Tire Blow-outs

Wayno

Member
Has anybody used a Tire Pressure Monitoring System? Any pros & cons. Considering putting it on our travel trailer. Any info would be helpful..... Thanks, Wayno
 

JohnDar

Prolifically Gabby Member
A lot of people have put tire monitoring systems on their trailers and tow vehicles, as well. Just about all of them swear by them, regardless of the brand. Some, like the newer model of the TST have batteries that the user can replace. Others have 5-year batteries that need to be sent back to be replaced. My TST set is the latter. For now, I only have sensors on the trailer's four road tires. My truck currently has rubber stems and won't have steel ones (metal stems are required) until I get new tires some time in the future or get even more fed up than I did recently while trying to check the pressure on the inner duallies.

A word of caution on tire monitoring, though. Don't get mesmerized by the numbers changing as you drive. The tires heat up and the pressures rise. One side will run higher and hotter than the other due sun load and the weight distribution of the trailer. Once you get used to it and it stabilizes, the numbers will be the norm for you, not necessarily the set points in the instruction manual. What you're most concerned with is pressure decreasing in only one tire as you drive. That tells you something is wrong. But if it's a true blow-out, the warning may come a moment after you see pieces of rubber flying from your rig.
 

danemayer

Well-known member
I bought the TPMS at this year's rally. The 2 things that give me peace of mind are knowing that the tires are properly inflated when I start out in the morning, and knowing immediately if I have a problem while going down the road. The tire safety guy at the rally was explaining that driving on a tire that's 20% low is permanently damaging to the tire - it's effective a flat tire when down 20%. So if I'm supposed to be at 110# and am actually at 88#, I'm driving on a flat and ruining the tire.
 

SJH

Past Washington Chapter Leaders
We use the older TST. It has saved us twice! Once as we were headed over the North Cascade mountain pass. Would have hated having a blow out up there!
 

cookie

Administrator
Staff member
My old Pressure Pro saved me two times. I now have a TST. Both are good units.
Do not consider a tire pressure monitor system. Get one.

Peace
Dvave
 

rvn4fun

Well-known member
We have Pressure Pro, once we had a valve core leaking and pressure pro caught it. Started the day 8 pounds down put air in tire. 2 days later when we were leaving the campground, it alerted again, same tire. Tightened up the valve core and had no further problems. Possibly if the Pressure pro hadn't caught this slow leak we could have had a blow out. Money well spent, we think.
 

caissiel

Senior Member
My units cost the price of one tire, so if it will protect 4 tires its a good investment.
80PSI units are much cheaper then the 140Lbs units so there could be good returns on those models.
 

ncc1701e

Well-known member
I just installed a TST system before our most recent trip. Traveled 4500 miles through IA, WI, MN, ND, SD, IL, KY in the last two months. Was a real peace of mind to be able to easily check tire pressures and temperatures. I have the units to intall on the truck and will do that before our next adventure in October.
 

caissiel

Senior Member
I use the similar units sold in Canada, On sale they are very affordable. they have the replaceble batteries an so far I had to replace 2 original ones.

They have plenty of power and so far I have not used the booster amplifier.
 
Top