Thanks members, I know this subject comes up a lot and I have searched old threads and cant quite find the answers to my questions. After reading a recent thread on single axle -v- dual axle I think I would like to put TPMS on my single axle van as a bit of insurance in the hopes I may be alerted to a slow flat before it does damage.
First question - how are the sensors powered. Do they have a small battery that needs to be replaced often?
Next question - what is the range of these things between sensors and monitor.
The reason for the second question is that my tow vehicle already has TPMS as standard and as the minimum kit available is four sensors I would have two sensors left over. Thinking I could put one on the spare wheel of my 176 caravan, on the back bumper. Is that too far away from the monitor. The final sensor I could add to my tow vehicles spare wheel.
Thanks members, I know this subject comes up a lot and I have searched old threads and cant quite find the answers to my questions. After reading a recent thread on single axle -v- dual axle I think I would like to put TPMS on my single axle van as a bit of insurance in the hopes I may be alerted to a slow flat before it does damage.
First question - how are the sensors powered. Do they have a small battery that needs to be replaced often?
Next question - what is the range of these things between sensors and monitor.
The reason for the second question is that my tow vehicle already has TPMS as standard and as the minimum kit available is four sensors I would have two sensors left over. Thinking I could put one on the spare wheel of my 176 caravan, on the back bumper. Is that too far away from the monitor. The final sensor I could add to my tow vehicles spare wheel.
Excuse me if I have read this incorrectly,but did you not say that two sensors left over? Why not put these sensors onto your van's wheels....who cares hat the spares are doing? No trouble with range,and sensors are battery powered.Cheers
You're not likely to get a nail through the spare! You are going to check the pressure anyway before using it. If it needs topping up get your compessor out!
If you have 2 spare sensors put them on the 2 other working wheels. No point making things more complicated.
I can't remember the battery size off hand, but did open one a few years ago & bought spare lithium button batteries as back up.
The TPMS sensors only become alive when the car is traveling about 20kph, so most of the time they are off. Unless you are continuously driving & not enjoying your holiday!
If at 5 years & going on a trip it would be sensible to replace the batteries. One less issue out the way!
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50L custom fuel rack 6x20W 100/20mppt 4x26Ah gel 28L super insulated fridge TPMS 3 ARB compressors heatsink fan cooled 4L tank aftercooler Air/water OCD cleaning 4 stage car acoustic insulation.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think what ConsumerMan is saying is that the TPMS set he's thinking of buying for his caravan comes with 4 sensors as standard, so when he's put two on his single axle caravan wheels he'll have two left over. As his car already has TPMS on all four wheels, he's thinking of using the two spare sensors on the car spare wheel and the van spare wheel to monitor their pressures also. Not a bad idea, however the flaw in the plan is that as Whenarewethere says, the sensors only transmit when the tyre is revolving, so the two on the spares wouldn't send any signal and so are useless for monitoring the tyre pressure of the spares.
Anyway, to answer the questions, yes they have replaceable batteries in them and I've heard that battery life is around five years, mine aren't that old yet, but they will alert you on the monitor when getting low. Range can be an issue, and the manufacturer of my system recommends a signal repeater if the distance between any sensor and the monitor is greater than 7 metres, so not normally a problem on an average caravan setup where the caravan axle would be well within 7 metres of the driving position in the car. Mine came with a signal repeater but I haven't needed to use it, but it looks like this and needs a 12v supply.
-- Edited by Mamil on Saturday 9th of January 2021 07:41:49 PM
As you stated. The spare wheels don't rotate so the sensors are pointless on them.
On built in systems like on my Land Rover which I don't use it does check the spare.
Yes, the built-in systems work a bit differently, they have an antenna in each wheel arch and the spare wheel well, so can automatically detect the position of each sensor, and activate when the car is turned on.
By the way, Interested why you don't use the built-in TPMS system on your LandRover?
-- Edited by Mamil on Saturday 9th of January 2021 07:48:07 PM
As his car already has TPMS on all four wheels, he's thinking of using the two spare sensors on the car spare wheel and the van spare wheel to monitor their pressures also. Not a bad idea, however the flaw in the plan is that as Whenarewethere says, the sensors only transmit when the tyre is revolving, so the two on the spares wouldn't send any signal and so are useless for monitoring the tyre pressure of the spares.
Looks like I was wrong here.
ConsumerMan's post got me thinking and I decided to check the web site of the manufacturer of my system. It seems the sensors will activate with any movement, not just revolving in use. So, the spare tyre sensors should activate just by the vibration of a moving vehicle and will transmit the pressure of the spare tyres to the display unit. So, if you've got a couple of spare sensors anyway, putting them on the spare tyres isn't as silly an idea after all.
By the way, Interested why you don't use the built-in TPMS system on your LandRover?
It only does 1 spare & like most I carry 2 spares in the outback, 1 on the roof which is easier to use first, & if I have to use the second spare its easy to move the sensor so all 4 wheels are covered.
Also got continuous psi feed back. The alarm is + or - 8 psi from its set psi. So allowing for shadow side of car you can tell if psi is down a few psi due to a slow leak.
Airing up & down is a bit longer with external sensors (need a second valve) but we are very efficient & can remove sensors, air up from 20 to 35 psi (30 seconds a corner), sensors back on in 7 minutes.
Obviously my post was confusing for some. Mamil is correct, my tow vehicle already has inbuilt TPMS on all four tyres but not the spare. Thinking of buying a kit for my single axle caravan and therefore would have two sensors left over. I could throw the extra two away or use them on the vehicle spare wheel and the caravan spare wheel for no other reason than they are left over. Yes, a flat spare tyre is not going to cause an accident, I dont need to be told that. So purely for decoration and to fill the spots on the monitor. Thanks for the answers on battery life. Range sounds OK, and wether they will work on the spare tyres may be problematic. Thanks all, I have my answers.
-- Edited by ConsumerMan on Saturday 9th of January 2021 09:26:49 PM
I bought mine on-line from Kogan $79.00, works from bluetooth on my Iphone, no wiring required, even works when wheels are not turning and has voice alarm, I am very happy with it, it has warned me that one of my tyres was over inflated, so that was handy.
I run my Motorhome tyres at 78 psi (cold) and then when they heat up psi goes up to around 80 to 82 psi when travelling.
I don't carry a compressor so when first at the Service Station (Truck Stops with high pressure) I pumped the tyres up to 85 psi and slowly lower the pressure to 76 psi using the digital tyre pressure gauge and then fitted the TPMS cap, simple.
You have to make sure the bluetooth is connected before driving off.
Follow instructions carefully when calibrating and it takes about 2 minutes to sync.
Cheers
By the way, Interested why you don't use the built-in TPMS system on your LandRover?
It only does 1 spare & like most I carry 2 spares in the outback, 1 on the roof which is easier to use first, & if I have to use the second spare its easy to move the sensor so all 4 wheels are covered.
Also got continuous psi feed back. The alarm is + or - 8 psi from its set psi. So allowing for shadow side of car you can tell if psi is down a few psi due to a slow leak.
Airing up & down is a bit longer with external sensors (need a second valve) but we are very efficient & can remove sensors, air up from 20 to 35 psi (30 seconds a corner), sensors back on in 7 minutes.
Ah Ok, makes sense.
It's a shame LandRover don't allow the addition of more sensors to the car's inbuilt TPMS system, for extra spares, caravan/trailer etc.
I am sure in the depths of the CCF car's computer code there are options for more wheels. Some owners have got going a lot of options that were never offered on the Freelander going. But you really need to know what you are doing or you can kill the car!
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Procrastination, mankind's greatest labour saving device!
50L custom fuel rack 6x20W 100/20mppt 4x26Ah gel 28L super insulated fridge TPMS 3 ARB compressors heatsink fan cooled 4L tank aftercooler Air/water OCD cleaning 4 stage car acoustic insulation.
With my tpms system all 4 sensors have to be used or you will get an alarm
You can not put the alarm point to zerro so you (me anyway) will get an alarm
Put them on the spares
Thank you. This reply is very useful. So, my throw two sensors away option may render the whole system useless/inoperative. I am going to have to re-think this idea.
The system in my Jeep has saved me 4 times. Once with a torn tyre coming into a town and fortunately in front of a trye repair garage. Twice when I picked up tech screws. And once when the spare went off. Your spare can have a slow leak and when you need it it's also flat!!
Be wary of very cold mornings as well. I've had the alarm go when the Jeep was parked in the shade on a very frosty morning.
I have never seen the need for them personally. I put them on the same level as the ubiquitous Catch cans the rave over. Or the Shoo roo.....
Three friends in a club installed them on the cars and vans . Two had the same system the third a different variety. The all had troubles with either incorrect readings or missing wheels (Nil readings)
This is in no way knocking them if you are a fan...Just saying.
At almost 75 years old , Like most, I have had many vehicle's and done countless miles or Klms. I never had an issue with a tyre going down that I didn't see in time. Mostly it was a nail or a screw and and mostly fixed in position with out even removing the tyre. Yep blow out are a different issue But those are pretty obvious.
so I am with the member that suggested the large blundstone boot. And I reckon he said it better than I did. Its pretty easy to walk around a vehicle when you stop and do a check at the same time you check your bearing for heat...
But please do not get all uppitty and please feel free to buy your self a set...It is only money.
We destroyed a tyre in a remote area. Only had one more spare, that made us pretty nervous to say the least. This was after checking the tyres daily. It turned out to be a screw in the tyre which was extremely difficult to see, & it is hard to tell if the tyre is a bit flat. I should have checked the actual pressure daily. We had a gauge!
We had all the tyre repair kit but that's not going to help a destroyed tyre.
Bought another tyre, expensive in the outback.
At the first opportunity we bought TPMS which we had actually intended to do.
It saved us 3 more tyres on that trip. We plugged the tyres & saved our spares.
Our TPMS has been calibrated to a known calibrated unit & was within 1psi.
We have 2 electronic gauges & the one on the ARB compessor, which is about 2psi over pressure.
Having real time PSI is a lot of peace of mind, especially in remote areas. If you can save a tyre you have more options.
Many years ago we lost 2 tyres in one go.
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Procrastination, mankind's greatest labour saving device!
50L custom fuel rack 6x20W 100/20mppt 4x26Ah gel 28L super insulated fridge TPMS 3 ARB compressors heatsink fan cooled 4L tank aftercooler Air/water OCD cleaning 4 stage car acoustic insulation.
I have a SD TPMS system - I purchased one with 10 wheel monitoring, 4 on car plus spare, 4 on van plus rear mounted spare. With the extender unit, shown earlier, all tyre pressures and temperatures are available. When the van is hitched up I can display the 5 on the car and 5 on the van, and when just driving the car, I can change the display so the car units are displayed and the van units are not displayed.
Although I now carry a compressor in my 4WD so I could inflate a flat spare if necessary, it is nice to know the spare tyre pressures as I travel, especially as the vehicle spare is a pain to access.
I personally believe that it is another essential piece of my safety setup for both long drives and when towing. If I had 4 pressure sensors on car tyres I would like to monitor the van tyres as well.
On the Canning I had 17 separate spikes from stakes and eventually blue that tyre.
But just as bad was the drive from Ceduna to Kalgoorlie across on the Rail track. The Nullabore is full of ancient oyster protruding rock that can cut a tyre easily. I had to put a large engineering hammer in use to straighten two rims in the group.
One bloke ruined a $500 ally rim. I always had steel rims.
Obviously my post was confusing for some. Mamil is correct, my tow vehicle already has inbuilt TPMS on all four tyres but not the spare. Thinking of buying a kit for my single axle caravan and therefore would have two sensors left over. I could throw the extra two away or use them on the vehicle spare wheel and the caravan spare wheel for no other reason than they are left over. Yes, a flat spare tyre is not going to cause an accident, I dont need to be told that. So purely for decoration and to fill the spots on the monitor. Thanks for the answers on battery life. Range sounds OK, and wether they will work on the spare tyres may be problematic. Thanks all, I have my answers.
Firstly, there was no problem with your OP, we continually have problems with people not reading the text and understanding it. Secondly, I like the replies where the poster has limited experience with the devices and tell us "how the devices work" as if that is how all the devices work.
There are a few different types of TPMS. They don't all work the same. I have a Safe - T - Tyre TMS supplied by Safety Dave. They will fire up and report the pressures of each tyre before you move off. You can reverse into position for hitching, switch off your motor and the pressures will be up and showing before you finish hitching. I did consider getting an eight sensor kit to provide monitoring for my two spares but Dave did not have one handy at the show at the time. I have been too lazy to order the other two since. The batteries in the sensors are button lithium batteries. The kit came with a full set of spare batteries. Other threads on TPMS indicate they have a good range for long caravans.
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PeterD Nissan Navara D23 diesel auto, Spaceland pop-top Retired radio and electronics technician. NSW Central Coast.
