Cheetah-Fast Hippo
The Trail Head compressor is the heaviest and the hungriest of the compressors we tested. The unit weighs 40 pounds and pulled an astonishing 200 amps. On the plus side, this thing is faster than a cheetah. It took only 1 minute, 22 seconds to pass our tire test and it filled a 2-gallon air tank in less than 15 seconds—twice as fast as its nearest competitor. At $599 it’s the most expensive of the units we tested, but for that price you’ll get top speed and the ability to run air tools continuously. Imagine a shop compressor under your hood. Our test unit was a prototype, so some specs might change with production units.