High presure valve cap monitors
 

I was in Napa today, and noticed a full rack of valve cap indicators, I had looked at them befor, but they seemed to only be in the 32-38psi range, a few motorcycle ones at 44psi, but now they have 32, 34, 36, 38, 40, 45, 50, 75, and 100psi caps, with three stages, full presure, 4psi low, and 10psi low, all in one cap!
I just had to get a set of the 50psi for my snow tires (51psi max presure on these tires) and they seem pretty solid so far, black rubber o-ring seal, steal threded body, we'll see how they hold up, I picked up a digital tire gauge too, thought it might be time to join the rest of you in the 21'st century.

my brother was saying that you don't want a lot of weight on the valve stem if you do high speed driving apparently the high g forces can bend valve stems and cause air loss. But then we are talking about my brother . . . I think I know what to get my xB for Christmas!

Ryland -

How much do they cost at Napa? I got some cheapies (all plastic) from Radio Shack and they were on sale for $5 a set. What is their tolerance? Does it say on the packaging? I think the Radio Shack ones had at least a 20% tolerance, so if there were rated at 30 PSI, they wouldn't show that your tire was low until it went down to 24 PSI.

I would get a set from Napa, except now I use my "pump the gas slow" strategy as an excuse to check the tire pressure. So now I check my tire pressure at least once every 3-4 days. I'll probably get a set for my wife.

CarloSW2

I think it was around $11 for a set of 4, what really sold me on them was that they would show you when your tire was both 4psi low, (turn yellow) and 10psi low (turn red), the idea of checking your presure at every fillup is good, other then your tires are warm then (higher presure), and every time you check the presure, you are taking a sample of the air, so it's droping by that much.

Cool
 

I have only seen the 32 and 36's around here. Now that I know they are out there looks like I will be finding some stockings this year. We dont have a NAPA around here so I will have to do some shopping.

Thanks for the info.

Jack

After some internet shopping I found these:

https://www.brookstone.com/store/prod...516&pid=539106

and these:

https://www.dingking.tv/family.asp?fam_id=ZACP

But neither were close to $11 for 4.

*****Edit******* Bought em on ebay for $8.18 shipped seen here:

https://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/SAFET...spagenameZWDVW

Those Brookstone ones are smart - show a pressure drop of 4psi from ANY PRESSURE - not too good in hot and cold weather that we are having now of course since the pressure will fluxuate that much from the temps alone. But these also have an LED that flashes - more weight and tech to go bad - nice bling bling!!

As a long-time "tire pressure adjuster, checker"... let me give you my experiences with these tricks.
A) They tend to freeze up during slushy (cold) conditions... You'll never know....
B) Do this...place your 4 caps on one tire valve stem, one at a time. Check each psi reading. What you are looking for is : Do all caps read the "same"? I think you will be surprised! :eek:
C) Metal caps? Are they heavy enough to affect tire balance? You be the
judge , here....
I tried these years ago...they don't throw too well, either! LOL!
I've got (and have had) a high(er)-dollar analog (I like the number scale!) pressure gauge. Digital? Hmmm.... With batteries? Don't get caught with low voltage (cold) or old batteries....

I've had the same thing happen with the mecanical gauges, and figured that one that had a warenty on it's acuricy seemed like a fair way to go, of course how much they stand behind that is another question, but I got the caps, and the gauge at the same time so that I could check them againt a suposedly acurite number, and they seem to be within mesurable tolernces.
I also wonder about the weight and ballence, that is the only thing I don't really know about, but they don't seem to weight much more then normal metal valve caps, and I know hub caps aren't all that well ballence, and when I got the car it had a wheel lock on each wheel that weighed an extra ounce, so I figure without hub caps, or wheel locks or any of that, a valve cap is going to be reasonable.

Thanks for the info. How can you lose for 8.18.