Tire pressure sensors

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mercoupe50 said:
I understand the premis that when a tire heats up the pressure will rise.  At this website, the description says that an alarm will sound at low pressure but says nothing about high pressure.  Does the PP system monitor high pressure?
http://www.rvpressurepro.com/RV_10_Sensor_PressurePro_System.html
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This is the actual Pressure Pro web site I believe HERE and this page describes the high pressure alert feature.
 
Ned said:
Temperature monitoring is a nice, but not really necessary, feature.  As the temperature rises, the pressure will too and the alarm will sound when the pressure gets too high.  I think it's more of a marketing gimmick than a useful feature.
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If you had seen how much faster the temperature alarm alerted us than the tire pressure rose when we had a stuck caliper, you might rethink that, Ned. Since the sensors are valve stem mounted, they react to ambient air temp as well as internal air temp. The heat coming from the hot rotor triggered the temperature alert well before the tire temp changed enough to trigger a pressure alert. We were already stopped before the tire pressure alerted.
 
I see a LOT of comments about liking the systems for providing information, but only one (?) comment about a system that actually saved money by reporting a failure. I also see a lot of comments about safety, but no comments about actual incidents of low pressure or high pressure warnings that prevented a tire failure.

Can anyone comment on real world results other than "feel good" information? I am not trying to be argumentative here, these systems seem to be a good idea.

Thanks,

Frank
 
Frank, there are a lot more reports than one, but you might need to use the Search button to find them.

... actual incidents of low pressure or high pressure warnings that prevented a tire failure.
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How would we ever know for sure if tire failure was avoided by a low pressure warning?

I do know that in the 80's I suffered the complete burnout of a tire on a toad that did not have a tire pressure monitor installed; I reported that story back in 2005 in this message. Years later, I was alerted to, and fixed a low tire pressure on a toad thanks to having the PressurePro system installed. There's no doubt in my mind that the tire would likely have been destroyed had I not been alerted, but I'll never know for sure.
 
jim and di said:
I am not able to review the PPro but did buy for the temperature feature. Us old power plant guys just seem to like info and there isn't too much info for me.
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Hey, I'm a software guy and I like having lots of info.    :)
 
I lost two tires on a 5W and didn't know it, cause I had no pressure sensor at the time. Lost all air on one rear tire on a previous motorhome and had no sensor to warn, but the noise of the blowout was plenty to let me know that SOMETHING awfully bad had happened.

Haven't lost a coach or toad tire since getting the PP system in early 2005, but have had two valid warnings of low air. Neither were seriously low at the time they were caught (which is the idea of the whole thing), so I can't say if they prevented a catastrophe or not.
 
FrankNSharon said:
I see a LOT of comments about liking the systems for providing information, but only one (?) comment about a system that actually saved money by reporting a failure. I also see a lot of comments about safety, but no comments about actual incidents of low pressure or high pressure warnings that prevented a tire failure.

Can anyone comment on real world results other than "feel good" information? I am not trying to be argumentative here, these systems seem to be a good idea.

Thanks,

Frank
Click to expand...

well, i guess this is real enough, at least it was at 0300 one morning last winter when it got really cold.
my tst truck low pressure alarm went off (beeping) at 82 psi and woke me up. the other tires were at 83-85 psi.
 
Please understand I am not saying I don't think the sensors are worth buying, I am asking if they have proven themselves to have been worth it to people that are using them. Peace of mind is certainly worth something - a lot sometimes - but would regular maintenance and visual checking of the tires do the same?
 
Will regular maintenance and visual checking detect that nail your tire picked up on the way out of the campground? Our TPMS has alerted us to a slowly deflating tire on the toad, as well as a sticking brake caliper on the toad. It also saves my old knees and back the chore of manually checking each tire pressure at regular intervals, since I can read them comfortably from the drivers seat at any time, whether stopped or underway. I do still make visual tire checks of course, during my overall walk around inspections before heading down the road. Sensors alone can't replace a good set of eyes for those problems that have not yet affected pressure or temperature. A TPMS is just one safety tool, nothing more...
 
NY_Dutch said:
Will regular maintenance and visual checking detect that nail your tire picked up on the way out of the campground? Our TPMS has alerted us to a slowly deflating tire on the toad, as well as a sticking brake caliper on the toad.
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Not only the above seems to me that a slow leak located early means the tire can be fixed cheaply.  A slow leak not found means a whole new tire.
 
FrankNSharon said:
but would regular maintenance and visual checking of the tires do the same?
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No. There's no way to know you picked up a nail 50 miles ago, letting over half your air out in the last ten miles, without a TPMS.

-Don- SF, CA
​
 
Don,

I really do not want to be argumentative, and I do understand the possibility of picking up a nail on the road, but have you is my question. There are a lot of things we can add to a motorhome to help prevent any and every possible bad thing from happening - at some point we (me in particular) have to limit the add-on's or there will be no budget left for fuel.

I was just curious how many people have actually been saved from a blowout on the road... as opposed to a low tire pressure at camp on a cold morning. With all the people here and all the miles they put on their RV's, I would expect to see at least a couple personal testimonials. Personally, I am not even so concerned about replacing a tire, as I am in having a front tire blowout at speed on a busy highway.

There have been a couple reported above... so, maybe tire pressure sensors are a good thing.
 
FrankNSharon said:
I was just curious how many people have actually been saved from a blowout on the road... as opposed to a low tire pressure at camp on a cold morning.
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Me for one. Last summer when one of those cheap Chinese valve stems failed in my RV, only about 20 miles from my Reno home. The air loss was quite fast and I got both alarms and stopped before there was any other symptom. I changed the tire myself, right on I-80. The tire later was repaired with a new decent valve stem. Perhaps the TPMS saved me a tire.

But there are other advantages of the TPMS too. Such as checking the PSI on all six tires from inside the RV by pressing a button (on the motorcycle version, you don't even have to press a button, it scans them all non-stop).

-Don- SF, CA
​
 
One thing I haven't seen mentioned in this thread is the damage that will be prevented by catching pressure loss early.  The cost of the tire is usually the cheapest part of the damage.  The physical damage to the RV can run into many thousands of dollars if the tire wipes out a bunch of the body and possibly other systems as well.
I do not have TPMS on my TT but when I can afford to upgrade it will be on it.
 
That's true boatbuilder. The time that PressurePro alerted me to a low tire pressure on the toad, I put the spare on and stopped at the next tire store. In the next bay they were working on a motorhome, and I could hear the owner talking on her cell phone. She said that they lost a rear tire and it took out the black tank, in addition to causing some other damage. Her description was "it's not pretty under there".

I don't know what cause the loss of the tire, and it didn't occur to me to ask (or look) if they had tire pressure sensors on the valve stems.
 
The site below may offer an alternative approach.....

http://www.airchexcorp.com/index.htm

Months ago, I was on a road trip to check systems on my new TT, just walking around Nyack, Ny., moving towards viewing the Hudson River. An older man, (I'm 72 and some consider "older" but this man was close to 80 yrs old) looked up from working in his shop and we struck up an conversation.
He was working on the Air Chex component and conversation moved to his activities in developing and marketing his system. That is all I know about system but I'm wondering if there is any interest or objective inputs regarding this product?
Quality of design looked professional.
Cost can not be cheap, but less than TPMS systems.
Marketing approach seems to be towards Trucking Companies.
Take a look folks.......
 
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