EMS/Surge Protection or.... TPMS???

SpeakEasy wrote:
If you only had $200 or $300 available, would you spend it on an EMS/Surge Protector or on a Tire Pressure Monitoring System? Which would you consider the higher priority?

Probably depends on how many tires you have and how hard they are to check. I can't check the inside duals without taking the hubcaps off -- I've found extenders tend to leak air so don't really want to use them. If yours are easier to reach (and if you're diligent about checking them), then it may not be an issue for you.

With the TPMS, it's trivially easy to check the air pressure *every* time I drive, and will know if I have a leak while I'm driving. Haven't had it alert on any problems yet, but the car's TPMS alerted me twice so for when I ran over something and had a leak while driving.

Well worth the money and peace of mind for me, even though it's over the top end of your range -- I paid $390 for a 7 tire EEZTire system (6 tires plus spare). Have only had it a few months but so far have been happy with it. Just need to remember to turn on the display about 5 minutes before I leave so all of the wheels have a chance to check in.

I also considered a Tireminder system for around the same price. They include a booster for "free", but it's one more thing that needs to be installed and it turns out that I really didn't need it -- all 7 wheels on my 28' Class C check in reliably.


I've been thinking about replacing the power converter with a newer 3 stage one, so I wouldn't be too upset if I had a power surge that fried this one. When (if) I replace that, I'll probably put in a hardwired EMS.