tireman9

A dab of Neverseize will also slow corrosion of Aluminum when in contact with Brass. You can also get "dielectric grease" at most autoparts stores. This is the stuff used in light bulb fittings to prevent the corrosion of the brass bulb base with the steel socket. Good stuff to use in any electrical connection in RVs as I have seen few water tight connectors used in the RV industry as is used in most electrical connections in vehicles from "Detroit". It would probably be good to have in tool box to help with exposed ground connections too.

The use of the "silver" valve cores is a MUST if you have aluminum stems as seen on a lot of OE TPM sensors and a few aftermarket ones. I have seen corrosion when brass cores were used in aluminum stems. RE TPM sensors on brass or aluminum stems. I have heard that some TPM systems offer different material in their sensors but i have not investigated this by trying to contact numerous sensor companies. I think most are probably brass threads in the sensors. I am using a set of internal sensors from Hella. These are actually passenger sensors and have a 75 psi max. They are aluminum. I have had no problems with the brass external sensors I use, but I give the stems a shot of WD-40 each season and have never driven in snow or salt so I am keeping the potential for corrosion between the sensor and stem to a minimum. I am also extending the battery life by removing the batteries from the sensors when no travel is expected for 3 months or more so with relatively frequent sensor removal and fresh lubrication I have seen no signs of corrosion. If you have brass stems and brass sensor you should have no problems with metal compatibility. I expect to have to remove the Hella sensors when their batteries die in a year or so. At that time I will be installing bolt in chrome or nickle plated brass stems. Hope this helps.

Glad you found the info helpful. As I said if you monitor your pressure the temperature is just an interesting number. Next time your traveling and it is warm note the tire temperature then if it starts to rain watch how fast the temperature drops. But keep your eyes on the road. and don't be distracted by your TPMS.

I think most systems have the Low warning at -15% of the cold set pressure. Some allow you to keep the cold set pressure and set the low warning separately. Others are always a function of x% below the cold set pressure. If you can't set a specific low pressure ( I would suggest -10% as reasonable and conservative then I suggest you increase the "cold set" pressure to be 5% above what you normally run. This offset will give you the low warning your are most concerend about. This is one example of why it's good to have the instructions.

You have more than TPMS to think about at -30°F all rubber parts get harder. Some can even crack if flexed. The batteries in the sensor may be a problem also. Have you reviewed the specs on the sensors? I know that more than one brand indicates -4°F as bottom or range.

Bill, Not sure if I completely agree with "There's no such thing as too hot while driving" as this is based on some assumptions that may not always be true. Xplorer, Lets be sure we are using the correct terms so we are properly communicating. The full answer is complex and I could spend an hour covering the details but here is a summary: "Blowout" is a layman's term for a catastrophic tire failure. It is not an accurate description of the failure and without an accurate description we have little chance of taking the proper corrective or preventive actions anymore than saying "The guy is dead" doesn't help us to know if it was a gun-shot or of old age at 115. A sidewall "Flex Failure" is normally the result of running significantly under-inflated at highway speeds for a number of miles. I would normally feel a 50% loss of air or more at 45 mph or higher for 20 or more miles but more air loss or higher speed will reduce the number of miles. In Steel sidewall tires the speed is less important than in Polyester or Nylon body sidewall as the heat generated from the flexing at speed can melt the polyester or Nylon but the steel will fail simply from too much over flexing even at very low speeds. When you see a failed passenger or LT tire with two sections of sidewall still attached to the wheel like this that is most likely a Run Low Flex failure. A "Zipper" like this failure in a steel body tire is also a Run Low Flex failure. Now Tread Separations where the belts and tread separate from the body are normally the result of "old" tires with many hundreds or thousands of hours exposure to some overload and modest underinflation or long term exposure to solar heating (not under white tire covers) They can look like this or this I have a post on the long term effects of excess heat that can accelerate the aging process of rubber. This temperature effect is a major reason there is no simple answer on how old is too old for tires because the "tire age clock" is not constant like the calender but can be accelerated or slowed down depending on how the owner uses and stores the tire. If you were hoping for a simple answer you should know that depending on speed and load the normal operating temperature of a properly loaded and inflated tire will be +10F to +60F above ambient. Some TPMS have a high temp warning set at 156F so if you need some number use that as "too hot".

Mark covers the Why have TPMS. I have a post on the same topic. At my FMCA Tire Seminars I refuse to be brand specific. As an engineer I look at features such as Multi-year total cost, Length of warranty, Ability to set low pressure warning pressure and a feature I do not think all systems have, The ability to give an early warning when you loose x psi from the hot pressure. Imagine your cold pressure is 100 psi. You set the low warning at -15% or 85psi. When driving you might have a hot pressure of 120 psi. Now suppose you get a leak. Would you rather get a warning when you loose 3 or 6 psi over a few minutes from the 120 psi or would you think it OK to only be warned after you loose 35 psi down from the hot pressure. In my opinion getting that "Early Warning" allows you to slow down and start looking for an exit or safe place to pull over as you monitor the air loss over then next 5 to 20 minutes. If you only get the single warning it may already be too late to save and repair the tire.

When looking at cost I suggest you do a comparison based on the expected replacement cost of replacement sensors if you can't install batteries yourself. Example non-replaceable batteries 6 years so include the cost of a set on new sensors vs the cost or replacing batteries every two or three years. (three sets ar $1.50 per battery for example)

There is high probability that you may not happen to stop at just the right time t0 check the leaking tire. If you loose 20% of your air and have driven on the tire it is considered to be "flat" and any use at that level can do internal structural damage that can result in a failure an hour, day or week later. IR is OK for checking the temp of conductive material like metals but rubber is a good insulator so the heat that is damaging the structure does not flow quickly out of the tire. Also there are LARGE temperature variations over very short distances of a tire so there is high probability you will miss the hot spot. Here are two posts with data on a comparison test I ran. It can only take a few minutes for a tire to loose enough air for you to damage it, so unless you stop every 5 to 10 minutes you can't check it enough with a hand gauge.

I note the three tires mentioned XRV 305/70R22.5 LR-L 7830# @ 120 psi 39.1 OD 12.3 wide 126.8# XZA2 Energy 295/80R22.5 LR-H 7830# @ 120 psi 41.2 OD 11.8 wide 109.4# XZA2 Energy 315/80R22.5 LR-L 9090# @ 130 psi 42.3 OD 12.5 wide 138.4# weight 7920# @ 115 The above loads are the single (front) load & inflation ratings You didn't mentioned the actual loads on each corner of your Dutchstar or your GAWR. Also your rims might be pressure or load limited so you need to confirm those numbers too before you make a switch. I don't know supply or cost figures where you live but normally weight is a good relative measure of tire cost. It might also give an indication of the impact on fuel economy with heavier tire being worse.

Brett Thanks. I had not found the instructions yet. That answers the mounting question. Guess I wasn't correct in my assumption. Horizontal mount may provide more options.

All While my coach is small at 21' My basement is larger than any other I have seen at 6'x4'x5' (approx). If I go this route I will maout in upper corner so I will not really lose any space. Will post pictures if I do the job. Have a few other more important items to take of first so may be July before this gets to top of list of stuff "To-Do" Thanks for comments.

Might work but the in/out fitting is in the bottom or the curved bottom so mounting on side may not be best. I saw a video on how these tanks are made and the bladder is shaped to fit the bottom of the empty tank.

Thanks for replies. Already have the flex hoses on the pump but after re-building the pump & water inlet system due to rust of poorly painted metal parts and adding insulation around the locations where hard PEX lines touched the floor and some drain piping the noise is better. I plan on adding more foam insulation to hard line that is laying of sub-floor under bathroom as the vibration is making the wood floor into a large sounding board. Looking at THIS tank

While I have a small Class-C, I find the water pump noisy. I installed a 2' x 3" closed end pipe on cold line is a space under kitchen sink as a pressure accumulator and it slightly decreased the cycling of the water pump. The volume it too small and I am wondering about having just air over water pressure accumulator. I have found some commercial units with about about 1.3 Gal capacity and have figured out a location for mounting. Thoughts?

DickandLois, Not knowing what your toad is or how much "load" we are talking about makes offering an informed observation difficult. If you are using the toad as if it were a trailer with lots of stuff you need to be sure you are not overloading it's tires. This is not hard to do as even some SUVs have relatively small load capacity. The good news is that you do not need "corner" loads as the side to side difference of cars, SUV & P/U are reasonable balanced. Note F & R are probably quite different. A quick visit to a standard truck scale like CAT will let you compare the actual axle loads to the GAWR for each axle of the toad. With that info you simply look at the vehicle placard (usually on driver door jam) and confirm you are not overloaded and that you have at least the minimum air pressure the car mfg suggested. One other thought: Even if the toad has an OE TPMS it would be a good idea to get 4 extra sensor and have them show on the monitor in the RV.

<p>Bit out or ordinary for FMCA, but DickandLois started it. <img class="bbc_emoticon" src="http://community.fmca.com/public/style_emoticons/default/rolleyes.gif" title=" :rolleyes:" /></p> <p> </p> <p>For those that don't know about "<a data-ipb="nomediaparse" href="http://www.caranddriver.com/news/10-nurburgring-facts-revealed-car-news"><strong>The Ring.</strong></a>"</p> <p> </p> <p>Yes, you can take your RV to Germany and drive "The Ring." Here is Volvo tour bus at speed (about 35 mph):</p> <p> </p> <p><img alt="2aafqfn.jpg" src="http://i62.tinypic.com/2aafqfn.jpg" /></p> <p> </p> <p>I had trouble deciding what I wanted to drive</p> <p>Ferrari or McLaren ?</p> <p> </p> <p><img alt="2ui81fl.jpg" src="http://i61.tinypic.com/2ui81fl.jpg" /></p> <p> </p> <p>Turns out both were in for service. But took 7 laps anyway in a Renault Sport Megane R26.R ( #6 on <a data-ipb="nomediaparse" href="http://www.rsrnurburg.com/car-rentals--prices/race-car-rentals">THIS</a> list).</p> <p> </p> <p> I was a bit tentative as the 17 mile track with 80+ turns and most are blind is a challenge to learn and at $35 a lap "toll" plus car rental @ $125 per + a "you break it, you bought it" for repair + you pay for damage to guard rail at $1400 per section you do not want to mess up.</p> <p> </p> <p>Would have prefered to be driving my Camaro ...</p> <p> </p> <p><img alt="9sgpar.jpg" src="http://i39.tinypic.com/9sgpar.jpg" /></p> <p> </p> <p>but, you can see a slow lap<a data-ipb="nomediaparse" href="http://youtu.be/dXe-quGlT4k"> HERE</a> if interested.</p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p>Not sure what the "Toll" is for a Class A, but would guess about $150+ per lap.</p>

Just finished my testting this morning and thought I would share the results here first. I have read a number of posts, advertisements and even a couple of tire blogs on protecting tires from UV. The best way I know of, other than parking indoors is to cover the tires to shield them from direct sunlight. For my test I used a UV index meter and compared the readings of Full Sunshine = 9 which is quite High vs Full Shad = 0 vs White vinyl covers = 0 vs Black vinyl = 0 vs blue tarp = 0 vs window screen = 5 It is clear from this test that just about any material that shields all sunlight will be adiquate for protecting your tires from UV damage. Even the mesh covers are better than nothing but they are not as good as solid material. If you want to see pictures and read a bit of the test report, you can read-up on my Blog Just to answer one question: I use my white covers on my tires whenever parked for more than a day when it is not raining. Hope to see some of you in Redmond in August. It's a haul from Ohio but we do love travel out West and I expect FMCA will ask for both tire seminars again as thy did in Perry.

While over the highway trucks may not be interested there might be local truck operators (small dump trucks etc) that might be. Re the dealer not wanting to sell the tires I understand the stated objection. If you decide to leave them with him you might offer to help him slice the sidewalls so no one can use them

RE tire pressure. What is the number on the Tire placard. Based on the above I think it would be 120psi. The GAWR for each axle must exceed the load capacity total for all the tires on that axle (singles and duals). Not sure about the various communication specs. I would not consider any of them to be final. If there are numbers that do not match then Spartan needs to explain which numbers are correct.

An observation on using your on-board compressor. While I have never tested the moisture content of the output of a truck air brake compressor I am sure they have a "dryer" in the system that probably does a better job than most truck stop air compressors. If you see a 2% rise in pressure with a 10F increase you have very dry air. I would even consider a 3% or 4% rise reasonable an not in need of corrective action till I was observing a 5% increase for each 10F. A quick test you can do when you have a few minutes and access to enough air to re-inflate your tires is to pull the valve core and let about 10% but not more than 20% of the air out of the tire. If you see water spitting out of the valve you may have wet air in the tire. The above is not based on any lab testing just a gut feel. It is important to remember that tire mounting "soap" is water based so there will always be some moisture introduced to the tire air when the tire is mounted but not enought to worry about.

Right off the bat I would be concerned with the need for greater "dual Spacing". Going from a requirement of 12" to 13.5 is probably going to require new wheels. In the Michelin RV Tire guide on pg 11 they outline dual spacing Looking on the Mich tire data web page we see the requirement for 8.25 or 9.0 wide wheels.for the XRV305/70R22.5 LRL I can't be sure, but it is possible that your XZA1 275/70R22.5 LRH came on 7.5 wide wheels so you need to confirm your wheels meet BOTH the width and offset requirements. You are correct that the larger XRV would require less pressure to carry the same load. While you provided your axle "ratings" you did not provide your actual corner loads or even just the actual total load on each axle. Without knowing the actual load requirements it's difficult to offer suggestions on inflation (including an extra margin which can be beneficial) A 275/70R22.5 LR-J is rated at 6,940# @ 130 psi and 6,305#@120 Dual, so this size meets the needs of the axles of 13,200 and 20,000. While it may seem logical to assume a lower psi in the 305/70R22.5 LRL size would translate to improved ride there are other tire construction features that may not support that "assumption". One thing that is probably true is that the larger tire with it's shallower tread depth could deliver a slight improvement in fuel economy but that savings may not be enough to offset the cost of the wheel change.

Manholt, Don't think it's possible to progran other TPMS into your video system (downside of lower cost systems). It appears you have two options: A. Stay with Pressure Pro and pay for new sensors and continue to use your Sony video system. B get a system with user replaceable batteries ($1 or $2 ea for batteries) and a separate monitor system. When shopping for a system I establish some performance requirements that are important to me. 1. Replaceable batteries 2. 3 year warranty on parts 3. User programmable warning levels 4. Multiple warning levels ( two based on loss of pressure from the hot tire pressure plus one warning level based on loss from cold pressure) Some sellers have videos showing operation of their system. This is an extra in favor of that brand. Simply Google TPMS and look at features of a few different brands. Hope this helps. You can learn more about TPMS by reading my blog and clicking to TPMS in the list of topics on the right side.

Am also in Ohio (Akron) Need to paint my 2008 Coachmen Class-C as the original vinyl was defective (according to Coachmen) but since they will not pay I see no reason to apply more "defective" vinyl. Have rough idea for about 3/4 new paint on the coach portion. The original GM paint on the van chassis is still in great condition. Do I have to travel to Indiana to get my RV painted?

You didn't mention the Load Range of your current tires or if you know the real load on each corner of the RV. This information will help us provide informed advice as there may or may not be a need to address the Load Range as well as size. Looking forward to learning more about your rig.