brings me to an interesting situation I encountered as I was leaving Anza Borrego…
I happened upon some folks who were airing up a tire with a manual pump. If you’ve ever aired a tire up with a manual pump, you know how time intensive and exhausting it is. I stopped and asked if they needed help, and they told me that their air compressor had died. They were able to deflate their tires for their off-road excursion, but upon trying to reinflate them, the dang thing didn’t work!
I happily helped them air up using my MORRFlate TenSix. As it was doing its thing, we discussed where they’d been exploring, what I’d been doing, and so forth. But the conversation turned to the air compressor, which they found to be impressive given its ability to air up four tires in just a few minutes.
But as I told them, while that’s impressive, what I find even more impressive is the TenSix’s 80 percent duty cycle. That means it only needs 10 minutes of rest for every 45 minutes of work. As quickly as this thing does its job, that works out to airing up the tires on six to eight vehicles back to back. So, airing their tires up and then airing my own tires up was no problem at all!
That means that if I’m convoying with friends and multiple vehicles get stuck, have a blowout, or simply need to air up or down, this single air compressor can get the job done. Not only does that mean that you can help a lot of folks in an emergency or challenging situation, but it also gives you peace of mind that it has your back over and over and over again for your own inflating and deflating needs. And you can do so with a mean, green machine that is easy for everyone to see, even at dusk!
Sure, you need good tires, a capable vehicle, recovery boards, and a whole lot of other gear to go off-roading, but for me, a rock-solid off-road air compressor is the central component for off-roading success. After all, you can’t use your awesome tires or truck or other gear without properly inflated tires!
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