TPMS

I ran over a large piece of wood shaped like a thorn. The TPMS warned me the tire was rapidly loosing air. I stopped and confirmed it. As I was less than 1/4m from the house I went on home and in less than 5 min the tire was flat. If I had been on the freeway I wouldn't have known about it until it was destroyed and probably damaged the trailer.

Do you check the tire pressure before each trip? I do. I turn on the TPMS receiver and when I get finished hooking up I know the tire pressure in all 4 tires without touching a gauge. Peace of mind and convenience.

avvidclif1 wrote:

Do you check the tire pressure before each trip? I do. I turn on the TPMS receiver and when I get finished hooking up I know the tire pressure in all 4 tires without touching a gauge. Peace of mind and convenience.

Same for me. I get to where I feel naked if I forget to turn it on. It has saved me once too.

I have the Tire Minder brand. Alarm has gone off 3 times. 1st 2 were when I took a right hand turn from a stop too fast. The rim bead was momentarily broken and air leaked. The monitor shut off once I was going straight (I take turns much slower now). The last time it was an alarm showing an air leak as I was pulling into storage lot (just lucky). It lost about 20PSI in 25 minutes and was flat the next day. Had I been on the highway I would probably have been able to get to the shoulder before anything bad happened. I use it while on road trips to keep track of the tire PSI and Temp. No guarantees this will prevent disaster in the future but I am happy I have it.

A good TPMS is another line of defense. It won't alert you to an instantaneous tire failure or a tread separation where the carcass is still holding full air pressure, but it will alert you to a tire that's losing pressure or running abnormally hot. As mentioned, it also allows me to check the pressure in all 10 tires when I hitch up. I use the Truck Systems Technologies (TST) 507 TPMS.

Rusty

Do you folks use the flow through type or none flow through ? I'm looking at theTST 507. Should I change the Stims to metal?

I have the TST 507 system with flo thru monitors. I'm going to replace with the standard monitors. On my trailer with metal stems they stick out past the rim. I have hit road alligators(recap treads) twice and lost a flo thru both times. Right now I only have 3 working monitors. I think I'll just replace the whole unit since 4 monitors will cost me $200. I'll stick with the TST though.

I use the flow-through sensors on the 507. Since I use them on the truck and trailer, I really don't feel like the standard sensors would work for me as I would have to dismount the rear duallies on the truck to add air to the inside tires. I haven't lost any sensors due to road hazards in 2-1/2 years of use.

I also use the repeater due to the length of our 5th wheel and the placement of the monitor/receiver in the cab of the truck.

Rusty

Yes they really work to: notify you that you are getting a ticket, correction, notify you that there is a potential tire pressure problem. It's as if you were to check the pressure on all your tires every second of the trip which, of course, is impossible to do any other way.

I know of three people who were saved a big problem from their TPMS. I run TST 507s and it works well. My only complaint is the screen on the monitor reflects glare and can be difficult to read while wearing sunglasses. I forgot to turn on the repeater on our last trip and on the second day got a blast from the alarm reminding me when one trailer tire wasn't reading.

You definitely need metal stems, and not just the stems with metal stem and snap in rubber seat. I had those on my truck, and thought they would be good enough. The rubber seat broke. I went with the threaded rubber seat all metal stems. You can get many different lengths, so they don't have to stick out too far.

I have a long bed, crew cab truck, and a 36' trailer, and I've never had an issue needing a repeater. I can take my receiver in the house, while waiting for all the sensors to check in, and still get a signal from all. Mine is the TST, they are made for semis, so I don't understand people having a need for repeaters on RVs. I don't.

Mark