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Checking Tire Air Pressure Before Every Haul

I hear you on that! My actual corded compressor for the house won’t work with my new truck! It’s too small - I was using it mainly on car tires at half the rating. :rofl:
I will probably look into one of those cordless ones with battery pack. I can keep it in the truck during trips and charge it in the truck or trailer if needed. I didn’t know these existed!
I bought a small corded one for the truck thinking it would work and it can only hit about 60psi - that’s not going to cut it for a trailer tire in an emergency.

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Someone above mentioned the TPMS valve caps but wondering if anyone has used anything like this?

Seems almost too good to be true?

Also curious to hear if anyone has experience with a tire pressure monitoring system. I’ve been thinking about getting something like this for the trailer for a while.

welll…here’s a weird one:

Ok…one of the four tires looked low before hauling to lesson so i got out the air compressor. Looked at the tire to ascertain desired PSI…65. One had too much air pressure so i deflated it back down to 65…and it looked low then too! Went to other side, both were right at 65 and looked fine??? Went all the way around and rechecked air volume…all at 65, and yet two seemed low. I looked again at the tire pressure suggested on tire…and it said 80 PSI!!! Whut?? so, i checked all of them carefully for manufacturer’s regulation… OMG…the right side, both front and back were to be PSI 80, and left side both at 65! Both same manufacture, and both same model number. I had four new tires put on this trailer almost exactly 2 years ago so knew exactly where to go to try and sort things out…

Kept trailer hooked up all weekend and yesterday went to repair shop. Two people later (finally got the owner to come outside and take a look) the answer is: The 80psi side were 10-ply tires and the 65psi side were 8-ply. That at the time (covid and all) the shop didn’t have four of each and were unable to get any in. The man said that i should just inflate to each recommended PSi and feel confident that they are fine…just fine the way they are. Now…what i’m not so sure of is whether i was charged correctly, but meh! How much diff would it have been 10? 20?. I suppose i should feel glad that i was able to even get new tires in April of 2020…

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Thanks to this thread I’m now shopping for a tire inflator (and heavy duty pressure gauge) to keep in my trailer tongue box with all the other road safety items :+1: Something that I should have always paid more attention to but didn’t. Know better, do better!

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I am so lucky because my husband always checks everything over on both the truck and trailer before they go anywhere. I have been spoiled. When I was single I rarely checked anything but the gas gauge…

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@Libby2563 I am ordering a set of those for each of our trailers just as soon as I get time to see what the specific tire pressure is for each one.

BTW, I had to scroll back up to see who recommended those, as I had simply opened the link and saved it when you posted. I should have known you would have such a great idea; I’ve spent a long time lurking in your blog and loving all your farm updates and helpful posts. I’ll also confess to sending a link to your post about your finished barn to a builder this spring when he asked me what I wanted :slight_smile:

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I am only familiar with the trailer tire monitoring system that comes installed with the new GMC trucks. We had the sensors installed when we got new tires put on the trailer. The trailer place was a little reluctant to install them, however, a quick youtube video convinced them it wasn’t too hard of a job. They work great and are quite accurate compared to my handheld gauge. The piece of mind is unreal. I get temperature warnings more than anything.
I made sure I did my homework before we purchased them to make sure that they would work. There are other systems out there and reviews and instruction booklets are your best friend.

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Aww you’re making me blush, thank you! I’m always so happy to hear that my ramblings have been useful to someone. I definitely don’t update as often as I used to but some of the posts get a surprising amount of traffic, especially the composting ones, so I hope people are still finding them helpful!

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Check your lug nuts too! This weekend me and my boyfriend were towing his 53ft race trailer and we lost a wheel! he looked in the sideview mirror and saw it rolling into incoming traffic. Thank god nobody got hit by it!! Checking the lugs has now be added to pre trip checklist.

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I have the Ryobi compressor too. It works great for my truck (35 PSI) and trailer tires (60 PSI). I really like the convenience of its portability. Note that the kit does not come with a hose or any of the fittings.

https://www.homedepot.com/p/RYOBI-ONE-18V-Cordless-1-Gal-Portable-Air-Compressor-and-2-0-Ah-Compact-Battery-and-Charger-Starter-Kit-P739-PSK005/316391978

That happened to a friend of mine. She has a duelly and was pulling a huge Bloomer trailer with full living quarters. She had a flat at the showgrounds before coming home and had AAA replace the tire. On the freeway, she heard a weird noise and pulled over, only to find the AAA guy had forgotten to tighten the lug nuts! Did quite a bit of damage to the truck, and she had to offload the horses onto another trailer on the side of a busy freeway.

AIr pressure question. My trailer is quite old (2000 edition) and the company is out of business (Sidekick). No plate with tire info that I can find. 2H SL w/tack room, alum over steel frame.
TIres say 100# fill.
Seems everyone here is saying 80#, and in fact that is what they were filled to when I had them replaced at the trailer shop.
WHat is correct??

Always go by the manufacturer’s recommendation, which is on the sidewall of the tire.

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