TPMS. Necessary or just peace of mind?

Trailer tires are subjected to FAR more stress than your truck tires or car tires. When making a turn the trailer tries to pivot since both axles are fixed (non steering axles) and it CANNOT pivot on two points at the same time. Result is huge lateral forces as it DRAGS the axles through a turn. I'd go with the TPMS. If you have a blow out or even a flat you're not likely to even know it until someone drives up and waves you down and a LOT of damage can be done to the trailer and it's underbelly, suspension, plumbing etc.

To me, it isn't so much a question of how likely is a blow out to happen. For me, the question is the potential for catastrophic results if it does. I am not referring to the damage to our RV. That is why I have insurance. I can replace it. I am referring to the life of me and my family.

As I understand it, prior to a full blow out, a tire will almost certainly loose air. If a TPMS has the ability to warn me of a sudden loss of pressure during that short time before the actual blow out then hopefully I can brake somewhat, firmly handle the steering wheel at the least but hopefully bring the coach to an organized stop or slower speed before the blow out inevitably happens then it is worth every penny I spent.

Without TPMS your first sign of a blow out is a blow out. I see enough rubber laying around the freeways to know that I'd never consider driving an RV without one.

I never had a TPMS towing my 5er for the last 6 years. Never had a blowout, or even a flat. But I did buy a TST tire pressure monitoring system this year.
Reading various posts about the damage done by disintegrating tires and actually seeing first hand what it did to a friends 5er last summer I decided to add one just for peace of mind.

What is insurance worth? We decided that a tire blowout could be a very serious event and we purchased the Tire Minder. We like being able to monitor the pressure and temperature of each tire as we are going down the road. We purchased it as much for the Toad as we did the Class A. If a tire blows on the Toad, we may not know it until there is a lot of damage. You have the same issue with a trailer or 5th wheel.

TPMS's are for people that can't/won't check the air pressure in their vehicles' tires on a routine basis, as used to be the norm.

Unfortunately, those are the same people that won't pay any attention to the TPMS either, so one has to wonder what the heck the point is.

Francesca Knowles wrote:
TPMS's are for people that can't/won't check the air pressure in their vehicles' tires on a routine basis, as used to be the norm.

Unfortunately, those are the same people that won't pay any attention to the TPMS either, so one has to wonder what the heck the point is.

I have a TST system... it has an alarm... but when it goes off I just ignore it.

A TPMS is also for folks that did check their tires before driving the last 300 miles home, and picked up a nail somewhere that stayed in the right rear inside tire all the way home, slowly leaking. No blowout. Didn't know it until I checked the tire pressures the next morning.
Now I take a look at that readout as well as all the other instruments. If you don't need an instrument panel, maybe you could install a TV.

Francesca Knowles wrote:
TPMS's are for people that can't/won't check the air pressure in their vehicles' tires on a routine basis, as used to be the norm.

Unfortunately, those are the same people that won't pay any attention to the TPMS either, so one has to wonder what the heck the point is.

I call BS on that!
Once you are rolling you have no idea what is happening to your tires behind you. Even if they are brand new and at the correct pressure when you start out you never know when you might pick up a nail or develop a slow leak.
A TPMS is there to let you know if something goes wrong AFTER you have done the morning checks.

sidney wrote:

Francesca Knowles wrote:
TPMS's are for people that can't/won't check the air pressure in their vehicles' tires on a routine basis, as used to be the norm.

Unfortunately, those are the same people that won't pay any attention to the TPMS either, so one has to wonder what the heck the point is.

I have a TST system... it has an alarm... but when it goes off I just ignore it.

:B
.......;)

Necessary, no. Nice to have, yes. We've had one for quite a few years, however it has never been needed. In fact in over 200,000 miles with various non-Chinese tires, we have NEVER needed to mount a spare we carried/carry. Had a few repairable nail punctures, but caught them before driving.

Will I give up my TT spare? Nope, Murphy is watchng. Same answer for my Pressure Pro.