Tire pressure

I see people all the time driving with under inflated tires.

 

I use a hammer for a thumper ,a gauge when in doubt.

you can also tell when the whine of the tires sounds different. they sing to you,if you will listen to your truck and not the FM or the phone.

 

My company puts these caps on all their tires. I'm not convinced it has resulted in any increase in tire checking.

I think it comes down to those who will bother to ckeck things like tire pressure will do it regardless... and those who don't want to be bothered won't bother.

 

Guess I should be more clear on this. One your right about dropping pressure on a cold tires. I never messed with the steer tires, but after an hour on hot asphalt, that's when I drop the pressure about five to seven pounds. drivers and trailers. Been doing it since 1983 to 2003 never had any problems. Not saying your wrong, its just how iv been doing it without ever having a flat in the hot desert. Iv had about 60 flat tires on big trucks life time and change only two of them myself with a tire-bar (that was fun) But never had a blow out or flat on a hot day in the desert. I do drop my speed to about 60 mph when the temp gos above 98 degrees, its just how I do it, but you are right about dropping pressure on a cold tire, its not a good thing to do. Thanks for the reply, i'm all ears if you have any more info. Always willing to learn new things, and be reminded of old ones.

 

No one has a TPMS "Tire Psi Monitoring System" that actually shows the pressures in the cab?
Because they do exist.(i have one)
And i have checked several times,the system was/is 100% accurate.

It also shows how much the pressures change with the tyres heating up when in use.
Even on cold days,if you have a heavy load,pressure goes up very quickly.

 

We have some with TPMS that work well. My dad's company had some that didn't work for crap. They ended up removing all of them.

 

i love mine

 

Those fill-through valve caps have a couple of weaknesses, however. The first is that sometimes a small speck of dirt or sand or even ice can get caught in that rubber gasket such that it puts slight pressure on the valve stem, and the next thing you know you've got a slow leak. I've found several flats in the morning, on tires where I couldn't find a nail or a hole of any kind. Pumped 'em back up and they held air just fine.

The other problem with them: they're not as accurate as the stem is by itself. Gauge through the cap, and then remove the cap and gauge again--sometimes you can see a 10 psi difference. Most of the time, though, they're close enough that the difference is negligible.

I'm not knocking the fill-through caps, just highlighting the limitations I've found with them. I definitely prefer them and carry spares with me in case I hook to a trailer that has one or two missing. I gauge all my tires every day, and those caps make that process a lot easier.

 

It's still the worst thing you can do. Drop pressure 10 lbs in the middle of the afternoon - for no good reason. THOSE TIRES ARE DESIGNED TO HANDLE THE PRESSURE INCREASE! So... now you stop for the night, get a great 50 degree temp drop overnight. Now you have underinflated tires. NEVER drop pressure after you've checked your cold pressure is adequate for the ambient temperatures you're operating in!

Your tires are designed to handle large pressure increases EVEN in very hot desert conditions - that won't unduly increase their operating temperatures. It's the increased operating temperatures that underinflated tires cause that leads to failure!!!!

 

Oddly enough, one of the biggest reasons i stopped frequent daily checking of my tire pressure with a gauge was due to the incidence of valve jamming brought on by unseed crud, and that cursed balancing sand used a while back . Those fill-thru type valve caps have been another headache on lease trailers; not only are they prone to jamming open from hidden crud and ice at 0-dark-30 in the back corner of a dirt lot, but after they've been on awhile, just try to get them off for cleaning without vise-grips or water pump pliers. Even some of our local tiremen have gone back to solid valve caps, tossing the fill-thrus into the scrap bin.

Never heard of any great inaccuracy regarding stick-type gauges, though. Something to consider next time i'm on a tool binge