Remote tire pressure sensors from Northern Tool

[drizler]

The only thing with those you lose is a serious one. You know how trailers, especially boat trailers love to have wheel bearing issues. Using those can give you the incentive to skip stopping and checking the wheels every so often. I've never had an issue of losing too much air no matter how far I towed as long as they had enough at departure and I have had a lot of slow leakers over the years. For a cheaper solution that keeps you from crawling around with a tire gauge they do make those cheap valve stem screw ons with the visual pop up. Not rocket science but functional to a point. (Here is your guilty conscience speaking), "and it gives you a chance to feel that hub.......Please feel me up regularly:anyone:, I need the attention".:thumbsup:

 

[Ken45101]

TPMS are popular in the RV arena. It's saved many people from leaks damaging tires or warning when a tire has a blown out (sometimes you don't know it on a dual wheel setup until the other tire goes )

Hopkins is a well known name with the RV crowd although IIRC it's not the #1 choice. $300 is a typical price for a 4 wheel setup, with complete packages for tow vehicle and trailer usually going $600.

The better ones also monitor heat which can be a good indicator of problems too.

It's on my list.

 

[bill50cal]

TPMS You can thank Firestone and the Ford Explorer for that rule...

it was NOT a Firestone issue but FORDS fault. they had ride issues and recommended to low a pressure as the solution and EVERY brand had tire failures IF you ran them at FORD'S recommended pressure. to bad Firestone took it in the shorts over this. no I am NOT sticking up for Firestone just putting blame where it belongs.

 

[J_J]

Gotta know. How do these things work? RF sending unit the valve stem? can someone show a pic of the divice? Thx. Bob

Tire Pressure Sensors I Tire Pressure Sensor Tools by Bartec

http://www.amazon.com/b?ie=UTF8&node=2201763011

 

[Furu]

Does anyone have experience with the Northern Tool remote tire sensors products?


Accutire Wireless RF Digital Tire Pressure Monitoring System For Trailer Towing and Vehicles, Model# MS-4368GB $129.99

or

Hopkins Towing Solutions TPMS Kit 4 Sensors, Model# 30100VA $299.99

Thinking about getting something like this for my equipment trailer.
Any ideas?

I had hoped that someone had used/bought the sensors that Northern Tools sells as referenced. I have some concern that they may not be of the best quality especially the $129.99 Accutire model.

Has anyone bought and used the sensors purchased from Northern Tool and have experience with those specific models?

Thanks

 

[drizler]

it was NOT a Firestone issue but FORDS fault. they had ride issues and recommended to low a pressure as the solution and EVERY brand had tire failures IF you ran them at FORD'S recommended pressure. to bad Firestone took it in the shorts over this. no I am NOT sticking up for Firestone just putting blame where it belongs.

Even more of that problem was the load limits involved and high temps and speeds. Guess what has a greater load carrying ability from that era, an Explorer or Tarus? Strange but true the cars were rated for a great deal more than the sport ute's . I saw that all on an episode on History , Discovery or one of those channels. People were loading **** out of Explorers and taking off driving 85 in places like Arizona / California ect where it was hot and blowing tires everywhere. Gotta read those stickers and that little gadget called a pressure gauge sure helps too. Also remember that a radial doesn't look low until it;s REALLY LOW, LIKE 15 TO 20 LBS. With the old bias tires I used to be able to tell fairly close just looking at them.

 

[crazyal]

I had an Accutire digital air pressure gauge, actually 2 of them. One was a key chain style while the other was larger. One of them died and I sent it back and it was replaced without question. It then got left on top of a tire (not by me) after checking the tire pressure. Needless to say once the car moved it quickly ran over the larger of the two. This was at least 15 years ago. So they have been around for awhile. Sorry but I can't help more.

 

[Diamondpilot]

The real issue with the Explorer and Firestone deal was Ford had a design that was behind the competition as far as the rear end went. Dodge had the Durango with a Independent Rear Suspension and GM had the redesigned Blazer, or now Trail Blazer on paper and in the press also with a independent rear end also. The Explorer just did not ride as good with its leaf spring solid rear axle setup like a pickup truck so the fix was to make it have very soft springs and lower the tire pressure. These soft springs made the GVWR low.

Most people have no clue what the door sticker tells them. Max GVWR is the most important number on it after the tire pressure. As mentioned before because of its low GVWR it was easy to overload it and the Taurus was actually able to carry more people, cargo, junk, ect. But like mentioned before because it was a SUV people thought they could load the crap out of it and go.

Heavy load on low pressure tires will equal disaster.

Chris

 

[David_Kb7uns]

Looks like the Accutire is 4 wheels only, the Hopkins is for multiple wheels on Motor Homes and towing trailers.

Looked at the Hopkins system and some of the other systems but settled on the TST 510 system. Have a 30ft Weekend Warrior tripple axle trailer that has a garage in the back and is 13K in weight.

The TST system is one of the few systems that report PRESSURE and TEMP. As someone mentioned early about doing the stops and checking bearings, the temp function gives you an idea if the sidewalls are flexing too much and coming apart or if the brake or hub is running hotter then normal. You can set alarms for hi or low pressure and hi temp also.

Had a trip going out the Columbia River Gorge last week and it has isolated stretches so having the system was nice but it caught a problem before getting out of town as I had picked up a piece of metal in a trailer tire and got it fixed before getting on the freeway. Also on the way back it caught a valve stem that was leaking some. You must use metal valve stems with the sensors as the rubber ones are not strong enough to handle the forces encountered with the sensor attached.

Some of the newer systems do have replaceable batteries but they offer a service do rebuild the sensors for $19.95 each now and they say life is around 5 years on a battery. Have around $600 in a 10 wheel system but I think it is worth it for if you have a tire coming apart at speed I have seen them do alot of damage.

David Kb7uns

 

[schmism]

The real issue with the Explorer and Firestone deal was Ford had a design that was behind the competition as far as the rear end went.
Chris

that was just in terms of roll over tendency... suspension design has little to do with recommended tire pressures.

The issue with the firestone/ford deal was that (as came out in the lawsuit later) that orginal spec (and designed) tires were based on something like 35lbs. Ford wanted to run 30lbs for a softer ride resulting in an underinflated tire for the given loads experienced in loaded SUV. The tires then blew out due to heat build up given the low pressures.
It was a firestone tire that blew, but it was under the direction of Ford that was causing the issue. (thus the lawsuit blamed both ford and firestone)

its because of this that a I pay more attention to recommended side wall pressure on the tire vs the door pannel. Especially if i know im going to running heavy weights.

Its always fun to watch the slackies at the tire shop blink at me with this dumb stare when I say those tires need to be filled to 80PSI for my load range E tires going on my E350 van.