TPMS

[Jim Fitz]

My coach is new (last year) so I wasn't really worried yet about getting a TPMS.  But when I pulled in to a RV park in the middle of nowhere Nevada a couple of days ago (Alamo) and this guy pulled in next to me in a nice 5th wheel, I became convinced I am going to order one as soon as I get home.  He had been driving down the road, and a guy was trying to get him to pull over.  It took awhile before he decided he better check it out....he had no indication anything was wrong.  It turns out his driver side rear wheel had completely severed from the hub....lugs and all.  And he had no idea.  His tires were 10 days old.  He slowly limped in to the RV park, and found that his front tire had some gashes probably from when the rear one came off.  I'm guessing the TPMS would have alerted him to "Houston, we have a problem." 

Would appreciate any recommendation on the type of TPMS you use.  My coach has 6 tires; Honda Fit TOAD has 4.  Never had a TPMS before.  I don't know difference between "flow through" or not.

Thanks.
Fitz

 

[Larry N.]

TPMS products are becoming a commodity. I use the TST 507 (non-flow thru), and it's done just fine. I expect others will chime in with their favorites, but these days it's more about how you like the monitor and user interface, than it is about the reliability and functionality of the specific brand.

 

[Punomatic]

Wow! Lugs and all. Was that caused by a tire failure? Anyway, TPMS...don't leave home without it. I have had two different brands. My first was a TST 510. The second and current system is Tire Traker. Here are my evaluations:

TST 510
Pro: Gives tire pressure/temperature readings when vehicle is parked. This means you don't have to get out the tire pressure gauge, remove sender, check pressure, reinstall sender before you leave on a trip. If pressure is too low/high on a tire, you can adjust that one only.
Con: Batteries are not replaceable by the user. The senders have to be sent back to TST for battery change at about $20 a pop. Senders have to be removed to adjust air pressure.

Tire Traker
Pro: Batteries can be changed at home. Readings are reliable for pressure and temperature (when senders are working. See cons below).
Con: Wheel must be turning for senders to send a reading. This is intended to increase battery life in the senders. In my opinion, I would rather change the batteries more often and have readings available when parked, like the TST. Also, I have had a couple of senders fail. I think the reason was that the o-ring for the cap that has to be removed to replace the battery is very delicate and may have leaked.

If I were going to buy a new system, I would look at the TST 507. It has user changeable batteries and flow through senders, so you can add air without removing the sender. I don't know whether Tire Traker has a new model that takes care of these problems. Hope you find some of this useful. Good luck in your search. As I said, "Don't leave home without it." 

 

[NY_Dutch]

We have a TST 507 10 sensor setup that replaced our previous TST 510 setup. As said, the batteries are user replaceable, and also inexpensive. I removed the security shells from our non-flow-thru sensors, so they're as easy to take on and off as a standard valve caps. Removing the shells also made the sensors lighter and less noticeable.

 

[Dutch and Di]

We have been using our 510 TST system for about 8 years and are still using our original monitor. We have only had to replace 2 sensors.  It is true that you have to send in the non replaceable battery sealed sensors in for replacement but they last 3 to 5 years.  They are also waterproof so if you have them on a boat trailer, etc you are safe. The 507 R & 507 FT have user replaceable batteries & are very water resistant but not waterproof.  Most people get a years use before having to replace the batteries.  We thought about trying the 507 newer system but really like that, for us,  we don't have to think about sensor battery changes. They both have nice monitors but the set up is slightly different.  A nice unexpected bonus was while driving late one day a monitor back light came on as darkness descended. We turn our system on and when the lithium battery in the monitor shows 1 bar left, we just plug it in and let it charge as we go down the road.  We started out with a 12 sensor system 6 for our 5th wheel & 6 for our dually but when we upgraded our truck to a 2015, it came with a tpms system.  It doesn't offer the pressure & temperature & alarm when you reach your parameters but Dutch felt we were more likely to hear a tire in the truck.  We have total piece of mind with our TST system.  Good luck in your search and decision.  Hugs, Di 

 

[grashley]

Dutch and Di

If you still have the TST sensors, I would use them!  That TPMS that comes on the truck is an old Fiat.  Your TST is a Cadillac!  Unless yours is very different than most, it does not display any tire pressure and does not monitor temperature at all.  If a tire is getting low, it will not tell you which one, or how low or how fast.  You can not adjust the set points. It is not easy to even find out what the set points are! 

Put the TST sensors on the truck!

 

[Dutch and Di]

Hi.
I'm sorry but sensors we had for the truck were quite old so I gave them away several years ago.
As far as putting the TST sensors on our 2015, we did that not knowing that it already had a tpms system.  We were having serious problems even with going to 2 dealers.  I was told by the dealer, and TST agreed, that we could not have two tpms systems on the truck.  They told me that some "toads" that have internal tpms can have their TST sensors but that is not the case for us.  That is really unfortunate because as you say, no parameters, no pressure & temp, etc.  Hugs, Di

Dutch and Di

If you still have the TST sensors, I would use them!  That TPMS that comes on the truck is an old Fiat.  Your TST is a Cadillac!  Unless yours is very different than most, it does not display any tire pressure and does not monitor temperature at all.  If a tire is getting low, it will not tell you which one, or how low or how fast.  You can not adjust the set points. It is not easy to even find out what the set points are! 

Put the TST sensors on the truck!

 

[grashley]

Thanks for the explanation!

 

[Punomatic]

Hi.
I'm sorry but sensors we had for the truck were quite old so I gave them away several years ago.
As far as putting the TST sensors on our 2015, we did that not knowing that it already had a tpms system.  We were having serious problems even with going to 2 dealers.  I was told by the dealer, and TST agreed, that we could not have two tpms systems on the truck.  They told me that some "toads" that have internal tpms can have their TST sensors but that is not the case for us.  That is really unfortunate because as you say, no parameters, no pressure & temp, etc.  Hugs, Di

That seems strange, unless both sensors are on the same frequency. I had a Nissan Versa for a toad, and used TST sensors along with the Nissan TPMS. Never had a problem. Sorry you did.

 

[2kGeorgieBoy]

What you could probably do, if you really want to use the aftermarket system, is have the internal wheel sensors removed and replaced with plain metal valve stems. This would cause your tire warning light to come on in your TV, which could be ignored or covered over with a piece of tape. The OEM sensors are attached to special valve stems and easily removed/replaced. Run this by the dealer and TST and I think you'll find it's a doable option.

 

[NY_Dutch]

That seems strange, unless both sensors are on the same frequency. I had a Nissan Versa for a toad, and used TST sensors along with the Nissan TPMS. Never had a problem. Sorry you did.

Yep, that is unfortunate. Our TST 507 sensors work fine on our OEM TPMS equipped Toyota RAV4 though.

 

[SargeW]

That's interesting. I had a Tire Safe Guard TPMS 10 tire system that worked on my 08' Dodge Ram diesel and 5ver without issue. Maybe is it something to do with the frequency that your current system uses. 2008 was the first year that Dodge put the factory TPMS on their trucks.

 

[accordionman]

I just bought a coach a month+ ago. I did, what I thought, was some careful research and read a lot of customer feedback. This is what I purchased. I have done only one trip in our new coach, but it operated well and as expected. It will monitor up to 22 tires. I am only monitoring the 4 tires on my coach, as my truck has a built in system of its own.

https://eezrvproduct.com/t/tire-pressure-and-temperature-monitoring-systems-tpms-3

 

[Dragginourbedaround]

I just bought a coach a month+ ago. I did, what I thought, was some careful research and read a lot of customer feedback. This is what I purchased.
https://eezrvproduct.com/t/tire-pressure-and-temperature-monitoring-systems-tpms-3

We have the same system and it has worked as promised for the last 18 months. Very easy to use and readings come up pretty quick.

 

[Hammster]

We got the TST TPMS, but not the flowthrough one. We got this one because we have rubber valve stems and TST recommends using these since they weigh the least of their options. So, we have to remove them when adding air. No biggie. Not much difference than removing a valve stem cap. Since they are made with a tamper resistant cap, you kind of have to use the special wrench they provide to install and remove them from the valve stem. Really, no biggie. I keep a wrench, they provide 2, in a drawer right near the trailer's door so it's easy to get to. Batteries can be replaced in this one. We'll be taking them out on their first road trip this coming week. In setting them up and checking them out here at the house they work well and read about 2 psi lower than tire gage or compressor gage. That 2 psi difference is fine by me. At least I know what the difference is. Mostly interested in changes in pressure or temps while on the road. The system seems to take around 5 minutes to initialize each time it's turned on and I checked it with our truck running, 2016 GMC Denali with built in TPMS, and the truck's system didn't seem to interfere with the TST. They do offer a booster/repeater if necessary. On another forum I'm on some have said the initialization time will get faster as the system gets "conditioned". One person mentioned it went from the 5 minutes down to around 45 seconds after a few uses.

 

[lavarock1210]

Take it from someone who has been there.

Replace your rubber valve stems with metal regardless of the brand or type of TPMS sensor.

The rubber valve stems will fail in time.

 

[NY_Dutch]

We got the TST TPMS, but not the flowthrough one. We got this one because we have rubber valve stems and TST recommends using these since they weigh the least of their options. So, we have to remove them when adding air. No biggie. Not much difference than removing a valve stem cap. Since they are made with a tamper resistant cap, you kind of have to use the special wrench they provide to install and remove them from the valve stem. Really, no biggie. I keep a wrench, they provide 2, in a drawer right near the trailer's door so it's easy to get to. Batteries can be replaced in this one. We'll be taking them out on their first road trip this coming week. In setting them up and checking them out here at the house they work well and read about 2 psi lower than tire gage or compressor gage. That 2 psi difference is fine by me. At least I know what the difference is. Mostly interested in changes in pressure or temps while on the road. The system seems to take around 5 minutes to initialize each time it's turned on and I checked it with our truck running, 2016 GMC Denali with built in TPMS, and the truck's system didn't seem to interfere with the TST. They do offer a booster/repeater if necessary. On another forum I'm on some have said the initialization time will get faster as the system gets "conditioned". One person mentioned it went from the 5 minutes down to around 45 seconds after a few uses.

I removed the rotating security shells on our TST 507 sensors. That makes them a bit smaller and lighter, and just as easy to remove and replace as standard valve caps.

 

[blw2]

another tst user
I originally bought the flowthrough but had problems.  have been rotating them out to the non-flow through "caps"
I would consider the sealed factory battery version if I were doing it again.  not sure if I'd go with them, but I'd look hard at them.

That was not a tire failure.
probably over tightened lugs....red neck with an impact gun.... listen to that cool sound!

 

[NY_Dutch]

Our first TST system was the 510 model with non-replaceable batteries. When the time came to replace the sensors as the batteries died, TST made me an offer on the replaceable battery 507 model that I couldn't refuse. With the security caps removed, changing the batteries annually is a simple process. I buy the batteries in 10-packs for less than a dollar per battery.