Well, just now, while driving up north to go camping, we were about 80-90 miles since home. Suddenly our alarm goes off on our Hopkins Tire Pressure Monitor! We pulled over right away, and yes, our driver's side front tire on the toad, the Tracker, was flat!
There is no way to tell if you have a flat tire on a toad, as you can not feel it up in the front while driving the motorhome. You don't know till someone points it out to you, or till your toad catches on fire... also endangering your rig! Our toad is padlocked onto the Blue Ox tow bars, and grabbing keys and unlocking a burning vehicle is pretty dangerous.
(this is the set of 6 sensors, we later added 4 more for the toad)
Soooo glad we have our tire pressure monitoring system!
In between spurts of rain showers, we got the tire changed out with the full sized spare we have on a back rack on the Tracker. The flat is now bolted in it's place, ready to go back to the dealer where we have a road hazard warranty on it. Not sure yet why it went flat, as we dashed back into the motorhome just as the rain started pouring down again!
He ain't scoffing now.
ok you convinced me...I'm nagging the man that we need one. Enjoy your weekend...!!!
ReplyDeleteWe have the Hopkins which is a bit futzy to set the sensors right the first time (when cold) ... and we did have some trouble with some of the sensors bulging out from bad batteries inside of them. The company always replaced them, free of charge, for us. Not sure if other brands are better than Hopkins. But it saved our butt and was worth the price of the purchase to save our toad and our rig!
DeleteWhew, that is a great thing to have! Have fun camping!
ReplyDeleteWe had a flat in the rig, pointed out to us by another driver. When we pulled off the road, and checked it, sure enough, flat. We drove truck for years but this flat didn't give us the bumpity bump of a flat on a semi, so we are considering a monitoring system as well, now.
ReplyDeleteiona
Wild Goose RVers: Full Time Life on the Road
http://wildgooservers.blogspot.com/
Behind every successful man stands a woman...telling him that he's wrong! ;c)
ReplyDeleteYup, he's a successful man, with a working tire pressure monitoring system and a toad and motorhome that is rolling down the road again with no dangerous mishaps! LOL
DeleteI'm glad you insisted on having one. Now Steve is too. We have a TST system.
ReplyDeleteDave wants me to put a TPMS on my new RV but I won't be towing anything so I think I'll know if one of my tires blows. We had Pressure Pro on our previous rig but I got so tired of it screaming when there was no loss. That high pitch amplified by my hearing aids is truly painful. But I will have rear dual tires which will give less feedback so maybe I need to check out other systems. Glad yours worked for you.
ReplyDeleteI don't think they had tire monitors when we had our motorhome. Either that or I didn't know it. We did have a flat once, but fortunately we were on a busy highway and someone pointed it out to us before any disaster took place.
ReplyDeleteOnce on our way from Las Vegas to Reno, I said to Rich, "I smell smoke."
He sniffed and said, "I don't smell anything. It's your imagination."
I wasn't convinced. I sniffed, again, and still smelled it. I got up and went all the way to the back of the motorhome and said, "Rich, I'm not kidding, I really do smell smoke."
Once, again, his nose didn't detect it, but he said he'd pull over and check it at the next pull off. He barely got the words out of his mouth when he yelled, "Holy ____!" and pulled to a stop, grabbed the fire extinguisher and ran out the door. In his mirror, he had seen flames shooting out of the generator compartment. He put the fire out.
When we started on our way, again (hot, hot, hot) he said, "If you ever smell smoke, again, and I don't, slap me upside my head." And, we both had a good laugh--until we got to Reno and paid the piper so to speak.
Yup.. we had the same "I don't smell nothing" debate a few years ago when a brake line collapsed and made a caliper stick. To me it stunk to high heaven, to him.. nada! I just about needed a 2x4 to slap him alongside the head to stop, and smoke was pouring out from a wheel on the motorhome!!!!
DeleteWe were so glad to have Pressure Pro on ours last week. The outside right back tire on the truck lost air and we would have never known it. I didn't see it from behind. It sure saved us. We won't go without it.
ReplyDeleteWe have a Tire Trakker monitoring system, and had so much trouble with it, and sensors not working, switched them out, called the company more than once, and STILL couldn't get things to work right. The company is excellent with customer suport, we just are too frustrated at this point to use it. We'll probably be sorry some day.
ReplyDeleteI may have told you this but we had a rear tire go flat,(or blow), on our '97 Saturn while it was being towed.
ReplyDeleteI had done a "walk around" at a rest area only 50 miles before we made a fuel stop and all tires looked OK.
While fueling at a Flying J, a woman said, "Do you know that your car has a flat, actually you HAVE NO tire"!
The entire right rear toad tire was gone except for two 2 inch wide bands of rubber that where still on the wheel beads, which saved the rim from damage.
Part if the plastic inner fender liner had been destroyed by the denigrating tire, but no other damage.
Neither of us heard, felt or smelled anything unusual.
One question about the other subject:
If a man says something.... and no woman hears him.....is he still wrong? LOL
Mel
I would have figured Steve would be the one wanting the monitor. I had one on my 5th wheel rig and never could get it to work right. $700 wasted! I had a blowout on my 5ver but was able to safely pull over and call Good Sam Emergency Road Service.
ReplyDeleteGlad you were able to get it taken care of, we installed our TPMS several months ago and once I got it up and running I am glad to have it.
ReplyDeleteScary! We are about to leave on our first trip with the new toad. It has been quit a month with buying a new car, the Blue Ox, The Air Force One, and spending lots on the house. I hope we don't have any tire problems, I' not ready for a tire sensor system just yet!
ReplyDeleteWell then, you are just rolling the dice. Only two ways to know if the toad has a flat. Someone yells at you, " pull over, you have no tire !" or worse yet, "hey , you are on fire!!
DeleteThis is not motorhome related, but when John was having yet another check-up, the Doctor told him that he needed to listen to me when I tell him something if "off"....Same ole story.... bullheaded old farts! lol
ReplyDeleteWouldn't be without our Tire Monitoring System. We also had sensors on the boat when we were towing it behind the fiver. Same thing as your toad. You can't tell if there's a flat tire back there.
ReplyDeleteOk Steve, time to start listening to Karen...just so she won't continue to talk about you.
ReplyDeleteGlad your tire monitor system saved the day and you didnt have any damage to tracker or MH. We have a monitor system and we just got it installed on the MH. We have enough for the HHR but havent put them on yet. Guess we better get busy hadnt we. LOL Enjoy your weekend, your drama should be over now.
ReplyDeleteLearned a long time ago, if someone else "smells something" and you don't, it's NOT their imagination. Different folks have varying degrees of sensitivity to different things. No good to rely on just your own senses when perhaps lives or damage is at stake.
ReplyDeletePut the ego away, just for today.
Good on you that you had your system and it worked properly. These kinds of lessons are the best kind.
Happy Travels.
The under-appreciated miracles of modern technology, eh? Your post may give a large boost to the economy. ;)
ReplyDeleteTotally wondering what the Tracker bodywork looked like when finished...!
ReplyDeleteHowdy K&S,
ReplyDeleteI still say he's the BEST!!! I've been reading the forums & blogs about tire monitors for over 3 years, some won't be without them, some have had'em and don't want'em, I am still unprotected, but we're 'on blocks', now, so will just keep reading.. On a short trip the other day Joyce said she smelled something; I didn't!! All of a sudden smoke came out from under the dashboard & I SMELLED IT; the blower was on FIRE!! A trucker put it out with his extinguisher; just lost the blower..
After our toad tire went flat way south of Puerto Escondido ( we blocked the only road for 6 hours) we got the Pressure Pro System. In our case the tire was totally gone and even the brake had to be redone.
ReplyDelete