Tire checking frustration

^^^ Many of us have lost tires with that exact problem. On our first coach, the wheels already had metal valves, and the rear inners had braided extensions. They may have been the "airless" type. With those, pressing a gauge or chuck onto the tip of the extender pushes on a flex cable that opens the valve at the tire. Those aren't too bad, but the custom valves are still a cleaner solution. I had to "air up" with the old setup before every trip. With the Borg valves, checking is only a couple minutes and I don't air up but every few months. Mostly when the season changes and makes a big temperature swing.
Before I replaced the rubber valves on the coach we have now, I could hear them leak when I pressed a gauge on. NOT an encouraging thing.

Somebody mentioned extenders on the valve-stems(rubber). MAKE sure if you do go that route to have the plain rubber valve-stems replaced with metal ones.

Our first MH had the rubber valve-stems with braided extenders on them.
New to all this MH stuff I didn't think much of it , but did like JD did and removed the cheap looking wheel covers and painted the wheels making it easier to check the air .
On our cross country road trip pulled into a station to fill up with gas and did my usual walk around and heard a air hissing noise ?? Found pass side inner (rubber) valve-stem split leaking air.
Found a Firestone place two blocks away , they didn't have any long valve-stems so they just replaced the rubber valve-stems with metal ones , I had them do all 4 on the rear.

The sixrobblees deal was to call them and they could provide Borg kits. This all came up because of well...aw shucks...j-d...little ol'me. I was shopping for extended valves in Anchorage AK and went to a commercial truck tire shop. They couldn't help but called 6R's at their nearby location. That shop didn't have any kits on hand but another location did. I went there and the only kit they carried was for 10-hole Ford wheels. When I went to check out, I was shocked at how much less they were than the marked retail price. From there, a couple other OP's here wanted some and we found we could look the number up on Borg and order from 6R by phone. 6R's price kept going up. They were still less than retail. Here's Borg's Dually Valve Page for Class C. The kit I got was DL1E. There's contact information in two blocks at the top of the page. Call or email, hopefully they can get a set to you.

The stems are solid brass tubing with a Shrader Valve and cap threads on one end, of course. Then at the rim end there's a thick brass flange, about the diameter and thickness of two nickles. Below that it's threaded for a nut. All brass, brazed assembly of the flange, accurate threads, valve core hasn't leaked. Synthetic rubber washers, one side with a raised portion to center on the .453" hole. Then a metal washer and hex nut. Because the nut is on the inside if the wheel, it's important to install with LocTite since it can't be adjusted later. The hobby shop crew at my local Navy base installed ours and they've been fine. Local Discount Tire installed the replacement I mentioned and it's OK too. Good stuff.

Here's a photo of a long inner wheel valve that got a mounted tire/rim assembly dropped on it. It's supposed to be STRAIGHT... What you can't see is how the valve core end was crushed right where a gauge/air chuck goes. It still did NOT leak!

Installation of the inner valve can require a little bending. The approved way is to slide two small (say 7/16") box wrenches down it and use one against the other to create the bend. Not much, just takes a tweak to get through the rubber "stabilizer" on the outer wheel and line up with the hole in the stainless simulator.

j-d wrote:
Gary,see what Borg will do. Another possibility is sixrobblees. You'd need the Borg part number.
Believe me,nothing inferior about Borg valves.

Hey..thanks for this. I looked at sixrobblees and it seems that they do not stock Borg stuff. Now I will do a look around and see what I can find for Borg. From a cursory look, it seems that they are a rubber grommet thingie?

Again...many thanks


Gary Haupt

Gary,see what Borg will do. Another possibility is sixrobblees. You'd need the Borg part number.
Believe me,nothing inferior about Borg valves.

From my research Tireman in Ca has THE product. I wanted/want to get some but he doesn't take over the phone orders..doesn't do the international plastic thing. So..until I get back to Ca., I am hooped.


Gary Haupt

RE: Bare Wheels - Some coaches look OK with that treatment and others don't. We, and most who looked at it, liked the look on our first one. Bare wheels painted body color white. Newer coaches had gray wheels and one of the rental companies ran that way. Saved the stainless simulators for resale time. I tried it on our newer one and it just looked like it was missing the covers. Not a good look. We had the wheels they sold for many years on Class C's, with 10 round "hand" holes. Maybe a baby's hand, but not useful for the rest of us. And the simulator matched those holes making them even smaller.

That was when I gave up and installed Borg Stems. Like many, I procrastinated and justified it with thinking "They can't really be that good." Well, they ARE That Good, and I wish I'd changed them sooner.

I had a similar issue with a valve extended installed on my 2011 Sunseeker. I purchased a Pressure Pro tire sensor system and installed the sensors directly on the metal stems, no extenders used. I have been using these for 3 years now no problems, I set the tire pressure in the spring on my first trip and have not had to add air for the summer and fall. I do remove them in the winter.

Long solid metal custom-formed valve stems for inner and outer dual wheels/tires ARE NOT called "extenders". If you ask for "extenders" you will get some kind of extensions that screw onto the stock rubber valve stems. These "extenders" can unscrew and leak air and vibrate with wheel rotation eventually causing the rubber valve stems to crack open and leak air out. Loss of pressure can cause sudden tire failure with flailing steel tire belts damaging propane lines, wiring and holding tanks. Tire Man or Borg products will cost considerably more than cheap "extenders" but will be well worth it to you in peace of mind and when checking tire pressures in five minutes or less with no effort.

Ponderosa wrote:
There is a really elegant solution to the dually air access: take off the wheel covers, put them in the garage and forget about them until you sell. Without the covers it is easy to reach a standard valve with a truck type air chuck.

Since my wife considers this her RV, I'm afraid that wouldn't fly ;)