TPMS Poll

[RVhiker]

About four years ago one of the tires on our Sunnybrook trailer shredded ... but I didn't know it until a kind other driver motioned to me to slow down. I pulled off the road and the tire was almost gone. No other damage was done. I bought some new tires and went on my way. By the way, the tires had ALWAYS been inflated properly.

When we bought our Jayco, now about two years and 25000 miles ago I bought a tire pressure management system. While there were no tire pressure issues ever reported, it was interesting to watch the effect that temperature had on tire pressure (sometimes on our distant west Texas drives, anything little thing can be interesting).

I recently bought some new tires and of course installed the TPMS system. Recently, on our first trip with the new tires the TPMS beeped telling me that one of the tires had suddenly lost some air pressure. The tire, which was inflated to 80 PSI, had dropped to 72 PSI (the pressure I had the alarm set at). It had a big screw in the center of the tread; I changed it and had the tire repaired.

But, with no TPMS system the I'm sure the result would have been the same as on our Sunnybrook, a shredded tire.

So, I thought the above poll might be interesting.

[norty1]

Since my 510 TSP system was installed over a year ago, I have been alerted twice to low pressure alarms one a screw in a rear drive tire and another a leaking valve stem on the trailer. Both allowed my to stop before the tire was destroyed or trailer damaged.

This system has already paid back what I spent plus. I would not be without it.

[troutslayer]

I have a TPMS and have yet to have the alarm go off (knock on wood) but it gives me peace of mind that I didn't have before installing it.

[RVhiker]

Of the 30 people who so far have responded to this poll, 10 have a Tire Pressure Monitoring System. Of those 10 with a TPMS, 8 (or 80%) have been alerted to a tire problem by the TPMS.

The tire stories of those 8 who have been alerted to a tire problem by a TPMS could be very informative. If you have time, please post and share what happened.

[edatlanta]

I was evacuated from the gulf coast last summer and was in a private campground about 30 miles north of the state park where I was hosting. After two nights at this park I was cleared to go back to the state park. As is normal with me I wanted to leave at daylight, but this park was very quiet and they didn't open the gate until 7:00am. So I wanted to be ready right at 7:00am and didn't want to make any excess noise either. So I checked my tire pressure the night before since I might have to run the compressor.

At 7:01am the next morning I pulled out and after about 50' of travel the TPMS alarm went off. It was the right front trailer tire. It was a little low and had just reached the lower pressure limit I had set. I went ahead and pulled out of the park to the road out front. Fired up the generator and compressor and aired it back up. I noticed the sensor on the valve stem wasn't as tight as I thought it should be when I removed it. I made sure it was tight when I put it back on. This tire never dropped any pressure over the next month. I'm sure this was my error in not tightening the sensor properly when I reinstalled it the night before I left. Yeah I know, if I hadn't had the sensor on in the first place it couldn't have leaked. But it was my fault and this was the first and only time the system proved itself. It saved me from operator error.