Free Air?

So, this might be an impossibility but as I was driving today i saw a car pull into the free air station at a gas station and i thought, hey what if i could fill up my tank like that?... well the problem could be that the pressure wouldn't match or wouldn't be safe to do. I have no idea because I know nothing about either the pressure output of those tanks or of how much a certain psi tank can withstand. The final and last part of the equation would be creating a fitting to go on the nozzle for tires, that would fit a tank. I would assume that you could probably just modify something or just build it.

what do yall think? is it do-able? if not.. why and how could you make it work.

does it have to do with cars only having like 36 psi (is it measured in psi?)
and the tanks having pressures in the thousands?

Most small compressors I've seen in automotive shops, like the kind that power impact wrenches and air fill stations are only good to somewhere about 150-300 psi, as not that much is needed to power an impact wrench, and much less than that is needed to properly inflate a tire.

Paintball tanks are rated for anywhere between 3000 and 5000 psi from what I have seen, and guns need at least 850 to operate correctly, if I understand some of the other posts.

THAT is why a air fill station won't work.  Now, a dive shop, or a welding shop, they tend to have high pressure compressors, and Co2 supplies.

oh... well i'm still glad i asked

StormyKnight wrote: Yeah, if this was the case, eveyone playing with HPA would just get a cheap $99 compressor to fill their tanks.  You need something along the lines of a $2500+ compressor to fill HPA.

just the other day i seen some dude with his hpa tank go to the gas station and asked the gas bar guy if he can fill it up there lol

The Guy wrote: you could have searched

but i had all these cool guys to fill me in ;)

t_hop wrote: but i had all these cool guys to fill me in ;)

lol no pun intended.

Edited by kurieitaa - 10 May 2008 at 1:30am