My daughters just bought a new Forrester with black carpets that show every grain of sand, so I bought her a portable Vacuum cleaner.
Then an enhancement idea, cut the head off an old kite pump and screw it to the back. It pumps her little kite in three minutes, maybe 5 for a 12m. It need a few pumps by hand at the end to build the pressure.
You can buy the unit for less than $100, then an hours work and a bit of glue and tape. By streching your lines whilst you pump you can save 3 minutes every time you go out. How many hours extra sailing by the end of the season?
They have proper units with two stage pumps. One high speed and the second stage to take it up to rock hard so there is no extra pumping required. The problem with using one stage is it will either take a long time, burn out the motor quickly or require pumping to get it to full hardness.
I honestly don't think it will save you anytime at all.
I did it a few times with the compressor in my car it is reasonably quick ( not really any quicker than pumping )but you end up standing there holding the kite while it pumps.
Unless you have something you can tether your kite too attach pump set and forget style with a psi cut off.
i find that if i connect one terminal to each ear and apply sufficient voltage, i've pumped up the kite before i realise it
... truth be known, were sick of our pumps sh!ting themselves. Most of the new pumps that a few of us got with our new North Rebel 2011's have crapped out so the electric pump seems to be the next step for us. Oh, and I'm not north bashing, its all brands that are sh!tting out all to soon!
Still, not pumping by hand is oh so gunna be fun!
I have been thinking about getting a 12v island inflatable pump. Has anyone had any of these die yet?