Who uses a TPMS and which one do you recommend?

[tomkat2]

Agreeing with most everyone else...TST507. I do want to reiterate (I think it was "CHen") the post above, upgrade to metal wheel stems. The weight of the flow through sensors can cause movement of the rubber stems, in time allowing them to rub and cut against the wheel rims. I found out the hard way developing a slow leak out in the middle of nowhere! had to add air 3 times before getting to a town that had a tire shop. The guy chuckled and said they see this frequently. A free 5 minute fix IF, you're close to a tire shop! Get the metal stems!
Safe Travels!

[notanlines]

TST 507 also. I still use the infrared thermometer (uh, yes, Harbor Freight ) at every stop on all 12 tires.

[LewisB]

Originally Posted by blubuckaroo

Thanks. That's what I needed to know. I plan to buy a system, but don't want to buy one of these just to find out there are setups with internal senders available.

Potential source: check out all the comparison and training videos. Great customer service - personal recommendation:

https://www.youtube.com/user/technor...iber&query=507

[Tireman9]

Originally Posted by Skippy38

Last June I had a blowout on one of my tires due to an over inflation scenario that I will not go into now. Granted these were Trailer King tires which I will be replacing but I know a TPMS system would have alerted me to the condition that caused the blowout so I will be upgrading to one when I get new tires. Which ones do you guys use? Thanks!

Wondering where you came up with a source of 200 - 250 psi as that is what it takes to blow up an undamaged tire.

[Tireman9]

Originally Posted by JRTJH

I think there's a compromise between battery size, battery power and the amount of power it takes to broadcast through the steel/aluminum wheels. So far, they haven't developed a system that's strong enough to broadcast a signal from t he wheel to the cab with the batteries currently available in the price range to keep the systems competitive with what's already on the market.

If you think back to the first TPMS in cars, they were a steel band and a "electronics package" close to the size of a hockey puck. Today's systems are much smaller, but the smaller they get, the less power they can package inside the unit. The more power they need, the bigger the battery, so there's a "fine line between small enough, powerful enough and long lasting enough.... As TPMS technology develops, no doubt we'll soon have tires with built in TPMS that won't need any external sensor, but we're not that "evolved" yet.

TST has an internal sensor that mounts to the wheel. Works fine in my comparison test of internal vs external. Results on my RV Tire Safety blog.

[Tireman9]

Originally Posted by LHaven

Yup, that's true for TMPS units designed for internal installation, but it's not true of the stem-mounted variety which, at this point, is all you can get for trailers (or at least Trailer Life doesn't know of any others). Trailer units have the additional burden of having to transmit a reading some 30' or more to a responder in the tow vehicle, and nobody to my knowledge has engineered an internal unit that addresses this problem.

Mount a simple repeater and no loss of signal problems discovered in my comparison test.

[Tireman9]

Originally Posted by notanlines

TST 507 also. I still use the infrared thermometer (uh, yes, Harbor Freight ) at every stop on all 12 tires.

The hand held IR guns do not get the tire hot spot. Can you get all your tires at the same spot as last check and do them all in less than 2 min?

[LewisB]

Originally Posted by Tireman9

The hand held IR guns do not get the tire hot spot. Can you get all your tires at the same spot as last check and do them all in less than 2 min?

Like Jim (post #42 by notanlines), I also use an IR Thermometer to check tires and wheel hubs at stops. It is not for comparison with "previous readings" and I'm not looking for the hottest spot on the tire. I'm comparing tires with each other and more importantly wheel hubs with each other, looking for any anomalous readings that could point to a bearing problem.

The TPMS give me heat on the trailer tires in real time. The IR gun gives me heat in the truck tires (not monitored by OE tire system) and allows me to compare tires on the DRW.

I have to do a walk around anyway (for my back & legs), so I figure a little bit of information from the IR gun could be valuable. Of course, I have no qualifications other than about 50 years of towing, so maybe it's a pointless exercise. At least it keeps me entertained!

[sourdough]

Originally Posted by LewisB

Like Jim (post #42 by notanlines), I also use an IR Thermometer to check tires and wheel hubs at stops. It is not for comparison with "previous readings" and I'm not looking for the hottest spot on the tire. I'm comparing tires with each other and more importantly wheel hubs with each other, looking for any anomalous readings that could point to a bearing problem.

The TPMS give me heat on the trailer tires in real time. The IR gun gives me heat in the truck tires (not monitored by OE tire system) and allows me to compare tires on the DRW.

I have to do a walk around anyway (for my back & legs), so I figure a little bit of information from the IR gun could be valuable. Of course, I have no qualifications other than about 50 years of towing, so maybe it's a pointless exercise. At least it keeps me entertained!

^^^^^^x3!! Same here! Guess I just like to watch the numbers pop up on the back of the IR gun (HF by the way)

[JRTJH]

^^^ X4...

I walk around at every stop, shining that little red light on every tire and every hub and looking at the numbers on that tiny screen. It may not make a "hill of beans difference" but it keeps me happy and keeps my HF IR thermometer from getting dusty in the driver's door pocket on my truck.....

Like the others, it may not help, but it certainly doesn't hurt.....

[flybouy]

^^^^X5. Keep it in the door and grab it at every stop. Check all hubs and even "shoot" the hitch coupler on the way back.

[travelin texans]

Add one more to that waste of time with the IR gun at rest stops list, makes me feel good.

[chunker]

I carry an IR gun on board but don't use it unless something is out of the ordinary. My EEZtire TPMS give temperature reading for all tires and I know the Jeep right front is always a bit hotter by about 10 degrees because the motorhome exhaust goes by it. Last spring when I noticed the right front running about 40 degrees hotter the IR gun showed the hub was having issues. That's the brake caliper issues I previously referenced.

I carry a torque wrench and don't check torque every time I stop.