Why do TPMS systems fail?

the repeater is a small powered antenna / signal amplifier that "receives or picks up the signal from the sensors & REPEATS those signals to the display/console" -
it EXTENDS the range and can increase the signal quality of the sensor(s) to the console.

Ive found that w/ the repeater on - i can extend the time between battery changes....where the batteries might be marginal or slightly weak (due to age) - I've been able to avoid changing the battery by turning on the repeater.

its nearly 60 feet from my display console to the rear tires of the toad and I've found that the repeater is not necessary - but it is nice to have (i installed it in a rear closet, on a switch).

to my knowledge TST is the only TPMS manufacture that offers a repeater option - http://tsttruck.com/product/tst-507-repeater/

67Cutlass: What is a repeater and what does it do? I might consider the TST system since a lot op people have good luck w/them.

For those of you that have sensors dropping out while driving.

Are you using any wireless digital thermometers? Typically these wireless thermometers operate at the 433Mhz frequency the same a most TPMS systems. They do cause interference.

I have a wireless thermometer with three remote transmitters. I was having a lot of sensor dropouts until I found out about the wireless thermometers causing interference. I have the TST 507 system and called TST about this problem. I talked to the owner and he acknowledged there is an issue with these wireless thermometers. The fix was to install a repeater. Once I did that no more problems with sensors dropping out.

427435 wrote:


These solve the problem of broken extenders.

http://www.ryderfleetproducts.com/dill-eaton-9059-7/flexible-valve-stem-extension-7-p-c28-90597

lots of folks swear against extensions - sighting stories of them leaking or causing leaks.

an extension would not have worked in my case, since it was on one of the steer wheels (not an inner duel). My valve stem fractured at the base where the nut met the wheel

bshpilot wrote:

RCMAN46 wrote:


No need to manually check pressures if you have a TPMS.

In fact manually checking pressures may cause problems. Schrader valve sticking and resulting in a slow leak.

including flexing of the valve stems which can weaken them and cause them to split & leak (ask me how i know) ;)

TPMS systems work for me because i wasn't checking the tire pressures as much as i thought i should have (i wanted to check them before we departed for any trip and before we pulled out of a campground)....got busy, got lazy....didn't want to deal with dragging stuff out or the weather was bad (rain/cold) or the weather was good (too hot & sunny)

now i just turn the monitor on to check the tire pressure - nothing to do UNLESS i need to add air !

These solve the problem of broken extenders.

http://www.ryderfleetproducts.com/dill-eaton-9059-7/flexible-valve-stem-extension-7-p-c28-90597

RCMAN46 wrote:


No need to manually check pressures if you have a TPMS.

In fact manually checking pressures may cause problems. Schrader valve sticking and resulting in a slow leak.

including flexing of the valve stems which can weaken them and cause them to split & leak (ask me how i know) ;)

TPMS systems work for me because i wasn't checking the tire pressures as much as i thought i should have (i wanted to check them before we departed for any trip and before we pulled out of a campground)....got busy, got lazy....didn't want to deal with dragging stuff out or the weather was bad (rain/cold) or the weather was good (too hot & sunny)

now i just turn the monitor on to check the tire pressure - nothing to do UNLESS i need to add air !

In fact manually checking pressures may cause problems. Schrader valve sticking and resulting in a slow leak.

____________________________

Good point! Thank you.

Camp2Camp wrote:
Thank you all for the helpful comments regarding TPMS.


I think the best we can do is check the pressure manually each morning before we start out, and hope the tpms works if ever there is another blowout.

Thank you!

No need to manually check pressures if you have a TPMS.

In fact manually checking pressures may cause problems. Schrader valve sticking and resulting in a slow leak.

Thank you all for the helpful comments regarding TPMS.

We are gun-shy regarding tire blowouts because we had two of four tires blow out on a single trip. Being that we only carry one spare, it was a huge mess waiting for roadside assistance. We aren't sure why the tires blew. The tread looked good, the pressure was at 50 psi, and we had a lightly packed trailer (approx 4900 lbs). This was our first weekend trip with our newly purchased 2007 Forest River Rockwood TT. We drove about 75 miles and the left rear tire (tandem axle) blew. We changed the tire, continued the trip, and camped for the weekend. On our way home, around 100 miles into the trip home, the front left tire blew. We don't know when it blew, we were rolling along on 3 tires at 60 mph when thankfully someone honked at us and indicated a flat on the TT. By now we had no spare, it's Sunday afternoon when roadside assistance costs 3X the normal price, and service is few and far between. We waited 6 hours at the side of the road before we got someone out with a tire and a jack that could safely lift the trailer.

The tire experts inspected the tires and agreed the tread looked good. The only reason they could suggest for the blowouts was that the tires were 2006 tires. We since leaned that tires should be replaced every 5 years regardless of wear. We replaced all five tires (including the spare) with new tires, but we want to be able to know that are tires are safe and the mirrors on the tow vehicle don't show the TT tires. Hence the TPMS. I think the best we can do is check the pressure manually each morning before we start out, and hope the tpms works if ever there is another blowout.

Thank you!

Camp2Camp wrote:
We bought a TPMS system - Tire Minder TMG300C. We installed it for our four travel trailer tires, checked the pressure on the four trailer tires, and everything looked good. We drove about 200 miles, got to our site, detached the camper, and then drove into town for supplies. Here's what is weird. After detaching the camper, we drove for an hour with the TPMS monitor in the car and the TPMS monitor continued to show tire pressures for all four trailer tires! We were an hour away from the camper when finally ONE tire on the monitor started showing a "no signal" warning. Has this happened to anyone? How do I know whether the TPMS is really updating every 20 seconds like it's supposed to do so?

I recently replaced a Pressure Pro system with the TST system. When the sensor is out of range of the receiver it will not alarm for 1 hour. It also displays last pressure/temperature readings. I confirmed this with TST customer service. My Pressure Pro system would alarm after 15 minutes.

If you have marginal reception of a sensor such as a trailer behind a 5th wheel you may not be getting data on a timely manner and may miss a real event such as rapid loss of pressure. The 1 hour timer resets each time there is a successful transmission from a sensor.

You can clear the TST alarm by removing power for a short time. I do this when I am away from the 5th wheel shopping eating dinner out etc.