Tire Monitor systems

[Joe Cannarozzi]

Ray your thoughts are right on. It is cost to some extent, for us it was, and if I remember correctly the internal sensors are north of 1000 bucks, not including the toad. The Pressure-Pro is about 700 and that is including the toad.

However you will not have concerns about someone (kids, I had a couple lifted from our P/U) removing them. You can air the tire up normally without having to remove a sensor, do not have concerns about valve stem leaks and the internal ones also give a temp. that the external do not.

So it is not like you are not getting anything for the extra cash. Add the expense of mounting and dismounting tires unless of course you coordinate the purchase with new tires.

I would buy Pressure-Pro again but given some extra cash I would love to upgrade to the internal style. I'm guessing that the internal ones have a battery life issue too, I do not see how they would function without one.

[Jon Wehrenberg]

This is just an observation, but it is not a big deal in my opinion to install the internal band type.

I say that because apart from the labor to remove and reinstall the wheel on the coach, the time to pull one side of the tire from the rim is less than 2 minutes. At that point the entire inside of the rim is exposed to install the band, and another two minutes will reinstall the unmounted side of the tire. The tire should air up because it was already spread and aired up, unlike when it was purchased, collapsed from sitting in a stack.

I think the 4 hours I would guess it would take to do the whole job would be time and money well spent.

[Ray Davis]

I was just looking at the various options on the web, and there appears to be two Pressure Pro systems. One from Doran, and another by L&S. The L&S site in fact mentions that Doran is no longer selling the original. http://www.tirepressuremonitor.com/

The units look virtually identical on the websites. Anyone know about the differences?

Ray

[jack14r]

The difference is the L&S has their logo on the display and they do not discount.

[Ray Davis]

So, interestingly enough I spent about an hour on the phone with the main guy at L&S today. He was extremely helpful. He indicated that Doran was no longer an authorized distributor (since October?) for PressurePro. Pressure Pro is actually manufactured by Advantage (www.advantagepressurepro.com) and L&S is a distributor. Evidently Doran was a distributor until just recently, but is perhaps getting rid of old inventory? That was his take on it. He also indicated that Doran will be coming out with their own product. He said it was unfortunate, but I guess many people believe Doran is the maker of Pressure Pro, which isn't the case.

Anyway, on the good side, he brought up a few points that I hadn't considered, when I was thinking of using an internal brand monitor:

* flexibility - You can easily take monitors off one toad, and put on another, or like pulling a boat trailer, where you want to do it rarely, not enough to justify purchasing additional sensors.

* L & S have developed a wrench with a lock nut that makes it difficult for someone without tools to steal the sensors from your tires.

* They also emphasized to not put these monitors on extenders on inner dual wheels. He seemed surprised, however, that it was something I was concerned with. Evidently many of his customers are not.

* He stressed (again for flexibility) of the ease of taking the monitor out of the bus, and carrying in the toad (for example) on a day trip. Evidently it has a feature of being able to select 3 modes. One is both main vehicle and toad, main-only, or toad-only.


After talking with the guy, I'll admit I'm less inclined to purchase the in-wheel system, just because this sounds so easy. Assuming the caps don't leak, this alleviates the need of checking tire pressure at every stop.

In basic checking it appears that a Pressure Pro type of system runs roughly 50-60% of the cost of an in-tire system. That doesn't include installation. FYI, I think I read on Camping Worlds website that they will install for $533! Yikes.

Ray

[Jon Wehrenberg]

If he does not want extenders on the inner dual wheels (which I agree with regardless of whether you use a tire pressure sensor or not) how exactly do you remove the sensor to fill the tire with air when needed?

Just as a personal observation, I will not move the coach from the garage without checking pressures. As a result I have come to recognize that each tire has its own characteristics. If the temperatures have risen since my last trip, my tires are usually either right on, or slightly higher in pressure than my set points. If the temps go the other way the reverse is true. An extended period of time between trips requires my tires to need anywhere from one pound to three pounds of air. By extended period of time I am meaning 3 months or more.

The single biggest improvement in retaining tire pressures has been the use of the sealing valve stem caps that I can fill through without removing them. The fact that my tires are "double sealed" has made a huge difference.

My single biggest source of leaks after the schrader valves was the seal between the valve stem and the wheel itself, and that often required me to retighten the nut inside the wheel.

Where I am going with this is if I were to get sensors, the external ones would cause me to lose my double seal, and ease of filling. I would rather payt the big bucks for the internal, unless Ray has the answer to how to fill the inner dual without extenders since the use of tools on the sensor is forbidden.

[Ray Davis]

No magic answer on that one. Other than you don't have to "check" the air yourself, by powering up the system, you'll get a readout of the air pressure from the Pressure Pro system.

I did specifically ask about how to get the monitor on an inner dually, and he suggested a couple of things, none which sound perfect ...

1. If you can get your can to reach in between the tires.
2. He mentioned you could take a 1" socket, and the monitor would fit perfectly in the socket, and could be screwed in/out using an extender. Now, the monitor looks round to me, so I'm not sure exactly what grabs it.

I would venture to say the best way is as you and Joe have suggested the dual filler approach. But, I guess I have to ask, does that mean you have to do something to the wheel to get a mounting hole for a second valve? I assume you have to drill another one?

Ray

[Jon Wehrenberg]

That's the Achilles heel with that type sensor unless you drill another hole in the inner dual wheel and add a valve stem dedicated to the sensor like Joe did.

There ain't no way you are going to go through those gyrations to put air in an inner tire if you have to reach between the tires to get at the sensor.

[gmcbuffalo]

Again I will say that I have the TireSafetyguard system and they work fine except trying to put them on a 9" extended valve stem. This system you air up the tire thru the monitor and it measures pressure and temp with setable alarms.
GregM

[Ray Davis]

Was it your system I saw that had a way of mounting the monitors to the lugnuts, then using a flexible hose to connect there? I think I saw a picture on a regular truck wheel, but would imagine it doesn't look as nice on the Alcoa's? But that does seem to do two things (1) let you fill without removing and get a second cap again and (2) holds it firmly in place?