Off to a BAD start

Ok, so I'm headed out bright and early this morning departing El Mirage, AZ and headed to California..... or so I thought :(

So sorry to see that. That's nasty.

You have a double headed nail from some contractors rubbish. :(

JIM

Yeah, Jim, it's a problem alright. Since it's through the sidewall, I have to replace it.... and finding a replacement isn't easy.

Luckily, I'm close to Phoenix, so there is a fair chance I'll find one.

I'm goin' nowhere 'till it's replaced, that's for sure. :(

Paul:

That's a bummer.

At least when I had a bolt in the tire going down the interstate, it was in the tread part and I was able to plug it on the side of the road.

I hope you and Janice are enjoying your stay in Az.

That's ugly. But be thankful you discovered it while parked instead of having the tire come apart in the middle of no-where. I guess there is always something to be thankful for.

Good luck and stay cool!

Well, the nail protruding well into the sidewall of my tire, found as I was about to leave the for a days travel, sure was ugly.

And, the road service guy, in spite of placing the rim on a rubber mat, sure scratched the crap out of my aluminum wheel.... that's the bad.

The good is that I decided at the last minute to check my tire pressures before heading out.... so we avoided a lot of potential damage and certainly a major PITA being stranded on the side of a road in triple digit temps.

Now the surprise came as the road service guy removed my old tire and we discovered a Smartire pressure sending unit nicely strapped to the inside of the rim!!

I have found what I believed to be an antenna under the bus, mounted near the rear axle, and what looks like a coax type cable which terminates near the drivers seat... so I thought that a prior owner may have had a tire pressure monitoring system.

So, is there a possibility that all I need is a Smartire receiver to monitor my tire pressures? I'm guessing at this point that there is a transmitter attached to each wheel.

Boy, talk about bad luck finding good luck! That's a bunch of money you just found! If in fact, you have a complete Smartire system (for all 8 tires) less the monitor (which hopefully can be purchased separately) you are one lucky dude!

Smartire systems are SUPPOSED TO BE INSTALLED BY a dealer. Soooo, maybe if you contact Liberty they could tell you if they installed it!

Good Luck and keep us posted:D

Paul,

Definitely get a receiver. If the cable is run and the sensors installed, the hard work is done. You can hook up the receiver and display in short order. Hopefully the batteries still work in the sensors.

I would call Paul at the address below. I bought my system from him and he was very helpful including answering my questions on the installation.

Paul D Kintigh

RV & Tire Monitoring Specialist

Bob Dickman Tire Center

www.dickmantires.com

1 800 257 8430 Voice

1 541 998 3906 Fax

I think one issue, you will probably need to crack open each tire to get the transmitter numbers. I don't know, they might have a tool that allows them to be determined externally. Only other concern would be that the batteries do have a 5-7 year lifespan (about the life of normal tires), so depending upon how old the tires are, the batteries may be going.

I don't know whether or not you replace batteries in the senders, or the whole unit has to be replaced.

ray

Paul,

Now you only have 7 more tires to be broken down!:eek:

For emergency use only, I have taken nails out of sidewalls and replaced them with a larger (shorter) diameter screw with a large dose of super glue on the screw, works extremely well in a pinch.

So does a plug and at least a plug was intended for that purpose.