Blowouts and TPMS

Halibutman214 · 03-31-2012, 06:28 PM

With all of the posts on blowouts and resulting RV damage I have to ask myself if a TPMS could have averted this. In my experience a tire will usually develop some sort of leak (even if right before a blowout) and I'm just curious if any of you that have had a resulting blowout had a TPMS? This is certainly something that would be very cost effective considering the damage that many of them cause. All it takes is a few seconds warning to get slowed down enough to not cause the damage. Any thoughts or experience on this?

smiller · 04-01-2012, 06:31 AM

Sorry, I got my TPMS after the blowouts...

I think whether TPMS would provide a warning depends on the cause of the failure, i.e. if there was a slow leak and the tire eventually overheated due to low pressure and then blew out, then the TPMS clearly would have saved you. If the tire was at normal pressure and just let go (which I think would happen in fractions of a second, not several seconds) then the TPMS probably wouldn't be able to warn you... but it would still be useful in telling you that a failure had occurred. I've had two blowouts and in both cases it took another driver to see it and warn me, if it weren't for that I probably would have run until the single remaining tire on that side failed, with potentially disastrous consequences. So I think TPMS is an excellent (almost mandatory) investment even if it can't always warn you in advance.

ktmracer · 04-01-2012, 07:02 AM

I had one tire with a slow leak that I caught at a rest stop before it blew w/o TPMS. No clue it was low. Now I have a TPMS. IMHO it can give warning and keep blowouts to a minimum, those caused by a slower loss of tire pressure, then heat buildup, then BAMM. And, in the case of a blowout, it will give you immediate warning, and also most TPMS will give a warning of high temp as well. So blowouts caused by nails etc. a TPMS will probably prevent them.

hankaye · 04-01-2012, 07:25 AM

Howdy All;

The adventure I had on the side of I-70 in Il. was the result of some kind of road debris followed by a rapid 'explosive' loss of pressure. there is no way that any kind of monitor devise could have caught that.
I think that fancy gagets are generally a distraction. How often do you (that means any of you that have them), look at them in a minutes time ..... or for Minutes at a time ???????????
How often do you find yourselves looking at the GPS unit for longer than 2 or 3 sec.'s while trying to decypher the directions .....
ONLY MY OPINIONS HERE ......

hankaye

BigBlue · 04-01-2012, 07:41 AM

I tried one of the systems and it was almost more of a headache then any help. The monitor would occasionally lose connections to he sensors so it was beeping at us for no reason. One time, it said my pressure was dropping and I pulled over on the side of a busy highway to find out it was a false reading and there was nothing wrong with the tire! My other concern was what was the effect of having the sensor on the valve stem. You could see on the tire rim where the sensor was knocking against the rim and rubbing it, I can't see how its good to have the valve stem bending like that. We ended up returning it. I just make sure to check the tires before each trip and when we stop.
We had the Hopkins system.

Halibutman214 · 04-01-2012, 08:57 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by hankaye

Howdy All;

The adventure I had on the side of I-70 in Il. was the result of some kind of road debris followed by a rapid 'explosive' loss of pressure. there is no way that any kind of monitor devise could have caught that.
I think that fancy gagets are generally a distraction. How often do you (that means any of you that have them), look at them in a minutes time ..... or for Minutes at a time ???????????
How often do you find yourselves looking at the GPS unit for longer than 2 or 3 sec.'s while trying to decypher the directions .....
ONLY MY OPINIONS HERE ......

hankaye

I would have agreed to what your saying BEFORE I got my truck with TPMS on it and learned a little bit about how it works. You don't have to look at it. A bell chimes and a light comes on when a tire is low. This has worked great for my truck as well as my wifes new Honda. The great thing about the ones for an RV is they also tell tire temp.

allentx1 · 04-01-2012, 04:06 PM

I did not have the TPMS on the trailer, have it on both vehicles though. I had considered TPMS for the tires but I just hadn't taken the time to research and cost out. If the TPMS tells me temperature too, that could be very helpful if the blowout is caused by high temperature separation. I'll find out (via Power King Manufacturer) what happened to my tires that caused the catastrophic failure. Maybe that will lead me in the right direction.

hankaye · 04-01-2012, 05:58 PM

Halibutman214, Howdy;

Quote:

Originally Posted by Halibutman214

I would have agreed to what your saying BEFORE I got my truck with TPMS on it and learned a little bit about how it works. You don't have to look at it. A bell chimes and a light comes on when a tire is low. This has worked great for my truck as well as my wifes new Honda. The great thing about the ones for an RV is they also tell tire temp.

I only have issues with the folks that don't exercise the will power to not look, same with the texters, and GPS ogglers. Find more folks in the woods that ran into trees 'cause they forgot to 'look-up' to see where they were headed. Also folks that have fallen over fences and the edges of cliffs short and tall. Had their eyes glued to the screens..... As a race we seem he** bent on self destruction.....

hankaye

smiller · 04-01-2012, 06:03 PM

I don't watch it, it isn't really that exciting

. I just want an alert if I have a leak so I can avoid ruining a tire for no reason, or if a tire blows so I don't have to hope that I detect it or some kind soul points it out before I lose two tires on one side.

There is no downside to a TPMS and I wouldn't get on the highway without one.

f6bits · 04-01-2012, 06:26 PM

What’s a good trailer TPMS system? Google only turned up a mediocre one at Walmart.

smiller · 04-01-2012, 06:30 PM

I use Tire Minder (or Tire Traker, same unit different vendor), very easy installation and it works well for me (get the optional signal booster, you need it for any large RV.) There are many others of course, search the RV sites and you will get a lot of hits.

http://www.minderresearch.com/tireminder.html

http://www.tiretraker.com

Mighty Ming · 04-01-2012, 07:06 PM

If you do get a TPMS be sure you install metal valve stems! You don't want it wobbling as the wheels go round and round equaling a failed rubber valve stem.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

smiller · 04-01-2012, 07:12 PM

The two systems I mentioned use very light sensors that they claim to be compatible with rubber stems. I have used them this way for many thousands of miles so far with no problems, and I don't see any obvious indications of stress on the stems. But I will probably go to metal when I next have the tires replaced, just to be sure.

RCrawler · 04-01-2012, 10:43 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by sdayman

What’s a good trailer TPMS system? Google only turned up a mediocre one at Walmart.

Small hammer to thump the tires at every fuel stop works really well. And a tire gauge and nozzle before your trip if you're really ambitious

Jason

Jim W · 04-02-2012, 05:33 AM

I had a failure of my LF trailer tire on that did over $2800 in damage to the trailer. Would TPMS have help? NO! Just another way to get my money.
I check my tire pressure ever time we tow the camper that is every time it is hooked up to the truck. I had check the air pressure at 8:00 that morning in Gibbon NE. as we got under way, by 8:10 AM I had a tire blow out on I80. To me this was road debris that caused the tire to explode and destroyed the trailer, not low tire pressure.
Jim W.

Halibutman214 · 04-02-2012, 05:35 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by sdayman

What’s a good trailer TPMS system? Google only turned up a mediocre one at Walmart.

The Tire Minder at Camping World gets great reviews. You might also check this out http://blog.rv.net/2010/07/rest-assu...e-minder-tpms/.

smiller · 04-02-2012, 07:30 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jim W

I had a failure of my LF trailer tire on that did over $2800 in damage to the trailer. Would TPMS have help? NO! Just another way to get my money.
I check my tire pressure ever time we tow the camper that is every time it is hooked up to the truck. I had check the air pressure at 8:00 that morning in Gibbon NE. as we got under way, by 8:10 AM I had a tire blow out on I80. To me this was road debris that caused the tire to explode and destroyed the trailer, not low tire pressure.

Again, possibly foretelling a failure is only a secondary feature of a TPMS -- the most important function is to ensure that you know immediately that you have lost a tire. It's critical to know this right away as the remaining tire will be running grossly overloaded and probably won't last long. I've lost a couple tires over the years and wasn't aware until another driver pointed it out and it was very fortunate for me that they did, and lucky for me none of these happened at night or in a sparsely populated area where the first indication might have been when the second tire inevitably blew. Makes me shudder just to think about it.

My advice to anyone would be to replace 'fortunate' and 'lucky' with some prior planning. There simply is no cheaper insurance against a potentially serious accident than a TPMS.

Halibutman214 · 04-02-2012, 07:43 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jim W

I had a failure of my LF trailer tire on that did over $2800 in damage to the trailer. Would TPMS have help? NO! Just another way to get my money.
I check my tire pressure ever time we tow the camper that is every time it is hooked up to the truck. I had check the air pressure at 8:00 that morning in Gibbon NE. as we got under way, by 8:10 AM I had a tire blow out on I80. To me this was road debris that caused the tire to explode and destroyed the trailer, not low tire pressure.
Jim W.

Okay and I know this can and will happen. If one doesn't want to fork out the bucks for a TPMS that is certainly your choice. For me it's a great tool just like my oil gauge, temp gauge, etc etc and "could", prevent something much more costly from happening.

chuck&gail · 04-02-2012, 07:46 PM

Have had a Pressure Pro for over 8 years. It only hollered at me once. Pulled over and checked, yup a bit low, but not yet dangerously low. Took it slow to nearest gas station and pumped it up. A bit later drove to repair place and had tire fixed.

Would tire have blown if we ignored it? Who knows. I know I feel safer with our Pressure Pro. In fact I bought a second monitor and swap the TT sensors onto wifes car when not towing! She likes that idea.

Jim W · 04-03-2012, 05:29 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by smiller

Again, possibly foretelling a failure is only a secondary feature of a TPMS -- the most important function is to ensure that you know immediately that you have lost a tire. It's critical to know this right away as the remaining tire will be running grossly overloaded and probably won't last long. I've lost a couple tires over the years and wasn't aware until another driver pointed it out and it was very fortunate for me that they did, and lucky for me none of these happened at night or in a sparsely populated area where the first indication might have been when the second tire inevitably blew. Makes me shudder just to think about it.

My advice to anyone would be to replace 'fortunate' and 'lucky' with some prior planning. There simply is no cheaper insurance against a potentially serious accident than a TPMS.

I know immediately when that tire blew it took all of 20 sec's to pull over on to the shoulder of the road. When that tire failed it sounded similar to a shotgun going off next to my left ear. Even my wife asked what was that. I simply answered her that was the left front tire that failed I could see the tire damage from my tow mirror.
Jim W.

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