In praise of tire pressure monitors

[WDavidG]

Encountered heavy traffic, traffic delays and construction complications as we travelled north through Montreal a few days ago on our way to Aiguebelle Nat'l park. Just north of the city we hopped off I-15 for supplies. Shortly after completing our shopping our tire pressure monitor sounded an alarm. Turned out a trailer tire had developed a valve stem leak. Not a blow-out situation but leaking fast enough that the tire would have been flat within 20 minutes. We were 1/4 mile from re-entering the interstate. Thanks to the TPM early alert we were on a side street and within easy reach of a large parking lot to change the tire. Without it we would have been on a very busy interstate with construction barriers along the margins and with who knows what unhappy results when the tire damage became seriously apparent. Given the potential consequences, the TPM more than paid for itself on this one occasion.

I’ll also take this opportunity to praise the brand of monitor we have on our Scamp: Truck System Technologies aka TST. Earlier this year we had some issues with the signal occasionally dropping out during a trip. After getting home on a Sunday I emailed the generic TST customer service address on their website hoping I might get a reply during normal working hours the following week. In fact I had a reply within the hour asking for more information. After several email exchanges late Sunday, the representative diagnosed the problem and on Monday fed-exed, at their expense, a component to solve the situation. Truly impressive customer service!

And a final note regarding the occasionally discussed forum topic of wheel balancing. The two on our trailer are balanced but I foolishly neglected to balance the spare. After a couple hours driving with the spare (on relatively good roads) multiple items in the Scamp had shaken loose - items that had not previously been problematic.

[gordon2]

I agree with you.

But one thing, if you are using stem mounted sensors on rubber stems then (in my opinion) the sensors might have actually contributed to the failure that you experienced. I suggest metal valve stems.

As for TST, yes they do support their product. I assume the item they sent is the repeater. I believe they now include it in all the kits. My TST system seems to work fine without the repeater but as I described in the linked thread, if you lost the signal it could be 52 minutes until you know it. The repeater sounds like a good idea.

[HawkBoler72]

Hi Dave,
Glad to here that the TPMS helped.

A general question: did you notice how much the tire pressure changes during a summer trip?
I noticed it could change 5 PSI just within 3 or 4 hours of driving.

Thank you!
Eric

[gordon2]

Originally Posted by HawkBoler72

Hi Dave,
Glad to here that the TPMS helped.

A general question: did you notice how much the tire pressure changes during a summer trip?
I noticed it could change 5 PSI just within 3 or 4 hours of driving.

Thank you!
Eric

5 PSI is pretty much the average increase I see (+/-). Its perfectly normal as long as its an increase from the initial cold inflation value, and not a decrease.

[WDavidG]

Gordon: I agree regarding metal stems - worth the extra couple dollars. I also give the monitors to the tire folks so they can balance with the monitors on.



Eric: 5-7 pounds increase while driving is not unusual in our experience. Especially in the fall when there can be a big delta between morning and afternoon air temps.

[HawkBoler72]

Thank you for your confirmation: Gordon and David.

Without a TPMS, we may never know the numbers. I have two neighbors both have a 5th wheel but without TPMS, they were kind of surprised when I told them this kind of change.

[stude]

we run them on all 6 tires on MH and all 4 on toad and they tell us right where the air pressures should be. made our last trip tolerable re some of the roads were questionable.
stude