Tire Pressure Monitoring System

[runner421]

It will only take one catastrophic tire fail to make you wish you spent some money on a camper tire pressure monitoring system. With the dual axle campers, you might not notice a flat and the tire will beat the camper's "wheel well" to shreds, could even damage the slide.
So I decided to spend money on the system, not camper repairs. I usually travel with another camper, he's got a system that's alerted him to flats twice - while I was following him and didn't even notice his flat.
I can recommend: http://tsttruck.com/product/507-starter-system-kit/
Not cheap, but good quality and and easy DIY program. Note: You'll need to get metal valve stems for your camper tires.

[shadow]

not sure I understand why u need full metal valve stem, the sensors are screw on design that depress the existing valve stem, releasing pressure to the sensor, very simple design

[webslave]

In the early days of these systems, they recommended metal valve stems due to the weight of the pressure monitor. The monitors weighed enough that they caused the rubber valve stems to flex on acceleration and deceleration and the constant flexing would cause the rubber valve stem to crack and leak air. Some even failed catastrophically and the stem broke completely off; hence the recommendation for most of the units, still, to go on metal valve stems. Some of the makers have managed to lighten the monitors enough that that is no longer necessary, but, it does vary from manufacturer to manufacturer and even from style to style within a manufacturer's offering.

[shadow]

got it makes sense

[jerkar]

TST is what I have. Great system. Touring the country, have about 5 thou. miles and the system works great. Good piece of mind. Also mine are mounted on the rubber valve stems, no problems Jerry

[webslave]

Yep, a lot of the newer units do just fine with rubber stems. You have to remember that the original versions weren't designed for RVs, they were sold to Rvers, but, designed for the trucking industry. Much more robust valve stems on the big rigs. When RVers first started using them, the found out, real quick, that the civilian valve stems couldn't handle the weight of the truck transmitters.

Now that RVers are probably the biggest buyers of these units, they have been redesigned and made much lighter to increase their marketability; many folks might spring for them, but, wouldn't because all the tires would have to be taken off to have metal valve stems put on. Another issue with the originals, and again because of the harsh conditions that commercial trucks operate in, was that the batteries weren't user replaceable; they were sealed units for durability. RVers though, wanted the ability to change the batteries themselves to avoid the hassle and expense of swapping out entire transmitter assemblies.

The result? More and more of the units are "RVer Friendly", but, it is still "buyer beware"...read the description; there are still a lot of truck based units out there that are being sold for RV use. Read and heed the information you find on the seller's website, but, my recommendation is stay away from any unit that you can't swap your own batteries...they are going to be sealed and, as such, are probably truck based and will weigh enough that they ought to be on metal stems.