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Advanced Air System's Power Tank

By Mike "TXJEEPER" Cohn

Power TanksOver the course of the past year, we've been long-term testing one of the coolest products on the market for four wheelers - the Power Tank from Advanced Air Systems. We've known about the Power Tank for a few years now and have always thought it was a neat idea. But not until we actually got one of our own did we realize just HOW neat it really is!

Let me back up a step and describe what the Power Tank is. At a glance, the Power Tank is simply a gas bottle with a regulator and hose on it that can then be used wherever you would normally use an air compressor. Fair enough. But the fact is, the Power Tank is a lot more than that. It is a complete system, consisting of a brand new, made in the USA, 5,10, or 15 pound air tank, a special SuperFlowTM regulator, DuraThane hose, and various other accessories. Put together, the Power Tank system is so much more than an off-the-shelf tank.

Last year, we got our hands on the original, brushed aluminum Power Tank for testing. At the beginning of this year, Advanced Air System released their new for 2001 Power Tanks in gloss black, which you see in most of the photos in this story. By the time the new black version arrived we had already decided that we were going to keep our original Power Tank as a spare.

So what do you do with a Power Tank anyway?

Air Up Your Tires
Power TankProbably the main reason you would want a Power Tank is to provide air on the trails. We all air down our tires for trail use before heading out to ensure a smoother ride and better traction. At the end of the day, of course, the converse is true; we need to air back up for the ride home. Well, what happens if you're miles from a gas station at the end of the day and your 35" tires are aired down to 8 pounds? Most-likely, when you hit the road, if you try to go near "normal" highway speeds, your tires won't balance at all and your rig wheels will start hurling you all over the road. Even if they don't, if your ride is long enough back to town, your tires can heat up and actually begin to come apart.

What most people do to prevent this is get some sort of onboard air, whether it's an air compressor or other source. The problem with air compressors, though, is that typically, they are not really designed for heavy and long-term usage. For example, we have an ARB under the hood of our Project TJ to run the front air locker. ARB will tell you that it is not wise to run their compressor for more than a few minutes at a time or the motors will burn up. We've seen it happen and nobody wants a $200+ paper weight under the hood at the end of the day. If you do cycle the ARB on and off within their specs, it can take all day to air back up. We used to use the ARB to air up the Project TJ when we had 32" tires. It took us almost a half an hour to air up from 12 pounds! Other compressors, like the Quick Air II run quicker but still can take a long time to use.

Enter the Power Tank! We are running 35x12.50's and 35x13.50's on the TJ. The Power Tank can have us aired up from 10 pounds to 30 pounds and on the road in about five minutes...literally! Now that's fast! It will surely make your friends jealous. But fear not! A 10 pound Power Tank can air up several of your friends and still have a reserve to get you back to camp and hit the trail again the next day. A 10 pound Power Tank can air up as many as twenty six 33" tires from 10 to 25 psi.

What can you do wiith a Power Tank? --->>>

 

RESOURCE
Advanced Air Systems
2214 Babson Drive
Elk Grove, CA 95758
Phone: 916-691-6806
www.powertank.com
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