Irksome Wheel covers make checking air difficult

[ctcamper]

Why does a manufacturer put on wheel covers that make it impossible to check air pressure without taking off the wheel covers? Taking off the covers each time you start off on the road just abrades the coating on the wheel and invites rust, plus weakens the hold of the cover on the rim. It should not be a necessary part of a basic safety procedure.
My old Winnebago had dish style concave wheel covers on the rear duals and I could access the tire valves on inner and outer duals with no problem.
New Motorhome came with convex wheel covers on both front and back which makes it impossible to check the inner duals even with a truck gage. I have measured and determined I need a gage 14 inches long with an angled chuck to get at the rears without adding valve extensions, which I don't really want to do. Is it really that much of a cost savings to install the convex covers as opposed to the dish style?
I visited freightliner parts and fleetpride and the longest they make is around 10 inches. They understand the problem but are unable to help aside from selling extensions. I have called truck stops and so far have not found any tire gages around 14 inches in length.
Today I will try to find a section of tubing to fit my 10.5 inche gage to extend it. I may have to put threads on it myself as the gages don't use pipe thread.
I found one tire gage that was 14" at fastenal but had to return it as they had a bend in the shaft that made it impossible to seat it on the valve, plus it was cheaply made and the graduations were almost impossible to read at the small 2.5 lb. increments.

Has anyone found a 14 inch long gage in their travels?

[ctcamper]

Why does a manufacturer put on wheel covers that make it impossible to check air pressure without taking off the wheel covers? Taking off the covers each time you start off on the road just abrades the coating on the wheel and invites rust, plus weakens the hold of the cover on the rim. It should not be a necessary part of a basic safety procedure.
My old Winnebago had dish style concave wheel covers on the rear duals and I could access the tire valves on inner and outer duals with no problem.
New Motorhome came with convex wheel covers on both front and back which makes it impossible to check the inner duals even with a truck gage. I have measured and determined I need a gage 14 inches long with an angled chuck to get at the rears without adding valve extensions, which I don't really want to do. Is it really that much of a cost savings to install the convex covers as opposed to the dish style?
I visited freightliner parts and fleetpride and the longest they make is around 10 inches. They understand the problem but are unable to help aside from selling extensions. I have called truck stops and so far have not found any tire gages around 14 inches in length.
Today I will try to find a section of tubing to fit my 10.5 inche gage to extend it. I may have to put threads on it myself as the gages don't use pipe thread.
I found one tire gage that was 14" at fastenal but had to return it as they had a bend in the shaft that made it impossible to seat it on the valve, plus it was cheaply made and the graduations were almost impossible to read at the small 2.5 lb. increments.

Has anyone found a 14 inch long gage in their travels?

[Hitchhiker]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Has anyone found a 14 inch long gage in their travels? </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

Click here.

[FrontRangeRVer]

It's flat much easier to remove the wheel covers to check the air pressure.

[AFChap]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">I need a gage 14 inches long with an angled chuck to get at the rears without adding valve extensions, which I don't really want to do. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>
ctcamper

I can understand your aversion to extensions. The real solution to me is to have long metal valve stems ...not extensions, but the valve stems themselves. My Spartan chassis came with long valve stems on the rear wheels, which put the stem for the inside dual in the center of one of the holes in the wheel. It is then easy to check tire pressure with any dual-footed gauge. I don't have wheel covers, but believe a long valve stem would do pretty much the same with wheel covers as it does with my wheels.

[Dalsn1]

Check this site.

http://www.valvepal.com/

Steve

[Paul T]

Just took my rig in to have the inner dual fill extensions removed because I could not get an air pressure check on one side and after all I've read am very concerned about a failure. Actually, I needed the peace of mind that there was actually air in the tire I couldn't check. Thankfully it was still up to the 103PSI I had been able to check previously. So now I'll have to attempt checking and filling with an extension I ordered just for that purpose. The fellow who worked on my problem could not get a 14 inch pressure gauge to work and had to use a flexible connection to fill and check.

I sure wish someone had a better solution to this problem. I suspect that after a bit I will end up putting extensions back on but with so many failure stories out there I wish there was a better way!

[JnGOnTheGo]

I solved the problem by putting on a set of Crossfires on the rear duals. Now I just look at the gauge. I do occassionally put a gauge to the crossfire just to be sure but now I can check both tires at one time.

Here is a link to the website;
http://www.dualdynamics.com/crossfires/index.shtml

[ctcamper]

After much hair pulling ( what little I have left) I ended up scrapping my wallmart gage because it had a different thread, possibly metric, inbetween the gauge body and the dual head chuck.
I found a Milton service gage, made in the USA model s976, that used NPT on the pipe running from the gauge body to the chuck. I then went to a plumbing supply house and got a 9" black pipe nipple, which I wire brushed to remove the black coating and then painted it silver. A bit of locktite blue to seal the threads (thought it would look neater than teflon tape) and I now have an extra long gauge that reaches the valve with plenty of room to spare.
10 bucks for gauge, 2 bucks for black pipe nipple (guy at the supply house took pity on me I think) , and about 12 bucks gas running around I think I have solved the problem.
Thanks everyone.

[Paul T]

Question for ctcamper.
What size tires on your rig? What model rig?
Thx

[ctcamper]

I currently have the 28 foot Access with the 16" Wheels - downsized from Adventurer 32.

I could always reach the valve stems with the 10 inch walmart gauge on the Adventurer with the 19.5 wheels and deep dish rear covers so was never a prob till now.