Tire pressure monitor

[Tireman9]

Originally Posted by bearcat77

I just put the TST flow through sensors on my Montana High Country last week in preparation for an 11 hour drive to Virginia Beach. Unfortunately, I made good use of it. Ran over something about 4 hours into the trip on I-64 in West Virginia. Sensor started alarming immediately. I drove a little bit thinking it must be a bad sensor. I’ve never had a flat, and the coincidence of getting one immediately after putting on a sensor system was just too much, right? I was losing about 2 PSI every 20 second cycle, so after about a minute I pulled over. Sure enough, as soon as I started walking back, I heard the hissing. Threw on spare #1 and continued on. Had that tire plugged at a Tread Quarters in Pungo Virginia. On the way home, lightning struck twice. We were on I-71 in Ohio, about 40 minutes from home, when the alarm started sounding for the other tire on that same side of the trailer. Dug out all the tools, and put the plugged tire on in its place. Of course Tread Quarters did not inflate the tire, so then I had to dig out the compressor, get the tire inflated, and swap out the pressure sensor. Get that all wrapped up, get on the highway, and about one mile later, we hear a whoosh, and the alarm goes nuts for a third time. This time I find the tire completely destroyed. It held pressure for all of 2 minutes before it blew out. At this point, it’s pitch black, and I’m really enjoying laying on the ground mere inches from being smeared across I-71. I throw on my backup spare from a previous trailer, which isn’t the same load rating, but it performed admirably, and we finally limped home an hour and a half later than expected.

Moral of the story: buy a pressure sensor system now! I definitely recommend the TST flow through sensors. They worked flawlessly and were very easy to setup. I’m convinced I already got my money back by not driving for who knows how long on that slowly leaking tire in West Virginia, which would have eventually come apart and ripped apart the side of the camper.

2nd moral of the story: carry two spares. I think from now on, I’ll carry three. New Sailuns will go on this week. Then I’ll have the original spare plus a couple china bomb spares.

Maybe the real bit to remember is to trust your TPMS. Driving on a tire that is losing air means you are damaging the tire.


Plug repairs are not proper according to tire companies and DOT. You were sold a bill of goods, probably because the tire shop didn't want to make the effort to do the job correctly. Another reason to do an interior patch is that it requires the tire be dismounted so the interior can be inspected for damage, which if discovered means the tire is just so much scrap.


I cover proper and improper repairs in my RVTire Safety blog.



To be clear. Are you talking about 3 different tires? or one that was plugged and failed later?

[sourdough]

Originally Posted by bearcat77

I just put the TST flow through sensors on my Montana High Country last week in preparation for an 11 hour drive to Virginia Beach. Unfortunately, I made good use of it. Ran over something about 4 hours into the trip on I-64 in West Virginia. Sensor started alarming immediately. I drove a little bit thinking it must be a bad sensor. I’ve never had a flat, and the coincidence of getting one immediately after putting on a sensor system was just too much, right? I was losing about 2 PSI every 20 second cycle, so after about a minute I pulled over. Sure enough, as soon as I started walking back, I heard the hissing. Threw on spare #1 and continued on. Had that tire plugged at a Tread Quarters in Pungo Virginia. On the way home, lightning struck twice. We were on I-71 in Ohio, about 40 minutes from home, when the alarm started sounding for the other tire on that same side of the trailer. Dug out all the tools, and put the plugged tire on in its place. Of course Tread Quarters did not inflate the tire, so then I had to dig out the compressor, get the tire inflated, and swap out the pressure sensor. Get that all wrapped up, get on the highway, and about one mile later, we hear a whoosh, and the alarm goes nuts for a third time. This time I find the tire completely destroyed. It held pressure for all of 2 minutes before it blew out. At this point, it’s pitch black, and I’m really enjoying laying on the ground mere inches from being smeared across I-71. I throw on my backup spare from a previous trailer, which isn’t the same load rating, but it performed admirably, and we finally limped home an hour and a half later than expected.

Moral of the story: buy a pressure sensor system now! I definitely recommend the TST flow through sensors. They worked flawlessly and were very easy to setup. I’m convinced I already got my money back by not driving for who knows how long on that slowly leaking tire in West Virginia, which would have eventually come apart and ripped apart the side of the camper.

2nd moral of the story: carry two spares. I think from now on, I’ll carry three. New Sailuns will go on this week. Then I’ll have the original spare plus a couple china bomb spares.

The kind of scenario we worry about and hope never happens! Glad you got home OK. They probably did more harm than good by plugging that tire.

[bearcat77]

The same tire was flat #1 and then the blowout after the plug. I knew a plug wasn’t ideal, but the tire shop guy was the one that suggested it. I went along with it, because I don’t know that much about repairing tires, and mainly because I really wasn’t expecting to use the tire again. That tire was the rear passenger side tire. Flat #2 was the front passenger side tire.

[sourdough]

On those new Sailuns look at the load range of the old tire, the weight of the rv and the rating for the new tires - I suspect you might want to go up a load range. Don't know the year but the weight rating may be minimal. A failure on one tire on one side can many times cause premature failure to the other tire on that side due to the shift of weight.

As I said, don't know your trailer but, this one came with LRF and pulled them off to be replaced with Sailun LRG before it came off the lot. Don't have any faith in OEM tires on an RV.