Which TPMS system to buy for truck and trailer?

[msta999]

Hi all, I have an 05 F350 which I will be towing my 24ft toy hauler (double axle)and want to install an aftermarket TPMS kit to monitor tires on my truck and trailer. Anyone try'd any of these? Which kit will not have trouble communicating with the sensors on my trailer?

Thanks and I hope everyone is doing ok and being safe!

[cummins2014]

fj12ryder wrote:
Well, I've had the TST system for 6-7 years, and it only happened that one time. But it also reconnected on its own. How many times had it happened before and I never noticed it? How many times has it happened to you and you never noticed it? How many times have we been running down the road thinking it's working, and it's not? No way to tell with an hour wait for notification.

Just because yours has never alerted doesn't mean the monitor hasn't lost connection to a sensor. It just means that if it did, it reconnected within an hour so it never alerted. No way to tell.

As far as I know I haven't lost connection with a sensor. It gets looked at quite frequently, so if it did then as you say there would be a difference in the readings before things got heated up. So far that has not happened as the temperature ,and pressure increase. Now if it loses connection after everything has topped off, and running pretty consistent, well there is no way to know I guess on that part .

I trust the system,so hopefully that is not happening with a repeater . I can't help thinking that was your problem. Its apparent it was an issue losing connection on a sensor before they started coming out with the repeater .

[Ron3rd]

I went with the TST 507 about 10 years ago and works fine. Had to buy the repeater when we went with the 35 ft trailer. I understand they now all come with repeater. The monitor died last year but nothing lasts forever. Their new monitors are actually much nicer.

[fj12ryder]

Well, I've had the TST system for 6-7 years, and it only happened that one time. But it also reconnected on its own. How many times had it happened before and I never noticed it? How many times has it happened to you and you never noticed it? How many times have we been running down the road thinking it's working, and it's not? No way to tell with an hour wait for notification.

Just because yours has never alerted doesn't mean the monitor hasn't lost connection to a sensor. It just means that if it did, it reconnected within an hour so it never alerted. No way to tell.

[cummins2014]

fj12ryder wrote:

cummins2014 wrote:

fj12ryder wrote:
Yes, I've seen it firsthand. We left a campground, and about 45 minutes later I happened to glance at the monitor while it cycled through the tires. I noticed one tire was still at the pressure shown when we first started out, while the others had all increased as the tires warmed. I started to pull over and check, but just as I slowed, the monitor changed and the correct tire pressure came up for that tire. No warning, no alarm, no nothing. If I had that tire fail, or pressure drop, previous to that minute I'd have had no notice.

To me this is a big red "FAIL" on TST system. And it's never been addressed. It would seem that as a partial admission there is an issue, TST now ships the system with the repeater as standard equipment. It didn't when I bought mine, it was an option.

And the TST monitor updates regardless of whether the trailer is moving or not.

Have not had that issue, although I do have the repeater. Are you saying its because you DO NOT have the repeater ?? . Then if thats the case then what you are saying in a non issue now with the repeater ?? Mine has not missed a beat. My system is just over a year old now, before the next trip I'll change the sensor batteries.

On edit, if that is the case ,no repeater ,would it not be fair to say in all fairness its a non issue NOW !!!!!

It's a non-issue if the monitor never loses contact with a sensor. The repeater lessens the chance of that happening, but I don't know that it guarantees it never will happen. I don't know if there is a notification if the repeater fails, or loses power. It doesn't change the alert time, it just puts a band-aid on the problem. I would like to see a much shorter notification time, instead of, or in addition to.

Kind of sounds like the problem you have had the repeater was the solution, does it guarantee it ,no idea. As said mine has not had any problems so far. Probably the only way to know for sure for if you haven't got a repeater yet, is to get one ,and see.

[fj12ryder]

cummins2014 wrote:

fj12ryder wrote:
Yes, I've seen it firsthand. We left a campground, and about 45 minutes later I happened to glance at the monitor while it cycled through the tires. I noticed one tire was still at the pressure shown when we first started out, while the others had all increased as the tires warmed. I started to pull over and check, but just as I slowed, the monitor changed and the correct tire pressure came up for that tire. No warning, no alarm, no nothing. If I had that tire fail, or pressure drop, previous to that minute I'd have had no notice.

To me this is a big red "FAIL" on TST system. And it's never been addressed. It would seem that as a partial admission there is an issue, TST now ships the system with the repeater as standard equipment. It didn't when I bought mine, it was an option.

And the TST monitor updates regardless of whether the trailer is moving or not.

Have not had that issue, although I do have the repeater. Are you saying its because you DO NOT have the repeater ?? . Then if thats the case then what you are saying in a non issue now with the repeater ?? Mine has not missed a beat. My system is just over a year old now, before the next trip I'll change the sensor batteries.

On edit, if that is the case ,no repeater ,would it not be fair to say in all fairness its a non issue NOW !!!!!

It's a non-issue if the monitor never loses contact with a sensor. The repeater lessens the chance of that happening, but I don't know that it guarantees it never will happen. I don't know if there is a notification if the repeater fails, or loses power. It doesn't change the alert time, it just puts a band-aid on the problem. I would like to see a much shorter notification time, instead of, or in addition to.

[happy2rv]

Good to know. I will have to pay closer attention to my TireMinder but I suspect it is probably the same. I agree, it's a serious failure in design.

[cummins2014]

fj12ryder wrote:
Yes, I've seen it firsthand. We left a campground, and about 45 minutes later I happened to glance at the monitor while it cycled through the tires. I noticed one tire was still at the pressure shown when we first started out, while the others had all increased as the tires warmed. I started to pull over and check, but just as I slowed, the monitor changed and the correct tire pressure came up for that tire. No warning, no alarm, no nothing. If I had that tire fail, or pressure drop, previous to that minute I'd have had no notice.

To me this is a big red "FAIL" on TST system. And it's never been addressed. It would seem that as a partial admission there is an issue, TST now ships the system with the repeater as standard equipment. It didn't when I bought mine, it was an option.

And the TST monitor updates regardless of whether the trailer is moving or not.

Have not had that issue, although I do have the repeater. Are you saying its because you DO NOT have the repeater ?? . Then if thats the case then what you are saying in a non issue now with the repeater ?? Mine has not missed a beat. My system is just over a year old now, before the next trip I'll change the sensor batteries.

On edit, if that is the case ,no repeater ,would it not be fair to say in all fairness its a non issue NOW !!!!!

[fj12ryder]

Yes, I've seen it firsthand. We left a campground, and about 45 minutes later I happened to glance at the monitor while it cycled through the tires. I noticed one tire was still at the pressure shown when we first started out, while the others had all increased as the tires warmed. I started to pull over and check, but just as I slowed, the monitor changed and the correct tire pressure came up for that tire. No warning, no alarm, no nothing. If I had that tire fail, or pressure drop, previous to that minute I'd have had no notice.

To me this is a big red "FAIL" on TST system. And it's never been addressed. It would seem that as a partial admission there is an issue, TST now ships the system with the repeater as standard equipment. It didn't when I bought mine, it was an option.

And the TST monitor updates regardless of whether the trailer is moving or not.

[happy2rv]

fj12ryder wrote:

cummins2014 wrote:
I did just that ,wired in a 12 volt switch for my repeater, right next to it in my battery compartment of my fifth wheel. Plenty of 12 volt sources there to hook to. I want to turn it off when not in use. My fifth wheel is plugged in 24/7 beside my house .

As said before TST seems to be the brand to get. I have been happy with mine ,not sure what else you could ask for on a system. Mine supports more tires then I would ever have. Simple to program, easy installation etc. I noticed one not happy with their website, not sure what more there is to know about TST, but I have never been on their website, so not sure what one needs to know that they don't provide .

In a nutshell, the TST 507 monitors as many tires as you could possibly want, it has low pressure warning, high pressure warning, and high temperature warning . I don't know what else there is to want on a TMPS.

The only issue I have with the TST system is the very long delay between when the monitor loses contact with a sensor, and when it notifies you that it has lost contact. It takes an hour for the monitor to alarm for signal loss from a sensor. Way too long IMO. Plus if the monitor regains contact, you'd never know that it was running without updating because it will keep showing the last known reading. Conceivably you could lose contact with a sensor for 50 minutes, then regain contact, then lose contact for another 50 minutes. You would, in reality, only be connected to the sensor for maybe 10 minutes in 2 hours.

I've never understood why they don't change the notification time to less than what it is.

Have you verified that it works that way while in motion? I've wondered that about my TireMinder as posted above. I know that once the trailer stops moving, the sensors stop sending normal periodic updates and as indicated can sometimes go for hours (maybe longer) without indicating a loss of signal. I kind of assumed that if it was getting regular periodic updates, and updates from the other sensors that it would alarm loss of signal much sooner, hopefully within the 4 minute "normal" update period, but I haven't actually tested that and haven't seen anything that tells me how its supposed to work... I can't recall what I was seeing before I put the repeater in other than it "indicated" it was working about 80% of the time and alarmed loss of signal around 20% of the time.

[Seattle_Steve]

fj12ryder wrote:
The only issue I have with the TST system is the very long delay between when the monitor loses contact with a sensor, and when it notifies you that it has lost contact. It takes an hour for the monitor to alarm for signal loss from a sensor. Way too long IMO. Plus if the monitor regains contact, you'd never know that it was running without updating because it will keep showing the last known reading. Conceivably you could lose contact with a sensor for 50 minutes, then regain contact, then lose contact for another 50 minutes. You would, in reality, only be connected to the sensor for maybe 10 minutes in 2 hours.

I've never understood why they don't change the notification time to less than what it is.

This concerns me. Does anyone else with TST systems have this issue?

[fj12ryder]

cummins2014 wrote:
I did just that ,wired in a 12 volt switch for my repeater, right next to it in my battery compartment of my fifth wheel. Plenty of 12 volt sources there to hook to. I want to turn it off when not in use. My fifth wheel is plugged in 24/7 beside my house .

As said before TST seems to be the brand to get. I have been happy with mine ,not sure what else you could ask for on a system. Mine supports more tires then I would ever have. Simple to program, easy installation etc. I noticed one not happy with their website, not sure what more there is to know about TST, but I have never been on their website, so not sure what one needs to know that they don't provide .

In a nutshell, the TST 507 monitors as many tires as you could possibly want, it has low pressure warning, high pressure warning, and high temperature warning . I don't know what else there is to want on a TMPS.

The only issue I have with the TST system is the very long delay between when the monitor loses contact with a sensor, and when it notifies you that it has lost contact. It takes an hour for the monitor to alarm for signal loss from a sensor. Way too long IMO. Plus if the monitor regains contact, you'd never know that it was running without updating because it will keep showing the last known reading. Conceivably you could lose contact with a sensor for 50 minutes, then regain contact, then lose contact for another 50 minutes. You would, in reality, only be connected to the sensor for maybe 10 minutes in 2 hours.

I've never understood why they don't change the notification time to less than what it is.

[dodge_guy]

cummins2014 wrote:

dodge guy wrote:
The repeater is wired into the 12v system. You could run a dedicated wire from an ignition source all the way at the front of the RV. Or you could hardware it into a constant source which is what I did. When mine is in storage the 12V system is shut down, but if you want you could install a switch in line to shut it off or just pull the fuse. The amp draw is minuscule. It wouldn't drain the battery even after a week or 2 of being left on. I just don't want to keep,it powered up when not needed.

BTW. I took my RV back tomstorage yesterday and with the repeater it kept all the sensors readin on the display, without the repeater the rear would drop out occasionally. I didn't have he car attached so I can't say how well that is, but I didn't see any issues.

I did just that ,wired in a 12 volt switch for my repeater, right next to it in my battery compartment of my fifth wheel. Plenty of 12 volt sources there to hook to. I want to turn it off when not in use. My fifth wheel is plugged in 24/7 beside my house .

As said before TST seems to be the brand to get. I have been happy with mine ,not sure what else you could ask for on a system. Mine supports more tires then I would ever have. Simple to program, easy installation etc. I noticed one not happy with their website, not sure what more there is to know about TST, but I have never been on their website, so not sure what one needs to know that they don't provide .

In a nutshell, the TST 507 monitors as many tires as you could possibly want, it has low pressure warning, high pressure warning, and high temperature warning . I don't know what else there is to want on a TMPS.

Yes, that's why I went with the TST507. They had tit best reviews and the new color monitor is a bit larger, BTW the new color monitor is compatible with the old system with the black and white monitor.
My buddy got the EEZ Tire system and it looks just like the old TST monitor but the sensors are larger. They also have good reviews.

[cummins2014]

dodge guy wrote:
The repeater is wired into the 12v system. You could run a dedicated wire from an ignition source all the way at the front of the RV. Or you could hardware it into a constant source which is what I did. When mine is in storage the 12V system is shut down, but if you want you could install a switch in line to shut it off or just pull the fuse. The amp draw is minuscule. It wouldn't drain the battery even after a week or 2 of being left on. I just don't want to keep,it powered up when not needed.

BTW. I took my RV back tomstorage yesterday and with the repeater it kept all the sensors readin on the display, without the repeater the rear would drop out occasionally. I didn't have he car attached so I can't say how well that is, but I didn't see any issues.

I did just that ,wired in a 12 volt switch for my repeater, right next to it in my battery compartment of my fifth wheel. Plenty of 12 volt sources there to hook to. I want to turn it off when not in use. My fifth wheel is plugged in 24/7 beside my house .

As said before TST seems to be the brand to get. I have been happy with mine ,not sure what else you could ask for on a system. Mine supports more tires then I would ever have. Simple to program, easy installation etc. I noticed one not happy with their website, not sure what more there is to know about TST, but I have never been on their website, so not sure what one needs to know that they don't provide .

In a nutshell, the TST 507 monitors as many tires as you could possibly want, it has low pressure warning, high pressure warning, and high temperature warning . I don't know what else there is to want on a TMPS.

[happy2rv]

We have the TireMinder TM55c system for the trailer. This model only supports 5 sensors and a max of 80 PSI, so not appropriate for the OP's needs. They do make models like the TM-77-6, which I believe is very similar, that are appropriate though.

TPMS was one of the first must have items for me when we bought the trailer. The TireMinder is the only aftermarket system I'm familiar with, but when it comes time to replace it I will do more research. Overall, I'm happy with it, but there are a few issues, probably common to most, maybe all, of the systems.

We did try the system without the repeater. As far as I could tell, it worked about 80% of the time. The other 20% of the time, it would report signal loss. Adding the repeater fixed that problem. We installed the repeater on the A frame near the tongue of the trailer and tied it to the trailer battery.

So, here are the the issues I see:

• Notice I said "As far as I could tell" about the signal loss above. The literature for the TM-77 indicates that the sensors check the tires every 6 seconds, but the system only updates every 4 minutes. As far as I can tell, the system doesn't have any indication of when updates are received. I assume if there is a problem detected, it will update immediately, but I'm not certain of that. If not, 4 minutes could be a long time to wait for notification of a sudden pressure loss.
• The sensors only transmit, at least regularly, when they detect motion. This conserves battery life. However, we often park the trailer and leave the TM display/receiver in the truck. Some time later we will take the truck to do sight seeing or errands and at some random interval, sometimes hours later, the display will wake up and alarm with loss of signal.
• Turning the display on and off is kind of quirky and not intuitive.

Now the good things:

• Never had a problem with loss of pressure around the screw on sensors
• It's nice to have the temperature of the wheel
• I like that the display has it's own internal battery and I can put it wherever I want without having to worry about wires. Battery life is excellent as well.