Griping about Tire Minders

[MDM8770]

Have had my Tire Minder pass through devices for about 3 years or so. Average about 1500 miles per year towing. When I bought them I asked if rubber valve stems could be used, was told yes. Two weeks after I put new tires on the RV to replace the China Bombs and got the Tire Minders I got an email saying steel stems were recommended. Course the time for this would have been when I ordered them and before I mounted the new tires. Anyway, this year we decided to venture a bit south and went to San Carlos, Sonora, Mexico. On the way down I started losing air rapidly. Turns out my valve stem was cut. Put the spare on and made it to San Carlos. Found the right tire guy and had stainless steel stems installed on all 4 tires (he didn’t have 5 or the spare would have one too!). During the installation another stem was found to be cut/broken just not to the point of failure. I do not feel the company should advise that rubber stems are fine when they put customers in harms way. Seems like just telling the customers the safest thing should be more important than the cheapest thing. My 2 cents. I have a picture as well.

[tpaul]

Had a similar problem with our EEZ Tire Tpms. They developed a slow leak when exceeding 60mph. Something to do with the centrifugal force at higher speed. Solved with metal valve stems.

[Toby Dog]

I need to call Tire Minder myself.
Coming back from Florida I started getting alarms and PSI readings all over the place on our TT.
Pulled them off to verify pressures which were all at the exact 80 psi that they were supposed to be.
I'm sure that TM will make good as they have before but we shouldn't have to go thru the PITA.
I had the same problem with TST years ago, that's why I switched.

[Palmeris]

There are different grades, lengths, styles, etc.

[xrated]

I finally figured out how to eliminate all of the false alarms and issues I was having with the TireMinder TPMS that I had......I threw all six sensors and the repeater in the trash can, and bought a TST 507. That was a couple of years ago and haven't had an issue since. And if you think I'm joking.....I'm not!

[traveldawg]

Originally Posted by Toby Dog

I need to call Tire Minder myself.
Coming back from Florida I started getting alarms and PSI readings all over the place on our TT.
Pulled them off to verify pressures which were all at the exact 80 psi that they were supposed to be.
I'm sure that TM will make good as they have before but we shouldn't have to go thru the PITA.
I had the same problem with TST years ago, that's why I switched.

When this happened to me they sent me a new booster which I installed in a better location than my old one. Things worked a lot better after that.

[groveln]

Originally Posted by xrated

I finally figured out how to eliminate all of the false alarms and issues I was having with the TireMinder TPMS that I had......I threw all six sensors and the repeater in the trash can, and bought a TST 507. That was a couple of years ago and haven't had an issue since. And if you think I'm joking.....I'm not!

Good Choice xrated...I'm going on 12 years with the TST system currently using 770 monitor & 8 flow thru sensors. The original 510 system saved my butt the first season in use with a rapid air loss in the the right trailer tire. It turned out to be the rubber valve stems had started to split from the centrifugal force over time. Got to a tire place & changed them out for steel. DO NOT install these with rubber valve stems!

[Martian]

About four years ago when we got the TST system they stated that metal valve stems MUST be used. A call to them stated aluminum was ok as it was still a rigid stem. Using a rim with the bead broken on one side it only took 14 different stems to find one that can be tightened (trailer rims have non standard clearances around the valve stem and some stems cannot be tightened ) and is short enough that the TST pass thru sensors do not stick out past the tire. Ended up with 1967 Corvette stems that work perfectly. Bought six to have two spares. Spare tire is steel so that was easy.

[DarkSideJeep]

Originally Posted by MDM8770

Have had my Tire Minder pass through devices for about 3 years or so. Average about 1500 miles per year towing. When I bought them I asked if rubber valve stems could be used, was told yes. Two weeks after I put new tires on the RV to replace the China Bombs and got the Tire Minders I got an email saying steel stems were recommended. Course the time for this would have been when I ordered them and before I mounted the new tires. Anyway, this year we decided to venture a bit south and went to San Carlos, Sonora, Mexico. On the way down I started losing air rapidly. Turns out my valve stem was cut. Put the spare on and made it to San Carlos. Found the right tire guy and had stainless steel stems installed on all 4 tires (he didn’t have 5 or the spare would have one too!). During the installation another stem was found to be cut/broken just not to the point of failure. I do not feel the company should advise that rubber stems are fine when they put customers in harms way. Seems like just telling the customers the safest thing should be more important than the cheapest thing. My 2 cents. I have a picture as well.

Did you ask Tire Minder or the store clerk or someone on one of these forums? I have seen posters on forums swear up and down that the Metal valve stem requirement is all a bunch of Bull Squirt. When I purchased my TM system fall 2022, I did my research. I found the TM website and read the FAQ where they repeat the metal valve stem recommendation. Another bit of false information out there is that the repeater is only needed if you have a towed, when all you are monitoring is the coach, the repeater is not needed. That is also a bunch of Bull Squirt not from TM! I tried without the repeater and found that I had the most trouble getting the signal from the front tires. When I installed the repeater all that cleared up.

Now for one bit that no one talks about, cold weather. The fact is that batteries lose effectiveness as the temperature drops. That is a fact. All the Aftermarket TPMS systems use button batteries of some sort, so this problem affects all brands. You can perhaps mitigate the issue by installing new batteries, but even new batteries will stop functioning well once the temperature drops below 15f.

Finally, we get to the pass-through sensors. Even without guidance I knew they should NEVER be used. Although it appears that it would be convenient to not have to remove the sensor to adjust the air pressure you still have to remove a cap from the sensor so what's the difference? The biggest problem is that the pass-through sensors will often extend far enough out that incidental contact with a curb will damage or even rip the valve stem off. In my application there simply was not enough clearance to install the pass-through sensors.

[TimBulles]

I see on this forum where people are saying metal stems are the way to go for TireMinder valve stem monitoring devices. My tires and Metal stems are 3 years old. I had one metal stem start leaking last summer between the stem and the rubber boot. Well, first camping trip this weekend my second tire started leaking between the metal stem and rubber boot. I'm here to say metal stems are not the answer to this issue. Discount tire installed tires 3 years ago.

[CharlesinGA]

When I installed the Lippert Tire Linc system on my trailer, I had read enough posts on forums to know that the metal stems were the only real way to go. I just makes sense, the stems with all that weight failing around while the wheels were going around.

I installed a Dill stem that the Airstream folks found worked well on Sendel wheels. I was installing new Sendel wheels to replace the old alloy wheels and set it up right from the get go.

For my RAM truck, I recently replaced the front tires and it has factory alloy wheels. I bought some aluminum stems and had the tire shop use them, thinking someday I might add sensors to the truck. Yes, the stem is made to mount an internal sensor, but it was the size, style and length I liked and was available, so that is what I used.



I am very pleased with the Lippert system once I ditched the One Control app the instructions called for and installed the Lippert Connect app.

These tires sit for months and don't leak. I'm convinced the metal stems seal much better than any rubber stem will.

Charles

[Crabby97439]

Originally Posted by xrated

I finally figured out how to eliminate all of the false alarms and issues I was having with the TireMinder TPMS that I had......I threw all six sensors and the repeater in the trash can, and bought a TST 507. That was a couple of years ago and haven't had an issue since. And if you think I'm joking.....I'm not!

Same story here, threw the Tireminder garbage away and bought a TST unit. No issues since.

[CharlesinGA]

Originally Posted by TimBulles

I see on this forum where people are saying metal stems are the way to go for TireMinder valve stem monitoring devices. My tires and Metal stems are 3 years old. I had one metal stem start leaking last summer between the stem and the rubber boot. Well, first camping trip this weekend my second tire started leaking between the metal stem and rubber boot. I'm here to say metal stems are not the answer to this issue. Discount tire installed tires 3 years ago.

What are you referring to as a "rubber boot". It sounds like you are referring to high pressure rubber stems.

This is a high pressure (80 psi) snap in stem. It has brass protruding but it is still a rubber stem.



This is an example of a metal stem, the kind everyone is referring to when they say "metal stem" (there are many different designs and variations). Virtually all of the all metal stems are rated to 200 psi.



This type works well because the hex you tighten is up on top of the threaded sleeve where it is accessible even if the stem is recessed deep into the rim or close to the flange. I used the one above on my Sendel rims.

This is what I installed on my factory Mopar wheels recently to replace the snap in rubber high pressure stems. Again, it has a hex on the top of the sleeve so it is easy to access. I don't have TPMS on the truck, but this stem was available so I used it.



This stem is aluminum, someone cautioned to not put brass threaded TPMS sensors on them due to dis-similar metal corrosion. I think a film of grease on the threads would resolve this problem and I'm in the south anyhow. This same stem is available in chrome plated version.

Charles

[ChrisDParise]

Rubber valve stems crack and result in slow and rapid air.leaking WITHOUT any tpms sensors on them

Don't blame Tireminder

Anyone considering a tpms should do their diligence on the best way to use them. Metal bolt on valve stems are far superior to rubber valve stems regardless what the Tireminder manual says. My experience is the bolt ons lose way less air than rubber or those nasty steel braided extensions on the inner duallys - those are the worst.

Tireminder i10 TPMS for 4 years now and its been a great system