Tire Pressure Monitor System (TPMS) --- Great add-on

[SJ-Chris]

With the seriousness of proper tire pressure, load capacities, etc, I'm surprised that RVs don't come standard with a Tire Pressure Monitor System (TPMS). After having multiple RVs for the last 4 years, I have learned the importance of proper tires and tire pressure. I have also had multiple times when tire pressure went low (due to a nail) and also multiple times when the rear inner dually tire was flat and very hard to notice (before installing a TPMS).

Thankfully, I haven't had a blowout that resulted in steel belts of the failing tire thrashed underneath the RV doing lots of damage (which I hear is not uncommon).

I wanted to share with all of you just how easy and inexpensive it can be to add this feature to your RV.

Here's the one I choose and installed in each of my 3 RVs...

(...looks like I need to adjust a couple of tires and their pressure)

You can find it on Amazon for less than $80 and it takes less than 5 minutes to install:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08HMZZFRF/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1
(Plenty of others to choose from, this is just the one I selected)

It has a small solar panel on the top of it, so when it sits on your dashboard it stays charged. It only turns on when it feels vibration/movement (or you manually turn it on). To install, you simply screw each cap on your 6 tires (in proper order). I didn't bother with the locking mechanism as I don't believe people are looking to steal these items.

Gives me great comfort being able to know my tire pressure at a quick glance. There is an alarm that beeps to warn you if the tire pressure drops below a preset amount. Safety first! If you don't have such a monitor on your RV I highly recommend it.

Happy (and safe) Camping!
Chris

[JBarca]

fj12ryder wrote:
I have the old style monitor, so I can't comment about the new style. But with mine, the monitor will alert if it loses contact with a sensor, and will beep every time the missing sensor is detected as the monitor rotates through the tires. But it beeps only as long as the missing sensor is displayed, and stops when the monitor moves to the next tire. And it takes an hour for it to alert to a missing sensor. I know this to be true, because of a series of events.

Annoying, but better than being unaware that you have sensors that aren't working correctly.

Thanks for reporting back. It was helpful. My newer one acts different.

Something to add to the mix. There appears to be a difference between a sensor not working correctly and a sensor not reading at all at power up. I'll explain some.

I had a slow leak on the truck left front tire. It turned out to be a valve stem mounting leak. It would loose about 3 psi a month sitting in the barn. To test it was not the sensor leaking, I took the sensor off and capped the stem. The leak still happened just the same so I then knew it was not the sensor O-ring leaking on the stem. Water air bubbles leaking the stem at the rim confirmed the issue.

When I power up the controller, it scans for every tire location that was programed. The sensors come alive as slightly different times but after a few minutes they are all up and displaying. When I removed the one sensor on the left front during my test, that position came up blank all the time, even when towing down the road. I never got an alarm that location was missing, it knew it was never there from power up and the system would jump over that location and go onto the next.

When I had my tire blow out on the camper, that sensor read pressure upon power up and the location displayed it when the tire was still usable. When the blow out happened, the sensor was still alive and sent an alarm the pressure dropped to zero. The sensor on other good tire on the same side of the camper that got beat up, flew off onto the side of the road somewhere. Since the sensors are time sync'ed to read, the sensor may have flew off between the time to read signal when it came up. Since there was no sensor to send a 0 psi or any psi signal, sort of like a battery going dead, I never got an alarm.

It appears, TST has changed the program from the older style to the newer style. Maybe due to complaints from customers that the constant beep alarming you reported when the sensor that was there stopped working.

Thinking about this, ideally the controller has a message at least that stays after the 1st beep on a separate screen section, that when a sensor that was present on power up, lost signal. Again back to when you power up, it was working. On my system, if the sensor was there upon power up, the display reads the last value when it lost signal. After some time period of no updates, ( not sure how long, 15 to 20 min) that location goes blank. Again no message or beep, just blank but it takes time before it blanks. So I scan the monitor every so often to make sure all are OK.

I do know when a sensor never works upon I power up, as it will never display. I get no alarm, but if I look at the display, that location is missing a pressure/temp, then I know I have a problem with the sensor in that location. I always look to see all the pressures are up before I head out, so I know they all work at least at the start.

[fj12ryder]

I have the old style monitor, so I can't comment about the new style. But with mine, the monitor will alert if it loses contact with a sensor, and will beep every time the missing sensor is detected as the monitor rotates through the tires. But it beeps only as long as the missing sensor is displayed, and stops when the monitor moves to the next tire. And it takes an hour for it to alert to a missing sensor. I know this to be true, because of a series of events.

Annoying, but better than being unaware that you have sensors that aren't working correctly.

[JBarca]

fj12ryder wrote:
The TST system will alert you after an hour that it has lost communication between the sensor and the monitor. IMO that is the main shortcoming of the system.

By chance, do you have the older style monitor? Reason for asking, I had the older style but I upgraded to the new color style. I use the TST on my truck also as the 2005 Ford had no TPM system in those years. I have never had this hour later alarm come on.

My camper sleeps in the barn the same as the camper. When I take the truck out by itself, I turn it on in the barn, let it power up and then it sees all 8 tires, truck and camper. As I drive away with the truck only, the camper obviously goes out of range parked in the barn. I never get an alarm, the camper tires read the last set of pressures. After a semi short time period,(not sure how long, my guess is 15 to 20 minutes later) it stops looking for all 4 trailer tires and blanks out the camper tire pressure. I still never get an alarm.

Not sure how all after market external TPM's work, but when a sensor goes out of range the controller can't read it. This would be the same as the sensor battery going dead. If they constantly kept alarming for no sensor signal, that would create an issue as you may not be able to shut the alarm off. That may be why TST did what they did, not sure, just thinking about it. Slow leaks take time, and the TPM has time to read the low pressure. The system time samples, not 100% instant. Battery life may be affected if it samples instantly all the time.

My first thought was, yeh we should get an alarm if we loose a sensor, but if you can't shut the alarm off, then you could be stuck with that constant alarming on when one sensor, died, fell off, or the battery went dead etc. I have to think on this more, not sure there is a perfect solution to this.

When my tire failure blew out, the tread flying around beat up the sensor on the good tire and destroyed the sensor. I never got an alarm from the good tire with the beat up sensor, it was dead and could not send a signal. I got an alarm from the sensor on the blown tire several seconds later as that sensor was still intact and working and saw low pressure.

Anyone have another brand and how does it handle the missing sensor, or dead battery etc.?

Never thought about this. Thanks for commenting.

John

[fj12ryder]

The TST system will alert you after an hour that it has lost communication between the sensor and the monitor. IMO that is the main shortcoming of the system.

[Fishbreath]

I am a big proponent of having a TPMS. In my case, I'm in the travel trailer world with tandem axles. When one tire goes soft or gone, the other tire is in instant overload as it is taking most or all of the weight on that side of the camper. Just like what happens on a dully when one tire goes out.

I bought the TST brand (Truck Systems Technology)https://tsttruck.com/ and it monitors both pressure and temperature. Both are good info. I do use metal valve stems, and my truck is old enough, I added them to the truck too. The system saved me on the truck from bead seal leaks on the aluminum rims.

"Every" time before I leave with the truck and or camper, I turn the system on, let it warm up and I can see all air pressures before I start towing. If there was a slow leak while at camp or at home, it is easy to see it, and then deal with it before you head out. And naturally when towing you have it live all the time.

There is one type of failure the TPM will not detect before it happens, that is an somewhat instant depressurization like the tread just flew off and a second or two later, the whole tire lets go as there is no tread left. "

There is another type that the TST system will not detect. I hit a curb and the sensor was knocked off of the wheel and went into the gutter as I drove away. The system never alerted. According to TST that is because it "lost signal". If the sensor was knocked off it should have immediately read zero pressure and alerted. Nope!
The TST systems are also known for not sealing on some types of valve stems. Of course they don't tell you this when you buy it. I needed to replace the inner dually extensions several times before I could get it to work. I was not impressed with their product.

[Dusty_R]

I carry an inferred temperature sensor, and check our MH tires whenever we stop for a break. I have had a tire valve leak after checking with a tire pressure gauge. A temp. is faster and easier.

[Dutch_12078]

Since we monitor ten tires on our motorhome and toad, the $80 six sensor system doesn't cut it. Our TST 507 system has worked well for us since 2013, reporting both pressures and temperatures. The easily replaced sensor batteries last about a year for us in full time use, and replacements cost less than a dollar each. Over the years we've had the system, the temperature reporting function has alerted us to a sticking brake caliper on our toad and a failing wheel bearing on our previous motorhome. The pressure sensors have reported a couple of slow leaks and one faster leak as well.

[EMD360]

I also bought a TPMS for about $80 from Amazon and it has been working fine. But one sensor needed the battery changed and after I did that I noticed the monitor did not reattach it. Now I have not been driving anywhere but I’ll have to dig out the directions and rediscover ot for out next trip.

[Wiscampsin]

When we picked up our 2020 Flagstaff TT there was a TPMS already installed on the wheels and a repeater on the tongue. Display unit was in the package in the pantry. We didn't have one on our previous 5 campers but wouldn't be without it now.

[jjrbus]

I have been using the cheap, under $30 TPMS for 5 years, even use them on the wifes car which has factory system, but only indicates low tire, not which one or how low.

The cheap ones only go to 55 psi and the new to me Roadtrek has 80 psi in the rear tires. So bought the Tymate system. have not used it yet so no opinion on it. The cheap systems tend to last about 2 years and are not NASA accurate but never fail to report an issue. The Tymate is easier to program than the ultra cheap ones.

https://www.amazon.com/Tymate-Tire-Pressure-Monitoring-System/dp/B085C2HMQP/ref=pd_lpo_2?pd_rd_i=B085C2HMQP&psc=1

[JBarca]

I am a big proponent of having a TPMS. In my case, I'm in the travel trailer world with tandem axles. When one tire goes soft or gone, the other tire is in instant overload as it is taking most or all of the weight on that side of the camper. Just like what happens on a dully when one tire goes out.

I bought the TST brand (Truck Systems Technology)https://tsttruck.com/ and it monitors both pressure and temperature. Both are good info. I do use metal valve stems, and my truck is old enough, I added them to the truck too. The system saved me on the truck from bead seal leaks on the aluminum rims.

"Every" time before I leave with the truck and or camper, I turn the system on, let it warm up and I can see all air pressures before I start towing. If there was a slow leak while at camp or at home, it is easy to see it, and then deal with it before you head out. And naturally when towing you have it live all the time.

There is one type of failure the TPM will not detect before it happens, that is an somewhat instant depressurization like the tread just flew off and a second or two later, the whole tire lets go as there is no tread left.

I had 2, BFG Commercial TA, LT tires let go that way and I was using the TPM. In my case, BFG had a recall in that style of tire/factory, just one size wider (245 width) then mine (235 width) for tread separation. Well I believe mine suffered the same issue.

Trust me, a tire failure makes for a bad day camping. Here is the first tread separation. I was doing 55mph one spring day towing on down the highway. I heard a bang, I looked in the right side mirror and saw a puff of smoke. I never felt anything in the truck or stability of the trailer and didn't see anything other then the smoke. About 5 seconds later the TPM alarm went off and I knew I just had a blow out. Pulled over and found this.

The right rear tire let go and the flying tread beat up the camper and beat up the valve stem on the front right tire that is now leaking air. Lucky me, I had the Genny and little compressor with me. You can see the TPM still on the failed tire. The front TPM is MIA.




The damage to the camper






The mud flap took a mega hit


And sadly, on the way home, the other side front tire let go. Changing a flat on the side of the interstate is not fun. 8 ft off the white line is barley enough with semi whizzing by doing 70mph




Yes, I'm a fan of a TPM even though they did not detect this type of failure before they blew out.

Hope this helps the cause

John

[philh]

I had TST on my travel trailer. It worked great, and it was fascinating to watch the sunny side run higher pressures.

With the new truck, I ordered the trailer TPMS sensor. HAve yet to install them, as the tire store was closed due to no staff the only day I had available to have them installed.

[Esacnj]

I have had a system for many years on 2 travel trailers and a 5th wheel. I selected the brand because the sensors were the smallest and lightest. I ran them on standard rubber valve stems and never had a problem. I decided to add them to my dually since it had no sensors. That was a mistake. I had them cause a problem with the inner tires on both sides deflating the tires. The TPMS supplier said that they were successful on most valve extensions. That was not the case as I tried different extensions. Apparently the added weight of the sensor creates a problem with the long stem on the inner tires. I have since had metal stems installed but am now reluctant to run the sensors on them also do to their length.

[SJ-Chris]

spoon059 wrote:
I bought an inexpensive one on Amazon during a sale this fall. On our way back from a trip, I intentionally pulled over and let out 15 lbs of air a couple miles from home. The TPMS immediately recognized the lower pressure, giving me some confidence.

My next RV will have a more expensive system with the internal style TPMS. We're going to take that cross country for a long trip, I want the peace of mind. Lots of people like to poo-poo TPMS systems and say they are worthless, but I disagree.

I've seen plenty of stories of people that had a tire fail and they didn't know for a while. The tire kept deteriorating as it was driven down the road and damaged the trailer too. I have 2 people that we camp with that this happened to. Tire failure and they didn't know until chunks started flying and people starting honking at them and frantically pointing to the trailer.

Even if my TPMS does nothing but alert me before additional damage is done, it is money well spent. We do several longer trips a year. I'll check tire pressure in the morning before we leave, then I don't check again until I get to a fuel station or the next destination. Plenty of time and miles for a road hazard to cause a slow leak that develops into a big problem if left unchecked.

Good to hear.

I too have had multiple times when my inner rear dually was flat and I only noticed after the fact. Once, when the vehicle seemed to be pulling to one side while driving down the freeway (!!!), and twice it looked like the outer tire was low on pressure (which it wasn't...it was just carrying all the load so it was getting squished down). In all of these cases, having a TPMS would have alerted me and helped me to avoid a potential catastrophe (or at least some extra damage).

Inexpensive piece of mind...less than $100 and 5 minutes to install yourself. If you don't have one, I highly recommend you get one.

What is it worth to you to possibly avoid a serious accident while driving your RV with your family/etc??

Good luck!
Chris