Archive for December, 2005
The Bushranger Max-air Air Compressor
The Max Air Compressor by Bushranger.A lot of people will classify the Air Compressor as a luxury item on the shopping list. How wrong they can be. Adjusting the tyre pressures to suit the car’s setup and the terrain you are travelling on can avoid severe tyre damage and also provide a lot of much needed traction where required. We have had the luxury of testing a few Compressors with our understanding the ARB Compressor was the benchmark. Its old design, solid and backed up with all components being available as a spare part saw this unit to be the best around.The Maxair in comparison differs majorly by its lack of Air Tank. ARB opting to include this due to its most common use to power their Air Lockers. This doesn’t mean much for the Max air ass its massive 72 litre a minute flow rate makes up for it. The kit contains the compressor, fittings, hose and a handy bag. First impressions show the compressor to be well made and finished. The fittings look of decent quality, and the finish lacks the poor and cheap feel the chinese copies possess.Once attached to the battery by the generous length of cable supplied I was impressed to see it didn’t start automatically like the ARB. A quick flick of the switch on the compressor saw it rumble into life. Now with the lack of tank there is no need to fit a pressure switch. So the compressor runs whilst the power is on.In order to give it a decent test we thought we would hook it up to 2 dead flat 285’s off our Prado and race it against our ARB compressor. Both tyres were dead flat and on the vehicle. The max air comfortable beat the ARB compressor inflating in about ½ the time. Whilst the unit was hot to touch it was happy airing up all the tyres twice. Which is quite often the casse when going bush as your mate never seems to have a compressor.Inorder to give the Max Air the edge, we purchased a T and a Female Jamec coupling. This was fitted to the Compressor with a spare Pressure switch we had. The compressor now shut off and allows us to run air tools etc when connected to our 9 litre fire extinguisher which we use as an air tool. This simple and easily obtained tank carries enough air to run the rattle gun on all wheel nuts, and will be back up to 120PSI by the time you replace the wheel. Not a bad modification for an extra $50. 
All in all the Max Air takes the crown and Offroader’s nod as the Best Compressor on the market for performance Vs Reliability and affordability. A simple mod such as the one we did and a smaller 1 litre air tank and it will easily run Air Lockers. You could even hook it up via one of our Air Manifolds.
Apple iPod & Monster iCarPlay
Product Review – Apple iPod & Monster iCarPlayWhilst not necessarily a 4wd accessory or product, we often see people asking if an iPod is any good.Having owned 2 iPods, a 3G (that’s third generation) 20Gb model as well as a newer 4gb iPod Mini, and a recent addition of a Monster iCarPlay, I thought it [...]
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