JoelP
Senior Member
My DW and I are in the middle of 26 day, 3400 mile adventure that takes in 4 national parks. This isn't much for some of you, but is our longest trip so far. As I go I am fixing some of the issues that have been plaguing us for a long time. I will post on each issue separately, but for here I want to share what I learned for my TireMinder after one year's efforts. Perhaps it will help someone else with this issue.
Nine months after installing these we made our first trip. From that time I never had a trip where the TireMinder didn?t set off an alarm, which consistently turned out to be a low signal alert. With so many false alarms it is too easy to ignore real tire issues. It seemed to the manufacturer that I might be due for new batteries even though they were about 9 months old. TireMinder sent me all new batteries and o-rings which I installed on all coach and dinghy tires. This initially seemed to fix the problem, but not far into the next trip I had one tire with a low signal alert. TireMinder exchanged that sensor for a new one. On the next trip I had multiple dinghy tire alerts, so I called TireMinder again.
Before telling you the next step in fixing this, let me explain that the wireless repeater for this system was mounted near my batteries at mid coach under the steps. That put it halfway between the receiver and the dinghy. It seemed to me that this was the optimal location. I explained all of this to TireMinder last month. They told me that they have a new wireless repeater that is waterproof and can be mounted under the coach in a protected area to better sense the dinghy tires. I found a spot under the coach in a protected area and mounted this new hub with the antennas oriented in alignment with the antenna of the receiver. TireMinder told me to put the older, nonwaterproof hub in the dinghy. I already had a continuous power connector mounted under the driver?s seat in my CMax dinghy, so I spliced the power into there, with the hub positioned under the drivers seat.
Initially I thought I had a solution, but soon it was showing all four tires in the dinghy as low signal. How disappointing! For the next leg of my trip I moved the hub in the dinghy to sit on the driver?s seat to see if the signal made it back to the coach any better. To my delight and amazement, the TireMinder system worked reliably with no low signal errors for entire 6 hour journey that day. I am optimistic that it will continue to work for the next 20 days of my current trip.
Nine months after installing these we made our first trip. From that time I never had a trip where the TireMinder didn?t set off an alarm, which consistently turned out to be a low signal alert. With so many false alarms it is too easy to ignore real tire issues. It seemed to the manufacturer that I might be due for new batteries even though they were about 9 months old. TireMinder sent me all new batteries and o-rings which I installed on all coach and dinghy tires. This initially seemed to fix the problem, but not far into the next trip I had one tire with a low signal alert. TireMinder exchanged that sensor for a new one. On the next trip I had multiple dinghy tire alerts, so I called TireMinder again.
Before telling you the next step in fixing this, let me explain that the wireless repeater for this system was mounted near my batteries at mid coach under the steps. That put it halfway between the receiver and the dinghy. It seemed to me that this was the optimal location. I explained all of this to TireMinder last month. They told me that they have a new wireless repeater that is waterproof and can be mounted under the coach in a protected area to better sense the dinghy tires. I found a spot under the coach in a protected area and mounted this new hub with the antennas oriented in alignment with the antenna of the receiver. TireMinder told me to put the older, nonwaterproof hub in the dinghy. I already had a continuous power connector mounted under the driver?s seat in my CMax dinghy, so I spliced the power into there, with the hub positioned under the drivers seat.
Initially I thought I had a solution, but soon it was showing all four tires in the dinghy as low signal. How disappointing! For the next leg of my trip I moved the hub in the dinghy to sit on the driver?s seat to see if the signal made it back to the coach any better. To my delight and amazement, the TireMinder system worked reliably with no low signal errors for entire 6 hour journey that day. I am optimistic that it will continue to work for the next 20 days of my current trip.
