Has anyone installed one of these remote tire monitoring systems? Looks like a neat gadget....

SmarTire Products

 

Over a year ago, I discovered that I had a low rear tire on my C4S. Air pressure had dropped to 10 pis. How long it had been low, I don't know. I was 10 miles from home and and 2 blocks from a gas station. I aired the tire to 50 psi and began driving home. By the time I arrived, pressure was down to 30. I removed the rear wheel and tire and found a small nail thru the tread. I took the tire to a tire dealer and he dismountedd the tire. The good news was they could easily repair the hole cuased by the nail. The bad news was that they refused to due to the fact that I had driven to long with the inner sidewall fretting against tread carcass. They told me that they would not be responsible for any tread / sidewall failures resulting from the easily visible internal damage.

So I order a new 285/30 from the Tire Rack and ordered the SmarTire system so that I could daily check my air pressures. I'm running 33F/35R in order to improve ride and handling, so any loss of air drops the pressures very low. The cost to install the sensors in each wheel was $25 per tire to dismount tire / install sensor / mount tire/ balance wheel. I installed the display on my visor, and hard wired the display to the switched hot wire supplying the radio.

The system works great. It is especially helpful at DE events. It allows you to check hot pressures at you exit the track. Just last Friday I was driving home from work and heard a beeping audible alarm. It wasn't my radar detector so I fillped the visor down and saw that my LR tire had 0 air pressure. I stopped an a gas station about 1.5 miles on and sure enough the tire was flat. I had picked up one of those s shaped wire clamps from the end of a rubber tie down strap.

The tire was beyond repair. Did the system save me anyhting? Yes! It advised me soon enough so that I did not damage my rim. The loss of pressure was not gradual, it went form 36 to 0 psi instantly. I must say that the only sensation in the car was a slight imbalance in one of the rear wheels. I could have driven for a greater distance before more damaged occured. Would I recommned the sysem to others? ABSOLUTELY!

 

Over a year ago, I discovered that I had a low rear tire on my C4S. Air pressure had dropped to 10 pis. How long it had been low, I don't know. I was 10 miles from home and and 2 blocks from a gas station. I aired the tire to 50 psi and began driving home. By the time I arrived, pressure was down to 30. I removed the rear wheel and tire and found a small nail thru the tread. I took the tire to a tire dealer and he dismountedd the tire. The good news was they could easily repair the hole cuased by the nail. The bad news was that they refused to due to the fact that I had driven to long with the inner sidewall fretting against tread carcass. They told me that they would not be responsible for any tread / sidewall failures resulting from the easily visible internal damage.

So I order a new 285/30 from the Tire Rack and ordered the SmarTire system so that I could daily check my air pressures. I'm running 33F/35R in order to improve ride and handling, so any loss of air drops the pressures very low. The cost to install the sensors in each wheel was $25 per tire to dismount tire / install sensor / mount tire/ balance wheel. I installed the display on my visor, and hard wired the display to the switched hot wire supplying the radio.

The system works great. It is especially helpful at DE events. It allows you to check hot pressures at you exit the track. Just last Friday I was driving home from work and heard a beeping audible alarm. It wasn't my radar detector so I fillped the visor down and saw that my LR tire had 0 air pressure. I stopped an a gas station about 1.5 miles on and sure enough the tire was flat. I had picked up one of those s shaped wire clamps from the end of a rubber tie down strap.

The tire was beyond repair. Did the system save me anyhting? Yes! It advised me soon enough so that I did not damage my rim. The loss of pressure was not gradual, it went form 36 to 0 psi instantly. I must say that the only sensation in the car was a slight imbalance in one of the rear wheels. I could have driven for a greater distance before more damaged occured. Would I recommned the sysem to others? ABSOLUTELY!

 

Fred, great feedback. I, like Curtis, have been wondering for awhile whether anyone has had experience with this device.

Can you comment on it's accuracy and consistency vs. your tried-and-true hand-held gauge?

Also, does this system give you a chance to measure air temperature in the tire or somehow compensate it's readings for temperature?

Thanks,

John

 

Tire Rack shows a 2nd generation system which appears to measure air temperature (presumably in the tire) BUT the system accuracy is listed as +/- 1.5psi - for this reason, I don't think it would be much use for track work.

 

That was my thought as well, wasn't sure if I was being too **** or not!

 

Chris, I wonder if the +/- 1.5 psi means that a specific sender could be off by a certain amount consistantly (say, +1.25 psi all the time), or that at any given time, a sender could err within that range (say, +1.25 psi one time, -1.0 psi next time).

Maybe an engineer that helps write the "fine print" could elaborate on what these variance usually mean...

If the former (consistantly off by a certain amount), I think it would be ok to use for DE/track since changes in any tire one session to the next are relative anyway.

 

The accuracy thing is an interesting question....I doubt if most tire guages are more accurate than that but at least they are consistent...you're using the same guage on all tires.

Fred,
Would the inside unit fit in the glove box? I hate to have something else on/around the visor in addition to the radar detector.

 

Let's see if I can get this to post only one time rather than twice.

The display only reads in whole numbers. I have a hand held digital pressure gauge that reads in .5 psi increments. If my handheld reads 34.5 psi, the dispaly may read 34 or 35 psi. Who can say which is more accurate? But the repeatability is there. I think that at DE events, you may be more concerned with the increase in pressure as the tire heats up rather than the exact pressure to .5 psi accuracy.

The system will provide a reading of the temperature of the air inside the tire. I have no idea how this compares to temperaturs of the tread itself. What it does do is provide a general indication of how much the tire temp is increasing on a relative basis. The warning systems built into the display take into account the increase or decrease in air internal air temperature to determine if you're under or over inflated. However, one must take caution as temperatures decrease below say 70 def F. If you have set you pressure to 33 psi at 70 deg. F, and the internal air temp drops say to 45 deg F, the dispaly will not warn you that you are dangerously under inflated. I believ that you can set some absolute high and low pressure levels that will trigger a warning regardless of internal air temp.

The display is about the size of a pack of cigarettes. It can easily be placed in the glove box. However, this will require you to open the box to check you pressures (no big deal), but you won't see or hear the warning if the glove box is closed.

 

Curtis

I'm not sure whether the +/-1.5psi is to cover the manufacturer's rear end or not - the system might be a whole lot more accurate.

In my case though I've found most quality tire gauages seem accurate to within 0.5psi - at least of each other. I'm **** enough to compare a Longacre, an Accutire, and a couple of other pressure gauges I have floating around - all of which agree to 0.5psi - if one disagrees, I junk it ! This seems to be a danger e.g. with the track gauge which tends to bang around inside a tool box for most of its (shortened) life.