Tire air pressure sensors

[littlewaywelt]

Barry posed a question not long ago about air pressure sensors and following is some additional information related to his question.

I received TireRack's magazine/catalog yesterday and it had a very interesting article on a post regarding air pressure sensors.  I won't try and summarize the article as it was relatively long, but you (barry) would probably be interested in getting it which you can do from tirerack's website.  I couldn't find an online version of the article, but you can sign up to receive it.  

The general tenor of the was that there were two types of systems, one relies on wheel rotation and works with the abs system, the premise being that an underinflated tire will rotate at a different speed than the rest.  They acknowledge that this system has problems with long curves and in snow, showing false alarms.

THe other system which attaches to a special guage can also have issues, unless it is programable.  The standards set by the US gvt won't show a low pressure until problems could be serious.

Anyhow, I'll leave it to you guys to decide if the aftermarket systems make sense for you.  I am sticking to regularly (weekly) checking the pressure manually with an accurate vdo gauge.

http://www.tirerack.com/accessories/smartire/smartire_all.jsp

[barrysharp]

Thanks for that research and the TireRack ref. http://xc70.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif  I have to believe that sooner rather than later the Auto industry will start making this type of tire pressure display available to the public at large. When they do, prices will fall dramatically for such a feature.

Maintenance of correct tire pressure is important and is a two step method.

1. Measuring tire pressure
2. Correcting the tire pressure

Automating Step 1 is being or has been done to some degree but needs adoption to production by the BIG auto companies to be cost effective for the consumer. I'm certain this adoption isn't too far into the furture.

Automating Step 2 is more of a challenge I believe. How can this be done ? One method might be to have a small device container within the tire's hollow space attached to the rim's hub. This container holds enough air pressure that can be released as necessary to maintain a desired tire pressure. Replenishing this container poses another challenge. Another approach to correcting tire pressure might be a special configurable valve that simply shuts off when the desired tire pressure has be obtained. This then makes the task for the consumer relatively easy -- they simply plug the high pressure air hose onto the valve and it either lets out air or forces new air into the tire to obtain correct tire pressure. I think ladies with long finger nails would approve of this enhancement. It also is labor saving http://xc70.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/tounge.gif

[littlewaywelt]

Step one: They are adopting it, but the problem is that the US Federal standards won't trigger an alarm until the tire is quite / potentially dangerously underinflated.  -according to the Tire Rack Article.

Step Two:  The only vehicle that I know of which offers the ability to inflate the tire without hooking up to an external source is the AM General Hummer (the real one, not the H2-glorified yukon/denali).  The Central Tire Inflation System uses an on board air compressor.