Trusting Your TPMS

[pbahlin]

I had a strange experience with my TPMS Thursday. We were traveling from Alabama to around Lafayette, La. This is not a pleasant tow (spouse is posting our love of LA roads under On The Road Again, I10 in LA). We were shakin' and bakin' across the worlds longest swamp bridge, around Baton Rouge, and my TPMS fired off an alarm, pressure leak right front Monty. There are no shoulders on this part of the LA trailer endurance track so I frantically went for a pressure peek and found it to be 108.8. I normally run my tires at 100 so my first inclination was to go, hmmmmmmm.

Since I was not loving the thought of pulling over (which meant stopping in my lane) in the midst of a swarm of 18 wheelers and LA mosquitoes, I kept going and carefully monitored the pressure. It never changed! Steady at 108.8. Like a rock. I kept going, and for another hour it stayed exactly on 108.8.

By the time I got to the campground I just figured the TPMS had lost its little mind so I reset the sensors for the entire trailer. Another sensor was telling me it wasn't there and this is usually a sign of weak battery in sensor so I was betting on battery issues. I even went to a Radio Shack (closed) to look for new batteries. Anyway, by the time I went to bed, everything was cool. The reset appeared to have worked and all tires read as expected with no alarms.

We woke up all fired up and ready to go at 8:00 AM and my problem tire read 80 lbs, grrrrrrrr. It was really 80 lbs. Somehow, that tiny little brain in the TPMS new I had a leak, even though it never showed such a leak to me with its readings.

Bottom line, I swapped in the trusty spare, drove another 300 miles on Friday without incident and all the sensors worked all day long.

Trust your TPMS! In the end I think I behaved rationally for what all my senses were telling me. But, next time the little bugger throws an alarm I'll be far more paranoid and less likely to throw it out the window.

How does it know this stuff?

[pbahlin]

OK, just to let you know the DH was a little verbose on this posting....I have to advise the cause is probably the Johnny Walker Green Label....but usually he just gets "chatty" out loud not on the keyboard....so this is a new version I guess.

I do realize he had a rather nerve wracking day, and he didn't enjoy the ride either......but this was just too funny to not comment on!!!!!
He's giving me the evil eye....cus he knows I'm commenting on his post.

Betty

[stiles watson]

Glad you got it all together. Dealing with the damage a blowout can cause ain't fun. Which pressure monitor are you referring to. Betty, just let him talk. It's ok.

[oldelmer1]

We have the Pressure Pro and the other day the alarm went off saying out Monty's passenger front tire was at 96 PSI, and they start at 80 PSI. Pulled over when I could and checked with my gauge and it was 88 PSI just like the other 3 tires. Hmm, I said, put the sensor back on, and still 96. Let air out to 85 PSI and then sensor said 88 PSI the rest of the trip.

[pbahlin]

I'm using the Hawkshead system. I had the tire checked today and found no leaks. Not sure what's going on but when I first put these sensors on I used teflon tape. I've since abandoned the tape because it's a real pain to get on right.

When playing with my sensors and sad tire I found teflon tape crumbs all over everything (sensor, valve stem). Maybe my attempts to figure out what was wrong caused a temporary leak. I hate when this happens because now I don't trust the tire and I've got the ugly spare on the rig.

I've pumped it up to 100 and will monitor it for a few days to see what gives.

[HamRad]

So far my Pressure Pro system is working like it should. I did have to get a new power supply cable because the first one quit working. But other than that the transmitters are reporting the correct pressure to within a degree or two. I hope it continues to work this well.

Good luck with yours. Perhaps it was just that Teflon that was causing the problem. Dennis