Trailer Tire Pressure Monitors

[ESDA]

Anyone have any experience with trailer tire pressure monitors? Looking on amazon they range in price from around $60 up past $300. Any brands seem to be better than the other? Is there a difference between the cheaper ones and the more expensive ones?

[chrispitude]

Jayco254 wrote:
I'm happy with my Tire Minder unit. Their customer service has got to be next too none.

I am not sure you are saying what you think you are saying. 🙂

[Jayco254]

I'm happy with my Tire Minder unit. Their customer service has got to be next too none.

[ktmrfs]

Woodtroll wrote:
I am pleased with the most recent version of the TireMinder intended for trailers (TM66). It works well with the included repeater, and it is easy to "unhook" the trailer sensors when you're driving the truck by itself. It reads both pressure and temperature, and refreshes every 5 minutes (?) or so unless you have an issue. However. if you have a fast leak it will alert immediately at any point within the 5-minute cycle.

Keep in mind that tire separation can sometimes happen without losing air pressure (this is one reason people suffer "blowouts with no warning" and think the system didn't work), but usually the temperature will rise as the tire is deteriorating and you may get a warning that way. The downside is that you sometimes get false alarms on the temperature - say, if you pull into a hot parking lot after a long drive and the sun is hitting one side straight on, sometimes the temp on the tires on the sunny side will spike while the tire is still hot from the road and is warmed further by the sun and the hot asphalt.

Like any tool, the more you understand about how it works, and if you pick a good quality one to begin with, you will get more use out of it and learn to understand when it "acts up" what the cause is, then decide if it is something to worry about or not.

I have the TM66 as well, using it on two trailers. your summary is excellent. the ability to connect/disconnect "trailers" is a nice feature.

[trail-explorer]

This is a decent one too.

[Woodtroll]

I am pleased with the most recent version of the TireMinder intended for trailers (TM66). It works well with the included repeater, and it is easy to "unhook" the trailer sensors when you're driving the truck by itself. It reads both pressure and temperature, and refreshes every 5 minutes (?) or so unless you have an issue. However. if you have a fast leak it will alert immediately at any point within the 5-minute cycle.

Keep in mind that tire separation can sometimes happen without losing air pressure (this is one reason people suffer "blowouts with no warning" and think the system didn't work), but usually the temperature will rise as the tire is deteriorating and you may get a warning that way. The downside is that you sometimes get false alarms on the temperature - say, if you pull into a hot parking lot after a long drive and the sun is hitting one side straight on, sometimes the temp on the tires on the sunny side will spike while the tire is still hot from the road and is warmed further by the sun and the hot asphalt.

Like any tool, the more you understand about how it works, and if you pick a good quality one to begin with, you will get more use out of it and learn to understand when it "acts up" what the cause is, then decide if it is something to worry about or not.

[GrandpaKip]

2oldman wrote:

GrandpaKip wrote:
I am having a problem with my lumber stretcher, though.

Measure twice, cut once.

I cut it just once, but it still isn’t long enough.

[2oldman]

GrandpaKip wrote:
I am having a problem with my lumber stretcher, though.

Measure twice, cut once.

[ret_usn]

I have tire minder 55C on my travel trailer and when not towing its on my truck. Great unit. I got mine reconditioned and with a booster for 125. Great customer service and the owners manual is written with a little humor. Fun to install. No I do not sell them just am pleased with the unit.

[ktmrfs]

ScottG wrote:

Arcamper wrote:

ScottG wrote:
Any of them using the newest battery free technology cars have had for several years? (They work great)
I'd like a set of those with sensors that mount inside the tire.

I am curious what cars have a battery free sensor mounted inside the wheel? Only battery free system I have seen does not have sensors, they use the anti lock brake sensor at each wheel and count tire revolutions compared to the other tire. My Honda has this system but there is no sensor in the wheel. Only asking because I like to keep up with the new stuff and have not heard about this.



As far as TPMS for trailers go I have had the TST system with repeater running for years now and just upgraded to the new color monitor. I use it for the truck since my aftermarket wheels won't take the factory sensors and two trailers. I do recommend metal valve stems because I did have a rubber stem crack on my boat trailer. The only complaint I have is the new monitor has the temp and pressure reversed from the old style monitor so after years of looking at it one way it's backwards now and it takes some getting use to but that's just me I guess.

Our Challenger SRT has them and I would guess that other FCA products have them too. Also my friends Aston Martin is so equipped.

yes, there are a few out but they are AFAIK all using a larger inside the tire mount rather than being able to be used with a valve stem mount.

they use a piezoelectric SAW sensor and rquire a transmitter/reciever placed near each tire. TI has comercical offerings. transmitter/reciever and sensor is an RFID type device.

the nice thing for vehicle mfg is that it is designed to be used with the canbus system in the vehicle and doesn't need a seperate RF transmitter/reciever. so for a mfg it may be less costly than the current systems.

[ScottG]

Arcamper wrote:

ScottG wrote:
Any of them using the newest battery free technology cars have had for several years? (They work great)
I'd like a set of those with sensors that mount inside the tire.

I am curious what cars have a battery free sensor mounted inside the wheel? Only battery free system I have seen does not have sensors, they use the anti lock brake sensor at each wheel and count tire revolutions compared to the other tire. My Honda has this system but there is no sensor in the wheel. Only asking because I like to keep up with the new stuff and have not heard about this.



As far as TPMS for trailers go I have had the TST system with repeater running for years now and just upgraded to the new color monitor. I use it for the truck since my aftermarket wheels won't take the factory sensors and two trailers. I do recommend metal valve stems because I did have a rubber stem crack on my boat trailer. The only complaint I have is the new monitor has the temp and pressure reversed from the old style monitor so after years of looking at it one way it's backwards now and it takes some getting use to but that's just me I guess.

Our Challenger SRT has them and I would guess that other FCA products have them too. Also my friends Aston Martin is so equipped.

[BurbMan]

I use this this Dill TPMS, I've had it installed for about 5 yrs now and works great. The system came with both a ducky antenna on the display and also a separate external antenna. The external antenna has a strong magnet mount, and I stuck it to the frame inside the LR quarterpanel on the truck. I get a good reliable signal fro all 4 TT tires an no repeater needed.

[Arcamper]

ScottG wrote:
Any of them using the newest battery free technology cars have had for several years? (They work great)
I'd like a set of those with sensors that mount inside the tire.

I am curious what cars have a battery free sensor mounted inside the wheel? Only battery free system I have seen does not have sensors, they use the anti lock brake sensor at each wheel and count tire revolutions compared to the other tire. My Honda has this system but there is no sensor in the wheel. Only asking because I like to keep up with the new stuff and have not heard about this.



As far as TPMS for trailers go I have had the TST system with repeater running for years now and just upgraded to the new color monitor. I use it for the truck since my aftermarket wheels won't take the factory sensors and two trailers. I do recommend metal valve stems because I did have a rubber stem crack on my boat trailer. The only complaint I have is the new monitor has the temp and pressure reversed from the old style monitor so after years of looking at it one way it's backwards now and it takes some getting use to but that's just me I guess.

[LarryJM]

guidry wrote:
I have TireMinder and the company is good to work with; however, a couple of things:
1. You don't need metal valve stems, some people think you do because of the rotation of the tires will make the stems wobble and cause problems. I haven't had any issues in that regard.

I also have had the TireMinder system for over 6 years and over 10K miles towing w/o issues not having metal valve stems. I do have the high pressue stems that have the part flexible metal stem and use the metal chrome stem cover on them because of my aluminum wheels. IIRC when I orignally got my system one of the advantages from TM is that the sensors were light enough that metal stems were not required.

Larry

[IPegasus]

I have the EEZ tire pressure monitor. Don't install it without also installing the repeater. If the monitor loses communication with any tire sensor it doesn't tell you for one (1) hour. If you are unlucky to have a problem during that time, too bad, it is too late. If you monitor pressure and temperature readings going down the road you will find that they vary on all wheels. The side where the sun is shining on will have a higher temperature and pressure. If you find one that does not vary it has lost communication with the monitor, it just reports the same readings for an hour. Before I installed the repeater there were two times where I had a flat and the monitor said every thing is OK. One was a blow out and the other was a nail in the tire.