Tire Pressure Monitoring System

Some friends sent me a question about tire pressure monitoring systems so I thought I'd answer here. They remembered we had a tire pressure system and asked which one we use and wanted to know about our experience with it. We met them last year at a Thousand Trails park when we noticed that we had similar motorhomes. We struck up a conversation and started comparing motorhome features, floor plans, and modifications.

There are a few different types of tire pressure monitoring systems, but I'm only familiar with the one we have and it's made by Advantage PressurePro. http://www.advantagepressurepro.com/

We've used it for more than a year and we feel it's done a very good job for us and the company has provided good customer service. We have the 6 wheel system for the motorhome and 4 additional sensors for the tow vehicle (toad). The small sensors screw onto the valve stems of each tire. The small flat monitor is attached to the left of my driver's seat with Velcro and is very easy to check the status of each tire. Because our motorhome is only 36' we don't need an additional receiver to get the signals from the toad, but larger motorhomes might need it.

We purchased our system at an FMCA rally from one of their many dealers. They were very helpful in answering our questions and getting the system set up initially. It may seem a little complicated when you first learn about it, but after you've changed the pressure in your tires and reset the sensors, or changed out a couple sensors, you see how simple it really is. You set the monitor when the tire pressure level is where you want it and it has thresholds for low and high settings. If it reaches a specific low or high level, an alert is activated. There were a couple times when we were parked overnight in Montana and the outside temperature dropped quite a lot and I'd left the monitor on. The beeping alert got me out of bed because the cold weather had caused one tire to drop pressure more than 12%.

From the Advantage PressurePro website you can read all the details and see photos of the components and accessories. I noticed from their press release section that you can even get the system from Costco.com. And they price seems really good from Costco.

It's a convenience to be able to check the tires any time we want from inside the motorhome. Rick also manually checks the tires every so often with a gauge to double-check the monitor. On the mornings before we get on the road it's one of the first things we turn on. We've heard about the horror stories of tire blowouts with motorhomes. It's very reassuring to know that we've taken another precaution to keep us safe. A sudden change in tire pressure, low or high, will sound an alarm. Just another way to keep us, and others on the road, safe.