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Electronic tire pressure monitors?

cawmd82

Well Known Member
So time marches on and the gadgets presumably get better...todays Spruce email featured the SPC system. A little pricey at $310 but????

Anyone using this piece?

Anyone really happy with an alternative???
 
So time marches on and the gadgets presumably get better...todays Spruce email featured the SPC system. A little pricey at $310 but????

Anyone using this piece?

Anyone really happy with an alternative???

I'm very happy with my current alternative system... I look at the tires :eek:
 
Doc. I think the value of the "opportunity" to check the landing system visually (and even ocassionally remove front pant for brake/wheel inspection and tire inflate) can't be over estimated. Just my opinion.
 
If it takes a bit of effort to push out of hangar = tyres need air
Else OK
QED

PS they are so useful on our Airbuses most have been disabled!
 
I think it would be great to use my IPhone/Bluetooth to double check tire pressure. Just another useful tool. It would have to be VERY affordable.

Until then, it's eyeball, feel, and tire gauge if it doesn't pass the first two tests.

Don
 
use Air Stop tubes...

...and you will only have to adjust tire pressure once/year when you have the wheel pants off anyway.

Larry Tompkins
544WB -6A
W52 Battle ground WA
 
...and you will only have to adjust tire pressure once/year when you have the wheel pants

Well, I put Airstop tubes in and have had to add air twice in 3-4 months. Perhaps that will change after the oxygen leaks out leaving nitrogen only. Time will tell.

Don
 
Well, I put Airstop tubes in and have had to add air twice in 3-4 months. Perhaps that will change after the oxygen leaks out leaving nitrogen only. Time will tell.

Don

Be sure the valve stem cores are TIGHT. If not you will be adding air every few weeks.
 
Originally I had whatever tubes Van's sent me. I only had to put air in them once when it got cold, maybe twice.

Later I had a flat on the passenger side and replaced the tube with an Airstop.

That thing needs air at least once a month and the pilot side is still going strong. I checked and even changed the valve core to be sure that was not the issue.

I need new tires and I am going back with the stockers.
 
Originally I had whatever tubes Van's sent me. I only had to put air in them once when it got cold, maybe twice.

Later I had a flat on the passenger side and replaced the tube with an Airstop.

That thing needs air at least once a month and the pilot side is still going strong. I checked and even changed the valve core to be sure that was not the issue.

I need new tires and I am going back with the stockers.

I've had several Airstop or similar tubes over the years and all worked as expected except one. That one didn't hold air much better than a standard tube. Sounds like you have a bad one.
 
Tire Pressure Monitoring

This thread drifted a little off the subject, so here are some comments to steer it back to electronic tire pressure monitoring. Checking tire pressure before flying is traditionally the way to be sure your tires are correctly inflated. But it only tells you the tire pressure at that particular point in time. I recently flew with a friend who had checked his tire pressure before we taxied, but the tire went flat (fortunately) before takeoff.

The airline industry moved past the concept of "fly-fix-fly" some years ago. Engines can be monitored in great detail, and we can see trends developing that indicate a possible problem before there is a failure. Electronic tire pressure monitoring has been in use on modern transport airplanes for quite awhile, and low tire pressure is now part of EICAS and ECAM alerting systems.

Off road rally racers use tire pressure monitoring to allow them to stop and change a tire before one fails at exactly the wrong time. Their lives depend on it during a race. The technology is available.

RVs have landed with low/flat tires, which usually results in being stranded on the runway and some fiberglass work for the damaged wheel fairing. But there have been cases where the airplane ended up in the weeds. If those pilots had known a tire was getting low, they would likely have changed their landing strategy. Let's raise our game by figuring out how to make the technology work in our aircraft, just like we've done in other areas.

As an additional note: One of the lessons we learned from the flat tire mentioned earlier was that since there are several RVs on our field, we decided to develop a recovery kit with a built-up wheel and tire, and the jacks necessary to get the airplane rolling again in minimum time.
 
As pro safety as this forum gets most of the time I can't believe that most everyone else doesn't agree
What action would you take airborne if you were notified that the tyre pressure was low? And how much reliance would you place on it?

AFIAK the real reason they are fitted to airliners is not for crew purposes, but for engineering costs. To check the tyre pressures on a daily check now takes an engineer one glance at a screen for 10 wheels, not placing a gauge on 10 tyres outside. In the event, after so many spurious warnings and the MEL implications, we have disabled / removed the whole system on most/all of our A320 series... and the engineers have to walk around again :eek:
 
I bought a $50 cheapo system on ebay. Use it on my small travel trailer. Has 4 sensors that screw onto the tire stems. Has a plug-in monitor (into the cig lighter) with 4 leds and a warning buzzer. It comes preset from the factory at a fixed pressure value that you cannot change. It works great, bit it is what it is and would not be ideal for the plane. The linked Amazon one is $168 and looks interesting.
 
Just Dreaming . . . . Garmin has the pieces - -

But software is needed to bring them together.

Here is the ANT adapter for iPhone:

https://buy.garmin.com/en-US/US/on-the-go/mobileaccessories/ant-adapter-for-iphone/prod103887.html

And here is the garmin tire pressure sending unit that uses ANT tech for communications. It is small and light weight, a consideration for the stem mounted requirement for tubes.

https://buy.garmin.com/en-US/US/prod131744.html

Unfortunately, the sensor only communicates with ZUMO and the combo is not the most cost effective. Just dreaming, but an app for iPad or iPhone with these pieces could provide the information, and maybe a plane picture!

Again, just dreaming of software.
 
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