Thinking about buying tyre pressure monitors primarily for the 4 caravan wheels. The prices range greatly from $100 to $1000. Not prepared to spend big money on a unit, but wary of cheapies too. So many different ones on the market. The simple screw on valve stem readers seem appealing and easy, but are they any good, or are the internal rim fastening units a better idea.
I see also some display units are powered via a cigarette lighter, or hard wired, and others by a small solar panel built into the units . I keep thinking about those cheap solar garden lights that only ever seem to last a few months at best, so ????
Ideally the simple valve stem attachments with the inbuilt solar panel charger seem very tempting......but am a little wary of the longevity of such setups ? A mate of mine bought a Repco set up for under $100, he says they work fine to monitor his car tyres...but in the long term not sure???
I have no experience with inner wheel mounted sensors so I cannot comment on that matter.
I have used TPMS with valve mounted sensors. Those systems often give temperatures but in reality the temperatures displayed are the valve temperatures not the tyre temperatures.
Some folk have purchased and used some expensive systems. Most posters report good performance, though some report not so good.
I was going to follow up to the earlier thread, but this inquiry came along, so I will do it here.
My experience has been that, in early 2021, I acquired an eight wheel sensor (valve) TPMS. Priced just under $200. All wheels displayed on a single dash mounted and solar powered panel. Only problem was that, consistently, the sensors on the van lost signal contact with the dash mounted unit, after about 30 minutes driving. The vehicle's sensors were fine. I swapped sensors around between the vehicle and the van to check. Supplier gave a full refund, initially offering a replacement system with sensors that were still in development and testing. The supplier eventually explained that the development was taking longer than expected and the refund was made.
A poster on the previous thread "recommended" an economical TPMS, an iMars t240, via banggood. Apparently it did not lose contact with the van's sensors. He purchased 2 units as those TPMSs were only for four wheels.
Banggood did not have any iMars t240 in stock so I purchased an iMars t270 unit from there. Later, I obtained a unit, supposedly an iMars t240, from an Australian web address.
The notional iMars t240 was delivered earlier. It had no branding about iMars, but looked like a t240. That particular TPMS worked with my vehicle but if the valve sensors are on the caravan wheels, their signal does not make contact with the dash unit. I suspect that it is not a "real" iMars t240. Ok to work on the vehicle.
The iMars t270 TPMS was delivered a few days later. iMars branding was on the packaging etc. I set it up with the sensors on the van's wheels and no problem with signal contact so far with the van in a hitched position and stationary. As yet, no long drive to see if there is loss of contact signal. So far, vehicle and van TPMSs for less than $100 total.
-- Edited by watsea on Saturday 11th of December 2021 05:13:28 PM
I had a Safety Dave valve stem TPMS on a previous vehicle it would drop its signal quite often and I had to recode the sensor but the new Safety Dave one I believe is better a mate has one but $400 .
I recently bought a cheap solar TPMS $48 don't bother its junk . I should of just got another SD one and not wasted the 48 bucks . Don't do what Jacko did
I also have a solar panel charged one from eBay. It has 8 valve sensors. I've only set up the car ones because I need to buy new tyres for the van before I put those sensors on. It has a booster relay that plugs into a 12v cigarette lighter socket. I hope that works.
The main issue I have with the TPMS is that it only allows the reader setting of one upper, lower and temperature setting. I've set the lower pressure for the front wheels, 2.2 bars and the upper setting for the caravan back wheels, 3.5 bars.
I have no experience with inner wheel mounted sensors so I cannot comment on that matter.
I have used TPMS with valve mounted sensors. Those systems often give temperatures but in reality the temperatures displayed are the valve temperatures not the tyre temperatures.
Some folk have purchased and used some expensive systems. Most posters report good performance, though some report not so good.
I was going to follow up to the earlier thread, but this inquiry came along, so I will do it here.
My experience has been that, in early 2021, I acquired an eight wheel sensor (valve) TPMS. Priced just under $200. All wheels displayed on a single dash mounted and solar powered panel. Only problem was that, consistently, the sensors on the van lost signal contact with the dash mounted unit, after about 30 minutes driving. The vehicle's sensors were fine. I swapped sensors around between the vehicle and the van to check. Supplier gave a full refund, initially offering a replacement system with sensors that were still in development and testing. The supplier eventually explained that the development was taking longer than expected and the refund was made.
A poster on the previous thread "recommended" an economical TPMS, an iMars t240, via banggood. Apparently it did not lose contact with the van's sensors. He purchased 2 units as those TPMSs were only for four wheels.
Banggood did not have any iMars t240 in stock so I purchased an iMars t270 unit from there. Later, I obtained a unit, supposedly an iMars t240, from an Australian web address.
The notional iMars t240 was delivered earlier. It had no branding about iMars, but looked like a t240. That particular TPMS worked with my vehicle but if the valve sensors are on the caravan wheels, their signal does not make contact with the dash unit. I suspect that it is not a "real" iMars t240. Ok to work on the vehicle.
The iMars t270 TPMS was delivered a few days later. iMars branding was on the packaging etc. I set it up with the sensors on the van's wheels and no problem with signal contact so far with the van in a hitched position and stationary. As yet, no long drive to see if there is loss of contact signal. So far, vehicle and van TPMSs for less than $100 total.
Thanks....interesting the Bangood distributed units seem to be OK, they certainly fit into the cheap bracket. But, thinking I might spend a bit more to hopefully eliminate any hiccups ?
-- Edited by watsea on Saturday 11th of December 2021 05:13:28 PM
-- Edited by Phlipper on Sunday 12th of December 2021 06:02:19 PM
I also have a solar panel charged one from eBay. It has 8 valve sensors. I've only set up the car ones because I need to buy new tyres for the van before I put those sensors on. It has a booster relay that plugs into a 12v cigarette lighter socket. I hope that works.
The main issue I have with the TPMS is that it only allows the reader setting of one upper, lower and temperature setting. I've set the lower pressure for the front wheels, 2.2 bars and the upper setting for the caravan back wheels, 3.5 bars.
Thanks, what is the reason for more than one upper and lower setting ?
I had a Safety Dave valve stem TPMS on a previous vehicle it would drop its signal quite often and I had to recode the sensor but the new Safety Dave one I believe is better a mate has one but $400 . I recently bought a cheap solar TPMS $48 don't bother its junk . I should of just got another SD one and not wasted the 48 bucks . Don't do what Jacko did
Regards Jacko
Thanks mate......Sounds like a common price situation...one gets what one pays for I guess,. $400 is a fair bit to pay, but hoping to get away with $200 approx
I'm probably going to spring for the Safety Dave TPMS today after talking to the mate again that has the later model one , it seems to work no problems easy to see not like the cheap one I have impossible to read the LCD screen in sun light and I can't work out the bloody settings stupid thing keeps saying High Pressure lower Tyre Pressure , yep it talks to me I only want to monitor the 2 Van tyres the Patrol has it own factory TPSM .
Ok bit of a update I just rang Safety Dave they are sending a TPSM today because Im a previous customer the nice sales lady knocked 50$ off the price and included a signal booster at no extra cost ,
very good service
-- Edited by JackoFJR on Monday 13th of December 2021 09:53:37 AM
Thanks, what is the reason for more than one upper and lower setting ?
I was hoping to set the upper and lower settings for each tyre. The front tyres of the car run much lower, 2.5 bars, than those on the caravan, 3.5 bars. With the lowest warning setting set to the car's front tyres, there will be no warning for the caravan tyres until the pressure gets down to that pressure, 2.4 bars.
I guess it'll still warn me of a sudden pressure drop, like a blow out, and it does show the pressures in the display so as long as I or my wife, watch that then we should be okay.
I think with most TPMS you can set different upper and lower pressures for each axle same with temperature settings . I know you can with the Safety Dave one I'm getting .
I have a Safety Dave TPMS which works well. Yes, the signal from the caravan wheels sometimes drops out but only when I don't have the signal booster connected. The signal booster is a small device that plugs into the cigarette connection located in the dox box of the vehicle.
I know it works as I picked up a tek screw in my left rear van tyre a few kilometers from Hay on my last trip and the TPMS started squealing.
As an aside, I tried to change the tyre but could not get the nuts off with my wheel brace. I limped into Hay and found a motor bike shop open on a Saturday afternoon. His rattle gun only just got the nuts free. It even took the two of us on the wheel brace to get the spare off. After I changed it, I asked him to back off all the other nuts on the other three wheels. His gun would not do it because they were too tight. I had to stay an extra night till the tyre shop opened on Monday where their bigger rattle gun had difficulty getting them free but they did it in the end. I retightened with the wheel brace.
My tip is for you to go and see if you can get the nuts off your car and van wheels including any spares with the equipment you carry because it is too late if you are on the road.
That is why I never let anyone use a rattle gun on my car or vans wheel nuts. Kevin if they were that tight, then you may have a problem with longevity of wheel studs because they have been stretched too far and could break sometime in the future. Keep checking the wheel nuts to see if they are all there.
Barry
As an aside, I tried to change the tyre but could not get the nuts off with my wheel brace. I limped into Hay and found a motor bike shop open on a Saturday afternoon. His rattle gun only just got the nuts free. It even took the two of us on the wheel brace to get the spare off. After I changed it, I asked him to back off all the other nuts on the other three wheels. His gun would not do it because they were too tight. I had to stay an extra night till the tyre shop opened on Monday where their bigger rattle gun had difficulty getting them free but they did it in the end. I retightened with the wheel brace.
My tip is for you to go and see if you can get the nuts off your car and van wheels including any spares with the equipment you carry because it is too late if you are on the road.
Agreed. I've snapped two wheel studs on two different vehicles in the past trying to get the wheels off in my driveway after a tyre place had done work.
Hi all, I purchased a set from ARB for my caravan, They are painful to set up but once done they work great. I can set an upper and lower limit on each tyre. The read out fits straight into my cig lighter in the pajero very neat and out of the way. They have low battery alarms built into each sensor unit, It can handle 8 wheels/ sensors at once.
I mentioned the set up, I had the guy at ARB set them up for me, it took him a good hour to get right! But once he got it right it has worked great ever since.
(when the alarm goes off due to low battery) It Scares the ^*~` out of you.
The sensors are external, Valve cap style. they also sell the same system that has an internal tyre sensor. I also have a repeater inside the rear of the pajero that communicates with the read-out thingy.
I chose the valve cap style due to being able to change the batteries in each cap when flat. You can see your tyre pressures go up and down as you drive along.
I paid $400 for the set with four sensors, repeater, and read-out thingy.
Be aware some units you can not change the battery once flat, therefore they become throw away items??
Personally I think everyone should buy a JEEP or a "high end" car with the TPMS built into the rims!
I have the Safety Dave $400 kit (six sensors) - it certainly saves a lot of worries when driving on the highways but they are a pain in the butt when you have to remove them to adjust the tyre pressures, or worse when you have to change a battery! Today I replaced my first battery in one caravan wheel sensor. I'll do the others when we get to Canberra (after tomorrow). The SD system comes with two cards of batteries.
__________________
Warren
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If you don't get it done today, there's always tomorrow!
Personally I think everyone should buy a JEEP or a "high end" car with the TPMS built into the rims!
I have the Safety Dave $400 kit (six sensors) - it certainly saves a lot of worries when driving on the highways but they are a pain in the butt when you have to remove them to adjust the tyre pressures, or worse when you have to change a battery! Today I replaced my first battery in one caravan wheel sensor. I'll do the others when we get to Canberra (after tomorrow). The SD system comes with two cards of batteries.
The inbuilt car ones don't connect to the caravan.
Agreed. I've snapped two wheel studs on two different vehicles in the past trying to get the wheels off in my driveway after a tyre place had done work.
I recently watched the tyre place replace my caravan tyres.
They used the impact drill to attach the nuts and then a big wrench to do the final tightening. I said that I don't have anything that big to remove the nuts. He explained it was a torque wrench and needed to tighten the nuts to that setting. (I didn't have my hearing aids in to hear the 'click')
Before they put on the wheel they painted some 'Copper' something (similar to Loctite) on each of the studs. I asked why and they said it was because many studs nowadays (Subaru's are the worst) seem to corrode when the nuts are attached and this prevents the studs from breaking off when someone tries to remove the nuts.
Maybe some of the the too tight nuts mentioned on this forum were due to corrosion or the tyre guys didn't use a torque wrench?
My Safety Dave TPMS turned up overnight , I got 4 wheel sensors but will only use 2 for the Van the others can be spares or I could even put em on the spare wheels
The 2 for the van came pre-programed just screw them on and all good .
Like Buzz said the factory fitted car ones will only do the car , Nissan are to lousy to even supply one in the spare wheel the dash can only show 4 .
fitted Safety Dave TPMS 5 yrs ago, works brilliantly in all conditions. Great service too, one sensor got damaged when off the tug and SD replaced it FOC. Bit of a pain to take off and put back on because they have a grub screw that has to be undone and screwed in again. stopped using them 3yrs ago and haven't lost any sensors since.
I cut the end off another allan key, same size and used some heat shrink to join, so now longer, one end at a right angle, the other straight, makes it much easier to access grub screw and still have the peace of mind. But can still be a pita
