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Old 02-22-2005, 05:32 PM   #1
Montana_3214
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How to inflate tires

Greetings to anyone out there who may be of assistance.

As you can tell from my question, I'm new to the fifth wheel world. We recently purchased an '05 Montana 2955RL and had it delivered to a local campground while we shopped for a tow vehicle. Our decision to purchase was prompted by the fact that we needed to move out of our house, including the furniture, so that the concrete floors could be coated with a moisture barrier followed by the installation of new hardwood floors. After 2-1/2 weeks in our new second home, we were able to move back home and I ventured out on my first tow of the Montana to our storage space.

During our stay I read and re-read the handbook given to us by the dealer. While the handbook was somewhat helpful, it didn't answer a lot of questions. I was hoping to find "Fifth Wheeling for Dummies" in the local bookstore but to no avail. Therefore, my first of most likely many questions that I'll throw out is how do you inflate the tires on your fifth wheel? I can't imagine that any gasoline service station in Southern California is large enough to allow me to drive in and use their air hose. Is there a portable air inflation machine available or will I have to get out the old bicycle pump?

Thank you in advance for your help.

Ted Reynolds
Irvine, California
theo.reynolds@sbcglobal.net
 
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Old 02-22-2005, 07:01 PM   #2
Montana Sky
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Ted,
Welcome to the MOC. I have found a few fuel stations do have large enough areas that you can pull in to air up those tires. The main place I have found to be very handy is at my local Flying J truckstop. They have air pumps right there at the fuel stations. When I stop to fuel up on my way out of town I head there first, top off the fuel and check the pressure on all the tires (truck & coach). Enjoy your new coach.
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Old 02-22-2005, 07:05 PM   #3
patodonn
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Ted:

Welcome to the Forum. Lots of good advice available from lots of very knowledgeable folks here. I'll try to help a bit on this one.

First, there are lots of service stations which can handle your rig. Just be careful of the available maneuvering room and especially overhead clearances. The easiest places are the truck stops. Flying J and Love's and any number of others have plenty of maneuvering room and available air. Usually found near the freeways.

We try to avoid taking the rig into any service station as much as possible. Mainly because of access issues, bad dips in the roads at the entrance or exits and general maneuvering problems. Sometimes, you gotta do what you gotta do, but we try to plan as much as we can to avoid that. For example, we always fill up the truck the evening before, without the rig, and try to make our travel day with one tank of fuel. Truck stops are our next favorite options.

I would think the best solution for your circumstance would be to purchase a small air compressor, either AC or DC powered, and use it at the campground to "top off" the RV tires air pressures. We use our compressor very frequently, to keep truck and rig tire pressures correct before towing. These can be purchased at almost any auto parts store, Wal-Mart, Sears, K-Mart, Target, etc. They are not expensive, probably $30-$40. We prefer the AC powered unit, capable of at least 100 psi output pressure. You will also need a longish extension cord, the heavy duty outdoor use type, probably 50 ft. These are usually the orange or yellow type, not the household ones commonly used for radios or TV sets. You will need a heavy duty cord anyhow for general use in and around the rig.

We keep our tires at the max rating for their class, in our case 80 psi (cold). The max tire pressure is shown on the sidewall of the tires. Only takes a few moments to do it.

Hope that answers the main question....again, welcome to the Forum!

Best,
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Old 02-22-2005, 07:14 PM   #4
stiles watson
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First, welcome to the MOC Forum. This is a great place to get many of your questions answered. Searching a topic can be quite helpful.

Your tires should probably be inflated to 80# all the time. I inflate my tow vehicle rear tires to 80# when towing, but reduce that to 65# when not. I have Firestone tires and a Firestone store within 5 blocks of the stick house. That takes care of the truck. When I bring the fiver to the house for loading, I use my compressor to bring the trailer tires up to snuff. I also carry a 12 volt inflater for use when out.

Many campgrounds have air service available, usually at or near the community dump station. If there is a real problem, i.e., a flat, I call the RV road service to come fix it.

I do check tire pressures before or during every hook up. Rig and tires are too expensive to risk early tire failure. Happy RVing...
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Old 02-22-2005, 09:40 PM   #5
harleyrider
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What I use to inflate the tires on the Montana,the tires on the truck.And any thing else that needs air is called a "power Tank"It fills with CO2.The tank is about the size of a fire extinguisher.It will fill 39 Class A tires with one tank full.You refill at any welding supple shop for about 12 bucks.I also use this for blowing stuff off my slide outs.The nice feature of this tank that it fills very very fast.It also powers air tools as well.I keep it with a bracket in my front storage compartment-with a 50 foot air hose.which will reach the Montana tires as wellas the truck tires.Its on the expensive side,but for me any way it was a good investment.Take a look at their web site. www.powertank.com
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Old 02-23-2005, 02:29 AM   #6
Charlie
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Welcome to the forum, as the others have said there is lots of good information to be learned here. Recently I bought an air compressor from Home Depot that has a 1-3/4 gallon "pancake" storage tank and is capable of 150# pressure. Similar ones can be had from Sears, Lowes and many other stores for about $100. Mine only weighs 26# and is more than capable of pumping up tires to the 80# cold rating. It can also be used for other air related tools. Its compressor is powered by 110/120V, portable and can be used with extension cords. Whatever your decision on an air compresssor, be sure you use it.....I know from experience, what I think was an under inflated tire on a hot summer day resulted in $1800 damage to my previous 5r.
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Old 02-23-2005, 04:00 AM   #7
Chester
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Welcome to MOC and the RVing experience.

I've always kept the fiver tires pumped to 74lbs but our fiver was a Montana 2750 so is lighter than most Montanas. I will probably keep our new 3475 near the 80 lb mark.

Regarding pumping tires I have a little 110v air compressor with a 1 gal tank on it.. It's quite compact and will pump the tires to 80lbs. I found a lot of the smaller units just couldn't get the tires that high even if they advertised a 100psi maximum. I prefer having my own compressor so I don't have to try to fit my fiver into a gas station to pump the tires. Also we leave our fiver on a seasonal site so if a tire goes soft I want to be able to pump it up right there.
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Old 02-23-2005, 04:45 AM   #8
Jeff Heiser
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Ted,
Welcome to MOC. We keep our tires up to spec using a portable compressor. It's actually a compressor used by off-road enthusiasts. It can inflate anything up to 210 psi. It has never failed us. I keep it in the TV and have purchased an extra long fill hose that will reach the TT tires. I purchased it from a place down here named Tools Unlimited. I check the TV and TT tires every time we stop for fuel. So far (knock on wood) we have not had a tire related failure.

Jeff Heiser
Merritt Island Florida
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Old 02-23-2005, 06:44 AM   #9
HamRad
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Hi Ted,
Welcome to the MOC. As you can see we have a very shy group here! You've gotten a lot of really good replies. I agree with the PJ about the extra heavy duty extension cord. It really comes in handy around the RV. We opted for the Harbor Freight pancake type AC air compressor. It really is handy for working at your campsite. So much easier than trying to drag the rig into a service station. Good luck and see you out on the road!

HamRad
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Old 02-23-2005, 09:40 AM   #10
315RLS
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Quote:
quote:We opted for the Harbor Freight pancake type AC air compressor. It really is handy for working at your campsite.
Gee Hamrad, wish you had posted earlier.. After hours of googling compressors I ended up at Habor Frieght and ordered the Central Pneumatic Pancake Compressor...
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Old 02-23-2005, 01:26 PM   #11
Montana_2785
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My solution on our old TT was to install a weather proof 12V outlet by each wheel well. Then I was able to use my 12V TruckAir to air up the tires. As a side bonus, for night time tire changes on the road (yes we DO travel at night) I can plug in my 12V 100W halogen flood light and actually SEE what I'm doing. I'm getting to the point where I don't think you can have too much light It has come in handy in the past.

I also had an outlet on the bumper of the TT that I could plug in a revolving amber light to add extra caution for road side problems. That one was also used a couple of times

I have it in my current upgrade plans to add the same outlets onto the Monty. They were very useful.

Eric
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Old 02-23-2005, 03:45 PM   #12
sreigle
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I also carry an AC compressor with a 2-gallon tanks. I bought it for about $60 on sale at Walmart. We also run the trailer tires at max psi since we discovered low pressure builds heat and eats tires. A blowout or two cures you of running tires soft on the trailer.

But before you air up those tires, check the max psi on the sidewall. Load range E will be 80 psi but some of the Montanas, like ours, came with load range D, max 65 psi. The D is rated to carry the weight so that's not a problem but airing our tires to 80 psi just might be a problem.

We have found a few stations where we could get in but it can be awkward. With the compressor onboard I'll not need a station unless we have an air loss on the road and then I'm probably going to change the tire instead.
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