Trailer Tire Pressure Monitors

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.