trailer essentials review: EPAuto portable air compressor

One thing you learn pretty quickly upon buying a horse trailer is.... there are way more people in the world, let alone in your circle, who could use a trailer than actually have access to one. 

Obviously most of the time I'm trailering somewhere, it's for my own purposes. Sometimes, tho, it's for other people. Like transporting horses for friends in a pinch, or giving rides to horse shows for barn mates who might not otherwise get that opportunity.

portable air compressor in its box

Which, is exactly what I was doing a couple weeks ago when some barn mates wanted to go to Tranquility's starter trial. And I gotta say -- there's something kinda nice about just being chauffeur for the day lol. 

Like, all I have to do is show up with the rig on time at the designated meeting place. Everyone else handles all the packing and preparations necessary for a day off farm with horses -- all the hay and equipment, getting the horses brought in and fed, etc. 

portable air compressor + accessories, unboxed. A) designated tote bag; B) compressor; C) instructions; D) extra parts

Tho... I'm nice and still take care of filling all the water containers, bc let's be real: it's much easier to take the truck to the pump than having to haul 40lb jugs back and forth. So that's exactly where I was, standing there in the pre-dawn darkness, hangin out at the tailgate slowly pumping 15gal of water into our various containers. 

When.... it occurred to me that, hm, that back tire on the truck, the one with the slowest of perennially slow leaks, was looking miiiiiighty low. 

air hose screws directly onto the tire valve stem

Now, I admit to being a little.... uhm, casual about tire pressure over the years, since every barn I've kept the truck and trailer at has had a gas station with air pump basically right around the corner. Charlie's current barn actually has a legit workshop for the tractors, gators, and other farm vehicles - complete with commercial grade air compressor (that I 100% do not know how or have access to operate).

But ya know. That doesn't much matter at 6am when everyone's asleep. And it's kinda a pain in the ass to have to make that extra stop on the early show day morning, ya know what I mean? 

compressor is powered by the cigarette lighter port in your car or truck

Just at that moment, as I was quietly kicking myself for not doing a better pre-check the day before and trying to calculate how risky it would be to just roll with the tire as it was.... My barn mate Amy walked up with freshly filled nets of hay, and nonchalantly suggested I use her own portable compressor. 

easy to read digital pressure gauge

Now maybe I'm way behind the curve here, but I really didn't know anything about these little compressors. I knew that they existed, and had seen them at places like rental car offices and such... But I'd never researched them or looked into details like pricing and whatnot. 

Maybe everyone else in the world already knows they're pretty accessible, convenient and useful gadgets. Which, ok, good for you haha. This was a new experience for me, tho, and a game changer at that. Thus, sharing here today with you all lol.

compressor in action!

Bc it turns out, this little compressor is quite the workhorse! The air hose screws directly onto your tire valve stem -- unlike gas station air pumps that you have to crouch down and hold in place. The power cord plugs into the vehicle's cigarette lighter, and is long enough to reach all 4 tires. It has a digital tire gauge on it that you preset it to the desired pressure, and it automatically shuts off when it's there. 

Sure, it's kinda slow -- by nature of its small portable stature. And filling that truck tire from its, ahem, cough cough, 17psi, cough, back up to full pressure took a few minutes. Given the auto-shutoff feature, tho, you could theoretically go do other things while the pump does its thing. 

LED flash light is bright enough to see in broad daylight

The pump's buttons are all very basic and straight forward. Sure, I read the instructions up and down a few times before operating the thing, but it was all very intuitive. Plus it has this crazy bright LED flashlight that was indeed quite useful for the dim lighting that morning. 

One detail to note: the instructions are covered in warnings that the compressor can get hot, and will overheat if used for too long. I haven't encountered that issue so far, and didn't notice any warmth (let alone heat) after it filled up that tire. But it's something I'll keep in mind in instances when I'm going around all 8 tires on the truck / trailer rig. Basically, as with anything horse-related, it's best to budget enough time to get it done haha. 

instructions literally printed on a sticker directly on the compressor too

So anyway, as I was standing there waiting for the tire to fill, I decided to look the thing up online. And... turns out, these little gadgets are wayyyyyy more affordable than I would have guessed. Again, maybe you were already in the know about this, but I certainly wasn't haha. 

Which obvi meant I literally put my order in right then and there for my own, and $33.78 later the thing was headed my way via the magic that is online retail. 

neat and tidy package. A) fuse box; B) air hose held in place on body of compressor by design; C) power cord has additional vecro snap to hold it all together

Now granted, some of you out there might prefer to do your own research or comparative analysis on various brands or models of this type of tool, since I'm sure there are dozens available across a broad spectrum of prices and capabilities. 

But.... Eh. I've been friends with Amy a long time. And we've spent countless hours in the truck over the years passing the time talking about everything and anything while on the road to this or that horsey adventure. And... tbh, even without asking her, I felt pretty confident that she'd probably done her due diligence in picking this particular pump. And that there was no need to recreate that particular wheel haha. 

accessories include a spare fuse, bicycle wheel adaptor, and nozzles for using the compressor as an air gun

Which, haha, she did confirm later in conversation that yes, she had googled and researched all about which was the best value pump and all that goodness, and so this was what she bought. Good 'nuff for me lol, and so it's what I bought too. 

And now I have it and.... I gotta say, just knowing that it's there has given me a surprising degree of relief. Apparently the tangled roots of my anxieties were deeper than I realized lol. Just coping with managing the whens and wheres and hows of keeping my trailer tire pressure topped off was apparently a low grade stressor. 

all of which stores in this nice little tote 

Not any more, tho! This little portable pump has now joined the ranks of "essential kit" along with my jumper cables, tire iron, and easy-up trailer jack. Just one less thing to worry about, right? 

Have any of you also used a portable air pump like this? Am I really the last person in the world to get one (lol)?? Or maybe you had some other recent discovery in automotive or trailering-related gizmos and gadgetries that changed your life forever??