Air compressor: One tank...two motors/pumps?

[FORDification]

Like Dirty Harry once said..."A man's got to know his limitations." I know mine, and electrical-related items are something I'm not extremely knowledgeable about, so I'll defer to those who are.

I've got a large air compressor tank with no tank or pump. I've also got the remains of two smaller roll-around compressors, both of which have good motors and pumps but rusted-out tanks. I was toying around with the idea of attaching both motor/pump setups to the tank, to speed up recovery time. My question is: can both motors be safely tied into a single pressure switch, providing the motors' horsepower and amp ratings don't exceed the pressure switch's rating?

[Thunderfoot]

I think the main deal is getting the switch amp rating correct for both motors to start at the same time... It will take more amps then you would think, but I'll let Dan or someone else that works daily with higher voltage stuff fill in here...

What I have thought about doing with 2 compressors and tanks I have, and maybe something for you to think about with your setup, is to use 2 pressure switches and set them at different pressures. This way if you are just using a little bit of air once and a while you only run one of the motor/pumps, then if you are using lots of air/volume the second motor/pump will kick in. This will save on some power cost and makes each a separate circuit for wiring it up.

[chris9359]

As long as the amp rating of the pressrue switch is high enough you should be fine if you want to send me the motor sizes and what voltage you are using i can figure out how many amps it will take to start the motors. But as thunderfoot said would use two pressure switches and set one a few psi lower I guessing that most of the time you would only need to run one compressor.

[FORDification]

OK, that's kinda what I figured, but I was hoping otherwise. No problem, I guess...I'll just hook them up individually then, and setting one pressure switch a little lower is a good idea. Thanks!