ARB compressor and SwitchPro install

[Socalboarder]

After much sitting on the idea for too long, I finally ponied up the cash and purchased an ARB twin air compressor. I’ve toyed with the idea of getting a less expensive portable unit that clips on to the truck battery for some time now.

I’ve read posts from individuals who like their portable units, as they can just grab the compressor and not the truck. They can use the portable on anyone’s truck, or car or whatever vehicle they have. In all my time I have never been in the situation where I thought, “Man! Wish I had a portable air compressor for you to use.” Realistically, I’ll use the compressor for my truck 95% of the time. The other 5%, well that’s what longer hoses are for, i.e. a buddy’s truck if they don’t have a compressor.

Ultimately I went with a permanent mount, and will add a 5 gal tank in the future. The ARB twin supplies 6.16 CFM at no load and 4.65 at 29 psi per ARB, and is 100% duty cycle.

After I got the compressor, first step was to figure out where to mount it. Lots of ideas on the interwebs. Most mount it in the engine bay or under a seat. If I could find a spot in the engine bay I would have thought of mounting it there. As for under seat option, access to the air connection and having the compressor noise while in cab ruled that out.

As I stated earlier, I will be adding a tank in the future, but wanted to be able to run a hose directly from the compressor now. I decided on a bed mount.
There is a company that makes a universal mounting bracket for the compressor. That fits perfectly between the wheel well and rear of the bed, over the upper recess in the side.

Unlike most of my other projects, I only took pictures after the install was complete, so I’ll do a quick description of each step I took.

Starting up front, I installed a 100 amp 185 series blue seas systems circuit breaker. It fits perfectly on the fuse box, with hole drilled the where you can still see the legend underneath.

I ran 4AWG welding cable, red and black from the engine bay to my bed via liquid tight electrical conduit from any of the DIY home repair stores. I wanted better protection than the cable insulation or the light weight corrugated wire covering.

In the bed of the truck, I mounted an 8 inch electrical box from the same DIY home store. I had seen so many awesome looking mounting plates/brackets for JEEPS or Tacos. Makes you wish you had one, but then your like, um no, my PW is the bee’s knees. The though only crossed my mind due to the fact that they make everything you can think of for install on those two.

This is where I also mounted my Switch Pros that I bought over a year ago and hadn’t got anything after that until now.----the Switch Pros is awesome by the way.
I ran the positive to the switch pros unit, and the negative to a Blue Seas common busbar. Now I have a power source in the bed of the truck. I’ll also install a dual battery setup in the bed at some point as well. I connected all my leads from the switch pros to a Blue Seas terminal block. Makes for super easy install of future switched accessories.

The 2 power leads from the compressor run to the box, as well as the 2 ground wires. For the switch, just connect the black and purple wires to the busbar and respective switch on the terminal block.

As for the location of the switch pros switches.

I ran the cable above the headliner and out the rear of the cab behind the driver side rear seat (yes I drilled a hole, and used a 1/2” rubber grommet)

Back up front, I ran the blue wire for the switch pros harness to an add-a-fuse at M7.

The yellow wire from the switch pros goes to the white/green stripe wire off the side marker light, driver’s side. I ran red and black wires for the acc and light wire as seen in the box.

Well that’s the basics of the install. Pretty simple. I’m no electrician, but I think I did a damn good job running the wires/cables.
Once I get a chance I’ll post inflation times for my 37” X3s.

[TwinStick]

[laramieskibum]

Nice


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[zigsrig]

Did you use the M.O.R.E. mount?

I was thinking about putting mine in the same spot, only inside the cavity between the bed wall and the outside of the bed to keep it out of my usable bed space.

Nice install!

[Colibri]

Nice write up sir, I really like the clean install of the switch panel.

[Socalboarder]

Yes, I used the mount from M.O.R.E. Its real solid. I had to mount the compressor to the mounting bracket first, then mount the bracket to the side of the bed. Getting behind the bed wall was a real pain in the butt. The rear most top nut was damn near impossible to get on, but with some bruising of the arm, I was able to reach all the way back there. For the guys who have not taken the fender well shrouds off before--its super easy. I think getting them back in is easier than removal. For the rear, there is actually 2 shrouds, the main one you think of, and another smaller one on the rear of the wheel well. I imagine its to help strengthen the rear against all the mud coming off the tire.

[ramv]

cool

[dienster]

Nice looking install.

I was looking into the switch pro because of this thread and what I found has a 30A max on one doubled circuit and the rest are 18A. I assume you are controlling the air compressor with it. One similar ARB air compressor model I found pulls up to 56A. You may be fine airing tires but if you put a tank on and it pressurizes to 125/150 psi, it could overload. I'd add a properly rated relay controlled by the switch pro output to do the high current switching instead of the switch pro.

[Socalboarder]

So there are 2 parts the the wiring harness.
The top is the power harness and the bottom is the switch harness

The compressor has two hots coming from it, one from each motor(they don't call it a twin for no reason).
Each one of those has a 40 amp fuse.

The 56 amps under max load is actually 28 amps on each motor(twin motors equals 56 amps total).

If you look close, you'll see the two hots connect to the Switch Pros battery connection. The 2 grounds go to the common bus connected to the negative side of the battery.

So the Switch Pros module only controls the switch harness, which pulls like nothing.

[dienster]

So the ARB basically comes with its own relay built in. That's good to know.

[Shaved Ice]

Very nice. Thanks for posting install pics. Now I am wondering how much space I would lose installing one of these in my Rambox.

[olyelr]

Very nice. Thanks for posting install pics. Now I am wondering how much space I would lose installing one of these in my Rambox.

When I get around to it, I think that is where mine is going. Wont loose too much space IMO, and it should be a pretty dang good spot for it.