Valor TPMS - Nominal "Smart tool" data

[Gary.Jones]

Sadly, a Smart Tool has not routinely been included in the box of stuff that you get with a new coach, and In my opinion, it should be. The scanner lets you examine the battery state and battery life of your tire sensors in the TPMS system, the pressures, and the temperatures. I felt I needed one and a month or so after I took possession of my coach in May of 2018, I ordered the Smart Tool along with the four additional sensors to be installed inside the tires of my Honda Toad. I just had to have the ability to program that device if it needed programmed and of course I did have to add the additional toad sensors to the dash and the system. That can also be/should be done by any Entegra dealer such as NIRVC if you don't want to buy the Smart Tool, but I did. When I bought mine, they were about $200. They are more expensive now.

I thought that I would take readings on all sensors yesterday just so that I would have a current idea of what is going on and the data I read from the Smart Tool is presented in an attached Excel spreadsheet print out. The left column gives the side of the coach and the axle position of each tire, the sensor serial number, the current voltage of the sensor battery, the PSI read for that tire, and the environmental temperature. It was a cool day and the temps look right. You will notice that the passenger side steer and outside drive axle tires are warmer than the rest as those tires were on the sunny side of the coach. Otherwise it was a cool day at about 68 degrees.

You will also notice that for my Honda, you will see that both steer tires show no readings at all. That means that the batteries in those two sensors are shot and the sensor is providing no data to the dash or anywhere else. I saw the front axle tires on the Honda disappear at slightly different times a month or so ago. I was told by the head tech at Spartan when I was there for a 2.5 year PDI visit that the batteries need to be above 3.2 volts to be sending a good signal. The battery decay is gradual. So, since neither of the front tires of the Honda show on the dash or sensor, the assumption is that their voltages are very close to zero. Notice that the rear Honda battery voltages are very close to the point that they are going to fail completely.

I see that I need to add some addition pressure to my coach steers and my Honda tires probably all around.

The reason that the battery voltages on my now 4 year old 2019 coach is that all 8 of the sensors where replaced by Spartan when I returned to Charlotte for a 2.5 year PDI.

I provide this data just to show other owners who may not have the smart tool what you can see and also so that others can compare their data to my data. To me, the most important data is the PSI and battery voltage.

Gary

[LWBAZ]

Good info Gary.

In my opinion, it is borderline unconscionable for an RV chassis manufacturer and/or coach manufacturer to install a tire pressure monitoring system that doesn't allow the owner to adjust the high and/or low pressure alarm set points.

I realize that problem can be solved by purchasing the tool you bought, but in my opinion that is salt in the wound. You're paying multiple hundreds of thousands of dollars for a motorhome and you have to spend more money so you can set your alarm trigger points to what they should have been in the first place? And if you don't, you get to deal with recurring alarms every time you drive in excessively hot or overly cold weather? Yeah, that would make me happy.

Fortunately, I have yet to own a motorhome that came with an integrated tire pressure monitoring system. That has allowed me to choose the pressure monitoring system of my choice. I've owned more than one brand over the years, but am currently very satisfied with my Truck System Technologies (TST) system.

[Gary.Jones]

Actually Larry, the Smart Programmer does NOT let you set your own trigger points (at least on my coach). The trigger points are established by the manufacturer and generally involve + 20% or +30% psi increases and maybe 15% to 20% decreases. I can verify all that but that is my memory. You program in your tire pressures and then the trigger points are standard points above and below your set PSI tire pressures. Trigger are done by percent change.

The system is not like my TireMinder stem sensor system was on the Anthem where I could set all of that.

Gary

[LWBAZ]

And the hits just keep on coming!

Somebody must believe all of that is just wonderful. But I'm going to guess that individual doesn't own a motorhome.

[hpykmpr47]

I totally agree that the tool, to set the parameters should be included with the coach, or at least program into the system a way to set the air pressure where it needs to be. I purchased a tool because every time I took our coach to the dealer, I would have to re-program the sensors again as per the tire pressures that I needed for the weight of the coach. which I
had weighed at Spartan.

[brobox]

Originally Posted by LWBAZ

Good info Gary.

In my opinion, it is borderline unconscionable for an RV chassis manufacturer and/or coach manufacturer to install a tire pressure monitoring system that doesn't allow the owner to adjust the high and/or low pressure alarm set points.

I realize that problem can be solved by purchasing the tool you bought, but in my opinion that is salt in the wound. You're paying multiple hundreds of thousands of dollars for a motorhome and you have to spend more money so you can set your alarm trigger points to what they should have been in the first place? And if you don't, you get to deal with recurring alarms every time you drive in excessively hot or overly cold weather? Yeah, that would make me happy.

Fortunately, I have yet to own a motorhome that came with an integrated tire pressure monitoring system. That has allowed me to choose the pressure monitoring system of my choice. I've owned more than one brand over the years, but am currently very satisfied with my Truck System Technologies (TST) system.

Larry, I couldn't have said it better and you said it a lot politer than my feelings are about the Valor system and the people that install it without the "special tool". Another avenue for a forced service call. All of what Gary is going through, for the second time just to change batteries? Seriously?

Nice report Gary, thanks for taking the time. You mentioned the trigger points....so that's why my Valor does not work in FL in the summer time with pavement temperatures well above 130 degrees. Without being able to set the trigger point, it is not a 49 state unit and can only be used it states with average temperatures? My Valor worked fine in FL this winter, but will not work here in the summer without constant warnings flashing on the dash.

[Harleydeal]

I understand that for model year 2023, a Don Rigby bobblehead will be included with each purchase.

[brobox]

Originally Posted by Harleydeal

I understand that for model year 2023, a Don Rigby bobblehead will be included with each purchase.

I guess that is part of the new Gen III, but no mention of the "smart tool" included.

[Gary.Jones]

Chuck

Well, you dont need to tell me much about summer temps, I live in Louisiana as you remember and there are not a lot of days in summer that are any hotter in FLA than they are in LA, and some times you are cooler.

The system and set points work just fine in summer and winter for anything that is important about tire inflation.. The bandwidths work just fine for all emergency situations. tire running "hot" due to a problem or pending problem.... tires running cold and low in pressure. The logic works just fine IMO. Not being able to set the points is not the weakness. Short battery life.... that is not acceptable. The Honda mounted built in Honda system sensors in my 2013 Honda needed replaced abut a year ago.....these Valor sensors dying in < 4 years is just not adequate.

Oh, and I should have said that those criterion changes are also applied to tire temperature as a tire getting hot is also a potentially VERY serious problem. Sorry for the omission.


Gary

[brobox]

Originally Posted by Gary.Jones

Chuck

Well, you dont need to tell me much about summer temps, I live in Louisiana as you remember and there are not a lot of days in summer that are any hotter in FLA than they are in LA, and some times you are cooler.

The system and set points work just fine in summer and winter for anything that is important about tire inflation.. The bandwidths work just fine for all emergency situations. tire running "hot" due to a problem or pending problem.... tires running cold and low in pressure. The logic works just fine IMO. Not being able to set the points is not the weakness. Short battery life.... that is not acceptable. The sensors in my 2013 Honda needed replaced abut a year ago.....these dying in < 4 years is just not adequate.

Gary

Gary, if that is the case why do so many Valor TPMS have the same problem that I do as installed? It also seems many of those users that have posted are in TX. Does Spartan not know how to configure the units that are being installed? Do the coach owners have to make a 600 mile trips (1.200 round trip) to their dealer to get the system to work? Why is there a new Gen III out if the first units worked well?

[RVStitchy]

The Smart Tool only works on Gen I. There is no smart tool for Gen III.

The good news is my Gen III is working perfectly so far.

I was told earlier this year that Valor might have a Gen III software update to allow customer programming. I just asked earlier this week how that project was coming since I have sensors for my Toad waiting in a box to be installed. I am told the system default for the Toad is 30 PSI. Most vehicles are 35 PSI so the alarms would start pretty quickly as tires warm up.

Unfortunately the response was not good. They are not pursuing the software update. The only option is to go to a FL dealer for reprogramming. And I have the same understanding as the other post here - you can only program the cold tire temps. Cannot change the alarm parameters or algorithms. My understanding but not positive.

I was also told the that FL dealer needs a special cable to do the programming. I am going to my FL dealer in the next two weeks (without the coach) to find out how much they know about the system and if they have the cable. Hopefully I can get this done while getting the PDM recall done in the next two months.

[Gary.Jones]

Well, I have not seen the data that owners of "southern" coaches have more problems than more "northern" coaches.

I can tell you as fact that Don Rigby was asked to program in tire pressure points in the system by Spartan and the points he programmed into chassis simply made no sense for a chassis with a house built on it after the house was installed. The weights he was given he felt were for a bare chassis. Pretty silly. I was letting air out of my tires all the way from Atlanta to Shreveport as I drone my new coach home. I kept them in a safe range but everything was a total mess..... alarms alarming all the time I drove. And I can assure that NIRVC had no idea how to program the system either. It was not their fault. There were no instructions available on first coaches. I stood there while the tech tried to do it his first time fooling with the system. He had no more clue than I did. We got Don on speaker phone as he led all of us through the process.... it was a new learning process for everyone. Woo, who knows as much about coach electronics as anyone I have ever met, had no idea how to set up the system.... it was brand new and an enigma until owners and dealers started to make sense out of it.

I have never argued that the rollout by Entegra or Spartan or Valor or NIRVC was a good experience. It wasn't. No one had any clue what to do with this system and every owner was dealing with the lack of knowledge on everyone's part. If people will search the archives, you will find my long, long frustrated posts on what it was like while everyone learned how to make the system tolerable and workable for owners..... It was a fairly long process and I wrote a bunch of long posts on my new coach. I have maintained for years that a major problem for Entegra owners is that IMO, someone simply decides that they are going to add a new system on their coaches, and there is no development time, no break-in test phase, no trial coaches to see how something works for a year or 30,000 miles, and the factory make changes to the system before starting to sell the coaches to new owners. Its just not done in this industry IMO.

However, you will notice that there are few major problems with the system in the past few years. There have been problems with enough antennas to reliably get all the tires and there appear to continue to be battery life span problems for sensors, but I have now put about 55,000 miles on this coach and there is nothing fundamentally wrong with this system beyond those problems IMO.

Gary

[brobox]

I rest my case, A POS installed on a $500,000. coach that even on a 21 they do not have it working out of the box. I went through the "not ready for prime time" on the 19 that Don Rigby assured me would be working on the next batch of installations. Fast forward 3 years to a 21 Cornerstone...it still has the same POS! TPMS I had on the 19. Breaking it down to the ridiculous, that is one Million $ in coaches, for me, that the factory TPMS does not work. But for $300 I can have a tried and proven unit, TST, that will work on the toad. Add additional sensor and have the coach included.


Chris, encourage for new coach owners they will not get stuck with the earlier Valor TPMS that only works in cool weather, for the sensor that do show up.

[Harleydeal]

Originally Posted by brobox

I guess that is part of the new Gen III, but no mention of the "smart tool" included.

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