Which tire pressure guage to believe?

[Meadowlark]

Hello,



Before I ever pull my Casita anywhere, I check the tire pressure on both the camper and the tow vehicle.


I have a 'extended' tire gauge from Camping World/Sams club. By extended I mean it has an extra long 'neck', the gauge having been designed for dual tires (I guess.). it's about ten or twelve years old. I like it because one, it's 'portable' and two, I'm old and my eyes need help, these days, and the Sams club guage has numbers large enough for me to read.



I use a 'pancake' air compressor to fill tires. It has a good length of rubber hose ending in a squeeze trigger with a pressure dial and a short length of hose ending in the chuck (?). The dial on that is in teeny little numbers and I need to wear reading glasses to read them.


The other day I noticed that the Camping World/Sams Club gauge was reading a lower pressure on the tires (Maxxis 8008 E) than the compressor's dial. For instance, on the air compressor gauge I got a reading of 75 pounds on both of the mounted tires.



The Sams Club gauge read 60 pounds on the road side tire and 70 pounds on the shoulder side tire. In all cases I had the chuck properly seated on the valve.

Which one do I believe?

[Darwin Maring]

The gauge on the compressor is reading the pressure i side the air tank. The tire gauge is measuring the pressure inside the tire.

[cpaharley2008]

Originally Posted by Darwin Maring

The gauge on the compressor is reading the pressure i side the air tank. The tire gauge is measuring the pressure inside the tire.

Yes, and one has nothing to do with the other except you need more pressure in your tank than what you already have in your tires....

[oldwave]

I have a cheap lithium battery powered air compressor I bought at lowes it’s the Kobalt brand because I have a number of their tools. It has no tank but reads the pressure of the tire directly and has a digital dial to set the desired pressure. It seems to work very well I sure it won’t last more than a few years but Ive been happy with it I also used it to vacate the water in my old escapes water lines for winterization . When I get my new Bigfoot,I’ll test it’s accuracy.

[bertherr]

The advice in this video I believe is good. If you can find a good tire shop that calibrates their own equipment to check against would be best.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZL0Y...ature=youtu.be

Bert

[Wayne Collins]

Do you mean Good Sam club? not the same as Sam's Club.

Did you say you are pumping up the Casita Tires to 75psi?
That seems to be way TOO HIGH.
Should be more like 40 - 50 psi. Check the markings on the tires.

Your hand gauge should be more accurate than the dial gauges on the air hose.

[Meadowlark]

At the risk of starting a discussion about tires rather than gauges, I have Maxxis 8008 E tires on my Casita, and the recommended tire pressure says 80 lbs.

[Meadowlark]

Thank you. Yes, it's Good Sam, not Sam's Club. I don't belong to either but I am aware there is a difference.

[Darwin Maring]

Go to Walmart and purchase a tire pressure gage exactly like the one that was pictured then set, adjust, check and go camping.

[CharlesinGA]

Many years ago now, Consumer Reports did a test of tire gauges. At the time digital ones were just being introduced so they tested two or three digital gauges and a zillion other pocket type stick gauges, and they had a dozen or so of each individual brand and type. The end result was the stick gauge was just as accurate as the digitals of the time, and the stick gauges were highly reliable and accurate, there being no real difference between them, beyond the angled or straight head and printing on the stick itself.

Charles

[Lynn Eberhardt]

Get an inexpensive hand gauge and inflate to the pressure recommended by the trailer, just as you inflate your car tires to the pressure indicated for it.

[daveandalice]

Most vehicles have a sticker in the door pillar opening listing what pressures to run the tires at, that is fine if you have the exact tires that came from the factory with the vehicle.

My Toyota Tundra came new with tires installed in the TRD "package" that call for a much different pressure than what's listed on the factory door sticker.

Likewise my trailer has Maxxis M8008 "E" rated tires that call for 80psi, they do well at 75psi.

Bottom line is I follow the pressure recommendation for the actual tires on the trailer or vehicle.

[Meadowlark]

Thanks, everyone. I bought one at O'Reilly's (a digital pen like in the video).

[Lynn Eberhardt]

It's been my experience that higher rated tires inflated to more than the trailer requires will be too firm, resulting in things bouncing out of cabinets. They do seem to be more reliable.

[Jon in AZ]

I’m confused. Tires don’t come with recommended pressures, only maximum safe cold pressures molded in the sidewall. Recommended pressures come from the vehicle manufacturers and take into account vehicle design, weight, and intended use.

There should be a sticker on your Casita.

I'm going to guess your Casita came with load range D tires with a maximum sidewall pressure of 65 psi, and the recommended pressure on the Casita sticker also says 65 psi.

80 psi means you're running load range E, one step up. That allows you to increase the pressure above 65 psi, but I don't know that you would want to go all the way to 80 psi.

[Lynn Eberhardt]

I didn't intend to cause any confusion, Jon. I agree with you. The "D" rated tires I now use, inflated to what Scamp recommends, seem to be more reliable than the original "C"s.

[redbarron55]

Go to Harbor Freight and buy one and check the pressure with it.
That is not the pressure in the tires!
Actually I bought one with the fill trigger and replaced the gauge with a good one and I use it more than any others.
I also have a Green Slime digital tire inflator that I bought for $0.75 at a garage sale and I often use it to fill tires (plugs into a cigarette lighter receptacle) and let it fill the tire to the preset pressure and it has been spot on.

[John in Santa Cruz]

Originally Posted by Meadowlark

At the risk of starting a discussion about tires rather than gauges, I have Maxxis 8008 E tires on my Casita, and the recommended tire pressure says 80 lbs.

to be clear, thats not the 'recommended' pressure, tahts the MAXIMUM TIRE PRESSURE. That would be the pressure to support the maximum load that tire supports, probably a LOT heavier than the axle weight of a Casita (safe bet is a Casita has no more than 3000 lbs on its axle, and that is split 50-50 between two tires, or 1500 lbs each). If you were to run 80 PSI, you would fidn your trailer is riding VERY harshly on rougher roads, and violently shaking up everything inside.


indeed, the 80 PSI Maxxis 8008's are rated for over double the per tire weight of the Casita. https://www.maxxis.com/us/tire/m8008-st-radial/

[John McDonald]

I have two gauges that read within 1 or 2 psi of each other and years ago I checked them with a third gauge at a discount tire store and found all three very close. So when I check pressure I use one on all tires then check one tire with the second gauge.
Almost fool proof. (Without being anal retentive!)

[JaxDan]

I gave up on the slide in and blow it out cheap gauge and purchased one at O'Reilly made by Slime (the outfit that fixed the slow leak in my lawn mower tire) It is battery powered and does need a reset for each application but is very accurate. It is in complete agreement with the monitors inside the tires. Load range C tires usually call for 50 psi where my load range D's ask for 65#.