Tire valve stem failures

sutton · Post by **sutton** » Mon Nov 28, 2011 5:30 pm

Thanks Bill. I love the user interface on the PressurePro. It is so nice to see what pressure your tires are at ! When I took one off the inner tire, I definitely got movement from the extender (I think there were 3 pieces daisy chained together). I have just ordered the exact set of Borg dual extenders that you mentioned since it's possible that, with maintenance work, that the long stem for the inner tire got replaced somehow with several daisy chained shorter pieces

Thanks once again!
Angela

jasper2222 · Post by **jasper2222** » Mon Nov 28, 2011 7:51 pm

I have the pressure pro system. Love it. I store my units in an egg carton in fridge, hoping that will extend the battery life. Each "egg" is labled for the tire it goes on.

I also have the borg valves on the rear tires and have not had any problems.

If I am going on a long trip, and not taking the BF I switch my sending units to the truck.

Will hate it when the batteries start to go, but I guess that is another fact of life.

whemme · Post by **whemme** » Mon Nov 28, 2011 10:35 pm

I also remove my sensors from the tires when not on a trip with our Born Free to extend the battery life. Mine lasted that way about 5-1/2 years before replacement was required. Normal initial cost is $50 each but replacement cost is $35 each so it cost me $350 to replace all 10 sensors with new.

sutton · Post by **sutton** » Tue Jan 31, 2012 7:05 pm

A quick follow up -- I would not recommend The PressurePro tire pressure monitor system to other people.

I replaced the rear valve stem on my 24RB with Borg ones and installed a PressurePro system. What I found was that it was extremely tricky to get the valve cores adjusted so that air did not leak out of the tires when the sensors are installed on top of the stems, screwed onto the stem hand tight.

One of the sensors on a front tire failed 8 RVing days into using the system, giving randomly high readings that the distributer, L&S Safety Solutions, suggested was due to bad adjustment of the core - They suggested I replaced the core which I did and the sensor still failed. I swapped the sensor to another tire and it still failed, now giving both low (60PSI) high (121 to 132 PSI) readings when my manual gauge confirmed that the tire was inflated to a normal pressure.

I am about to return the now confirmed faulty sensor at my own postage expense for replacement since L&S will not send me a replacement sensor until they receive the returned sensor even after all I've been through. The faulty system may not be their fault but their customer service is bad.

Angela

whemme · Post by **whemme** » Wed Feb 01, 2012 2:28 am

Well I can report that the PressurePro tire monitoring system I purchased 6 years ago has worked flawlessly. And I also have the Borg custom metal valve stems installed on my coach.

I monitor the 6 tires on the coach and also the 4 tires on the toad. The system has caught 3 leaks that could have caused destroyed tires if not for the early warning. One leak was on a toad tire which proved to be a small bolt that had penetrated the tire tread. The 2 others were both coach rear tires that had developed slow leaks in the original rubber valve stems before I finally installed the Borg metal extended valve stems.

sutton · Post by **sutton** » Wed Feb 01, 2012 9:40 am

That's good to know -- I have a short metal extender on the front tiires and access was indeed tight so we made the gap in the metal hub trim a bit wider to create plenty of clearance for the sensor to be screwed on.

I'm hopeful that I just had bad luck with the one bad sensor being bad....

The remaining 5 seem just fine. It certainly is a good thing to have a pressure monitoring system.

sutton · Post by **sutton** » Mon Jun 04, 2012 11:29 am

I'm still wrestling a bit with the PressurePro TPMS.... I had one front wheel sensor fail (false high/low/random readings) back in December and PressurePro replaced it but when I installed it, the other front sensor failed (false low pressure alerts when tire pressure was fine).

I haven't yet been able to tweak the valve stem cores such that this will not happen. PressurePro mentioned that the core should just protrude if say I put a credit card across the top of the stem. Does anyone have any other rules of thumb here.

I'm going to start from scratch and re-order front valve stems from yourtireshopsupply and see if that helps....

I'm also wondering whether perhaps there is some RF interference going on (perhaps the radio or the CB?) . Have any of you ever seen this happen?

I had one more (rear inner) tire blow on I-5 and it was nice that the system alerted me right after I heard the "bang"....

Angela

sutton · Post by **sutton** » Mon Jun 04, 2012 4:18 pm

The tire repair person thought that the most likely cause of the blowout was hitting a sharp object. I didn't see one on the road right before the tire bang however. The tire was a 2009 one. A piece of the tire looked severed and luckily very little detached so no other damage was done ... Phew....

I have had 3 other rear tires blow on relatively new (< 3 year old ) tires over the 3 years that I have had the coach.

- The rubber tire rim split off (lots of damage to my coach)
- A tennis ball sized balloon developed in the tire but was noticed by a Border Patrol guy and his Infra Red camera before it blew... How lucky was that?
- The inner side wall started to peel off so the clue to inspect it was that the tire developed a slow leak -- No damage done to the coach... Phew

Now you can see why I have a TPMS !!

bcope01 · Post by **bcope01** » Mon Jun 04, 2012 4:55 pm

Wow Angela, you are either unlucky, or very unlucky. Your number of tire issues is highly unusual. What make and model tires are you running on you coach?

Thanks, Bill

sutton · Post by **sutton** » Mon Jun 04, 2012 6:11 pm

Here's a pic of the most recent tire blowout. I don't recall the brand but am interested in recommendations!

The model used is LT225/75R16

My coach has a label suggesting 80 PSI cold for rear tires, 65 front.
Is this the protocol that you follow. Quite often, an 80PSI tire will end up at anything up to 96PSI after several hours of driving in warm weather.

Thanks
Angela

sutton · Post by **sutton** » Mon Jun 04, 2012 6:13 pm

and here was the tennis ball that we caught before it blew

sutton · Post by **sutton** » Mon Jun 04, 2012 6:58 pm

Thanks Sam -- How do I know what the weight rating is on a tire and what weight rating should I be looking to use?

All 4 rear tires have been replaced since December now ! I have no qualms about replacing them again if that prevents another blowout!!

sutton · Post by **sutton** » Mon Jun 04, 2012 7:21 pm

The most recent failing tire looks like it was GoodYear

I went here http://www.goodyearrvtires.com/pdfs/rv_inflation.pdf and page1 shows 2470LB weight limit on dual tires at 80 PSI cold. I've not weighed the coach but the current 2012 BF24RB models state to use
LT225/75R16 (E)

This makes me wonder whether I should just switch brands to the michelins as you mention.

Here's the data from the Goodyear tire table!!
Thanks once again!
Angela

LOAD/INFLATION INFORMATION FOR RV TIRES TIRE LOAD LIMITS (LBS) AT VARIOUS COLD INFLATION PRESSURES (PSI) HIGHWAY STEER AND ALL POSITION TREAD DESIGNS USED IN NORMAL HIGHWAY SERVICE*

Tire Single (S) Inflation Pressure - PSI
Size Dual (D) 35 40 45 50 55 60 65 70 75 80

LT225/75R16
SINGLE 1500 1650 1790 1940(C) 2060 2190 2335(D) 2440 2560 2680(E)
DUAL 1365 1500 1630 1765(C) 1875 1995 2150(D) 2200 2330 2470(E)

sutton · Post by **sutton** » Mon Jun 04, 2012 7:28 pm

Thanks ! Looks OK on the outside and will have my tire place check the inner dual tires !

sutton · Post by **sutton** » Mon Jun 04, 2012 7:47 pm

Can't beat that for a recommendation. I travel a lot in my coach and it's so worth having the right tires. I'll switch over to michelins !

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Tire valve stem failures

storage of valve sending units