Cruisers Forum
Main Forum => General Discussion => Topic started by: sailors35 on February 19, 2021, 12:34:44 pm
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I know this is not a new topic and have read the applicable previous posts on the subject. Currently looking at Tire Minder and TST, but open to others. Just wondering if users have any updates on their experiences (positive or negative) with the units they have installed.
Many thanks, Mike
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I have and like the RVI TPMS that integrates with the RVI brake system on our toad. It has a small tablet-size screen that monitors and adjusts the braking of the toad, and also displays the tire pressure on all ten tires and the tire temperature. You can pre-set high temp and low pressure alarms. Fun to watch the correlation between temp and pressure change with conditions.
If you have or ever may have a toad....
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I have the TST system for the PC and use the RVI for our tow car. The TST system has been in use on a previously owned trailer and the current PC for about 6-7 years. The RVI system is about 2 years old. Both systems have worked well. Had I not already had the six transmitters fo the TST system I might have consolidated both PC and car on a common RVI display rather than dual displays.
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I have the Tire Minders on my PC and included a signal booster mounted under the chassis. I use the Bluetooth smartphone version. To be honest, I get at least 1 false alarm a day usually for WAY low pressure. Those go away in 5 to 10 minutes. However, other than that, it does work well, has advised of slow leaks. The slow leaks were valid. I did remove the valve extenders from the rear tires (the cause of the slow leaks) and mount right on the valve stem.
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We have the Tymate TPMS on both our PC and toad. Not the most expensive system and they indicate 2 pounds light but they work well for us. When towing I just move the display from the toad to set in the MH so I can hear any alarm if it sounds.
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Using TST. Has worked perfectly; really like it. Color monitor; easy to read; monitors all 10 tires reliably. Stays in the RV--the Toad has it's own factory TPMS.
I did experience one random false high-temp alarm over the 2 years of use. Alarm sounded and temp on one RV tire suddenly jumped to some 400 degrees?! as I best recall; a nervous minute or so until it self-corrected. Has never done it again, and I have no idea what might have caused the false signal. Only other time it has alarmed was right after I had adjusted tire pressures for temperature change, and failed to get one valve stem extension tight enough. The TST picked up the slow leak a few minutes later and I immediately re-tightened the extender.
Based on my experience, I can recommend this unit. Mike
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My only complaint with Tire Minder is the battery cover caps are fragile. Replacements are cheap so order a bag of spares.
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I can tell you which one NOT to buy: "EEZTire" from Amazon.
I'm down to my last four operational senders. None of the six on the PC work anymore -- I just moved the last working one from the PC to replace one on the toad. The batteries are supposed to last years. In reality, I have to replace them about every other trip, but the sensors themselves have just quit working completely, one by one.
But I'm definitely a believer in TPMS. Without it, I probably would have towed my Smart to Florida with the brakes dragging, when my RVi2 brake failed. It set off the temperature alarm on the TPMS which was the only way I would have known there was a problem. As it was, that RVi2 brake still cost me a $700 brake job.
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I have the RVI system, and my impression after a year and half is that I wasted 800.00. When I first got the TPMS system it worked good for the first couple months while using the RV. I got 6 sensors for the RV and 4 for the toad. When I got back home I removed all the sensors and stored them in there original boxes. RVI said it would extend the battery life. So I did remove the sensors. Then about 4 months later I installed the sensors and one wouldn't connect called RVI and they shipped one out right away. I also ordered there new battery charger for the toad that connects to the RVI tablet/monitor. It was pretty cool seeing the battery voltage and charging amps going to the toad. Especially towing a Jeep Cherokee which has to have the steering system operational while towing or you get the death wobble. Well the battery charger lasted a month. Then more sensors and the hub failed. They sent parts out right away, but I started realizing that this system wasn't very robust and it's reliability made it a poor choice. FYI the batteries are not user replaceable in the sensor's. Well dusted off the RV and installed the sensors again for the next road trip to find 2 more not working, no surprise at this point. Well to add to the issue the hub stopped working so now no tire sensors the only thing working is the battery charger on the display. This is the exact same issue with the hub I had before. When they sent me a replacement hub it was actually a repaired hub that had failed before. Well either a poor repair or poor quality as it is not working again. Those of you with the RVI setup good luck! You only get a year warranty after that it's to expensive to keep dumping money into the system as it will just fail again.
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We've had the EezTire system in our 2012 2551 for about three years and we love it. It's been rock solid with sensor batteries easily lasting two seasons.
One of the things that drew us to this particular system at the time was the fact that the display would show blank if data for a sensor was lost. Surprisingly this was not the case with some other systems that would simply display the last tire pressure if sensor communication was lost for any reason. I would guess that things have changed in the last few years but it's a feature worth paying attention to when shopping around.
For five tires (spare included) I used the cap-style sensors with their anti-theft covers removed to make them easy to screw on. For a little theft deterrent I always reinstall the rear hub caps rotated 45 degrees so that the hub cap holes don't align with the sensors. For the front I used some sheet styrene plastic softened with a heat gun to make little bulged covers for the holes that line up with the slightly protruding sensors. So all the sensors are hidden or covered and hub caps have to be removed to put air in the tires, but that's infrequent and not a big deal.
I can't recommend the EezTire flow-through sensors however, primarily because of their mechanical design. I bought these for the inner tires thinking that it would be less of a hassle, but a peculiar design quirk makes them very difficult to screw on for the first time and when you replace batteries. They have an internally threaded brass female end that screws onto the valve stem, but for whatever reason the threads start too deep within the female end. So as you fiddle about trying to get the first thread of the sensor to catch onto the valve stem you are just starting to compress the seal and depress the valve at the same time. The thread should have started immediately at the end of the brass coupling so that you could get aligned and have the threads engaged well before the seat and valve compression begin. Refilling the air that was lost during the installation is also an extremely slow process through the sensor - you can hardly tell that any air is going in. On top of that, they have a tiny socket head security screw in the side of the coupling that is very difficult to tighten.
But having a tire monitoring system is very comforting if you're the type that thinks about what those poor tires have to endure while you're cruising at 60 on a blistering day. I wouldn't be without one now.
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We had the same experience as DonC13.