Air tyre inflators - why so high psi

[taylormj4]

Looking for a tyre inflator to go with my air compressor. Car tyres usually only go up to around 40psi, so why do all the inflators on the market go up to around 220psi or 200psi. With these scales, you're only using a tiny proportion of the scale so accuracy is going to be down. On the TVR, tyre pressures are only 22 psi (fronts) and 1 or 2 psi can make quite a difference to the handling. I wonder what the accuracy of the gauge is when it goes up to 220psi.

Haven't found one with a smaller range yet.

[Impasse]

I use one of these.

[swisstoni]

I've just invested in something very similar. I was getting fed up with stuff that just doesn't work.

[dlockhart]

a lot of foot pumps fall apart should they be exposed to the kind of pressure that the gauge indicates. I have road bicycle which is best pumped up to over 120psi (max 150 I think) but the car foot pumps cant take the pressure that high, which makes the gauges pointless.

[MDMA .]

get any inflator then a separate dial gauge that you can double check the psi on.

I have a snap-on one which is very accurate for double checking afterwards.

Edited by MDMA . on Monday 8th February 11:19

[taylormj4]

Good suggestions, thanks

[jayemm89]

I know some bicycle tyres are the best part of 200psi

[GC8]

As suggested; over-inflate using the gauge on the adapter as a rough guide then correct using an accurate gauge.

Whilst I dont fully agree with the OP, because a pressure gauge up to 65psi is useful, I agree with his general point - why have a 0-200+PSI scale when most compressors struggle to inflate to 100PSI?

[PhillipM]

Most of the cheap ones will do 100-120psi okay. As said, mainly for bike tyres.

[GC8]

I'm not sure: I've seen large commercial compressors struggle to get more than 100PSI into a lorry tyre.