Testimonials From Just Some Of Our TPMS Clients
We have just returned from our first Simpson Desert crossing in our RV. I gotta tell you that those tyre pressure sensors are fantastic. Unbelievably reliable and useful, and, whilst we ran pressures down as low as 20 psi in the sandhills, to 80psi on the highway, I always knew what I had and never looked like damaging a tyre. Many thanks again.
Best regards,
Larry Perkins
Perkins Technologies
P: +61 3 95876199
www.perkinstechnologies.com.au
We are owners of one of your TPMS units. We are currently travelling from Melbourne to FNQ and Cape York and back (over 5 months)
Wanted to let you know that 2nd day out on our trip (in Corowa, NSW) one of our caravan monitors alerted us to pressure drop. On investigation we found a metal spike that had pierced the tyre. If not for your unit we have no doubt the tyre would have been destroyed. Instead we were able to pay $27.50 to have tyre repaired, the unit has effectively paid for itself.
We are members of the "Trakmaster Club" and have told our story on their "forum" site, so if you get enquires from other members we have highly recommended your products and service given to us.
Thankyou again
Des & Mary Butt, Frankston Victoria
Firstly I would like to say that I am not associated with Tyre Pressure Monitoring Systems (TPMS Australia) in any way whatsoever, other than being the owner of one of their tyre pressure monitoring systems, which I have fitted to my personal transport. I have some 34 driving experience, would consider myself to be a motoring enthusiast and have driven a range of motor vehicles over that period of time including motorbikes, cars, trucks and aircraft. When I purchased my latest car, a Honda Civic Type R, it was fitted with low profile tyres as standard, and a skinny space-saver spare wheel that is rated for 80km/h max speed. There was no system offered, at the time of purchase, to monitor the tyre pressure – though I believe Honda now fits a tyre pressure monitoring system as standard to this particular model of vehicle after several complaints from the owners of this type of car.
Not long after I had purchased the car, I got a nail in the left rear tyre, which caused it to deflate fully. However due to the stiffness of the tyre wall, I was unaware of the fact that I had a flat tyre and continued to drive, completely unaware that I had a problem until I parked the car and noticed it was leaning slightly. When I took the tyre to my local tyre repair workshop to have the nail removed and a standard repair (expecting a bill of $25 – 30), I was informed that the tyre was a write off due to overheating and damage to the tyre wall, and that it would cost me $540 to replace the tyre. He also pointed out that I was “lucky to have not damaged the rim of the wheel as that would have been several hundred dollars to replace that.” I thought that I had just been unlucky and maybe I hadn’t been paying enough attention, as I had only been driving the car slowly in heavy traffic and that may have hidden the symptoms of a flat tyre (you can usually feel a vehicle lurching around when cornering, hear a sudden increase in road noise, or feel pulling to one side if a tyre is deflating or running flat).
About a year later, I was unlucky enough to get another tyre deflate – this time on the front left hand side in the pouring rain. Again I was unaware initially that the tyre was deflated until the front suspension crashed heavily on one of Sydney’s numerous potholes. I would have thought with all of my years driving experience, that I would have been aware of the problem sooner, but the stiff wall of the low-profile tyre again disguised the matter. Driving the car with the skinny space saver spare in the wet was an “interesting” experience – copious amounts of wheel-spin, understeer and the ABS working overtime every time the vehicle was slowed down. A less experienced driver may have had an accident driving the vehicle to the tyre workshop – I cannot recommend the use of motorbike sized tyres for cars, and cannot understand why Australian design rules permit cars to be imported into this country like this. Fortunately this car has lots of electronic wizardry to keep it all under control, but the fitment of skinny space saving wheels to modern motor vehicles is another safety hazard that is off subject from this letter so I shall move on.
Again when I took the tyre for repair, I was informed that I had “driven it too far with the tyre deflated, causing it to overheat and damage the tyre carcass beyond repair.” This time I was up for two tyres (over $1000) as the other tyre on the front of the vehicle was half worn and the tyre dealer recommended replacing them as a pair. It was at this stage that I decided to purchase a tyre pressure monitoring system from TPMS Australia. The compact unit is easy to fit without having to strip the tyre (other units that are on sale require the tyre to be taken off the rim to have the tyre pressure transducer fitted). I was able to fit the unit in only a few minutes. The only other work that had to be done was to dynamically balance the wheels – the valve caps weigh a few grammes each, placing the wheels very slightly out of balance – I am a bit of a perfectionist and like to have no vibration on the car at all, as it contributes to fatigue on long journeys and can make the steering wheel vibrate at certain speeds. (N.B wheel weights are supplied with the kit, but I prefer dynamic balancing to static balancing of a wheel as it provides a better result).
I have become a big fan of the TPMS – it only takes a couple of seconds to check the tyre pressures on the vehicle when I start the engine – both tyre pressure and temperature are displayed, so fluctuations in tyre pressure are easy to spot. I was initially surprised at how much the tyre pressures vary between when they are cold and when they are hot. By comparing the tyre pressures from left to right and front to rear, you can quickly establish that all is well. The unit has programmable high and low pressure alarms and also advises when the tyre is overheating as well (an indication that it is running underinflated or under extreme load), also there is a sudden deflation alarm so you can be confident that you will be informed immediately there is a problem with the tyre pressures or temperatures.
I would like to see fitment of tyre pressure monitoring systems mandated under Australian Design Rules for all new vehicles sold in this country. I have personal reasons for doing so, as many years ago I lost a young cousin in a motor vehicle accident caused by an under-inflated tyre “blowing-out” on a motorway, causing her to lose control of her vehicle, bounce off another vehicle and get crushed to death in the ensuing accident. Her family still struggles to come to terms with the loss – there isn’t a day over the past 17 years that they haven’t missed her. The technology wasn’t available back then to measure the tyre pressure on a rotating wheel (at least not on a car anyway – planes have been able to do this for many years, but at considerable expense). If my cousin had a tyre pressure monitoring system fitted to her car that had warned her about her partially deflated tyre, she might still be alive today and sharing in the lives of her beautiful family, instead their lives are missing a very important person and will never be the same again.
Punctured tyres have the ability to damage the tyre rims as well as the road – I can take you for a drive around the M7 motorway and show you where vehicles have been driven for several kilometres causing considerable damage to the road surface (low profile tyres communicate every little bump in the road back to the vehicle occupants – great for handling, bad for comfort on a poor road surface). The occupants of the vehicles that caused all of the damage to the road surface may have been blissfully unaware of the problem – the people following them however, may have been showered with shredded bits of broken tyre and had to swerve to avoid an accident (or may have even caused an accident when they changed lanes suddenly).
If the government were to legislate that tyre pressure monitoring systems be fitted to all new cars sold in Australia, the unit cost would become so low that it would only add a few dollars to each car sold. The knock-on effect from that would mean that retrofitting units to older cars would also become more affordable. At the moment the units are quite expensive to purchase, which makes their uptake by the general public a little slow. If I could have my cousin back, I would pay ten times the price of that unit to see her smiling face. Tyres may not seem as big a factor in road safety as speeding, or drink driving, but they are often contributory factors to accidents that are hidden from most people except the police, medical staff and coroner. Every accident changes someone’s life forever.
We may never know how many peoples lives can be saved by this important safety feature – unless the government mandates the introduction of this equipment in the same way that we now take it for granted that all cars should have ABS, airbags and other passive safety features like roll cages, passenger safety cells and crumple zones to dissipate energy. If passive safety features like tyre pressure monitoring systems are fitted to all vehicles, we may be able to avoid the accident in the first place instead of having to rely on active safety features afterwards.
Yours sincerely,
Martin Ongley
I have just completed a 4 week group tour in the south eastern part of WA. A lot of the travelling was "off track" retracing the actual routes of some of the early explorers. The group total of punctures was 13, my tally was 3 on this trip and 6 in total since leaving home. The TPMS alerted me instantly the pressure started to drop. I could have the vehicle stopped and the jack partially set up under the vehicle before the tyre was totally deflated. Comparing my punctures to others on the tour, they were not aware for some time that they actually had a puncture.
The tyres had released from the rims and had filled with sand and grit making the repair much more time comsuming. 5 of my punctures were at very slow speed (10 to 15kph). The other was on a gravel road, travelling at about 80kph. This is not a great time to have a deflating tyre but the TPMS let me know before the vehicle became unstable and/or dangerous. Again, I was able to stop safely before the tyre had fully deflated. All the punctures have been repaired to regulations and I'm still running on all 4 original tyres.
Thanks again for your time and your product...!!
Andrew Watt,
Victoria
I thought I would pass on some info about our first trip with the TPMS system fitted. 2005 100 series Landcruiser.
We just had a month up in the Kimberley and covered 8500 kms. The roads included the Great Central, the Tanami, Gibb River, The Karunjie track (this hadn't been used in many years), the Carson River track and the 250 km track into Walcott inlet, the last three probably the harshest tracks you could imagine (brand new Cooper tyres now need replacing in just 8000 kms).
We went through many water crossings, got bogged many times, puncture 2 tires on the trip and the TPMS notified immediately that there was a problem and allowed me to change the tires before any damage occurred.
I am absolutely wrapped with the performance and accuracy of this unit and highly recommend them to anyone who intends on doing any road trip. I also run Polyair bags in my rear springs and am currently running 2 of the sensors on these to keep an eye on the pressure. I will now buy two extra sensors so I can monitor my 4 tires and the airbags.
I was travelling with 3 other cars of which 2 were fitted with another tire monitoring system and they had all kind of problems with water and vibration giving false readings or not reading at all.
Anyway, enough of the rambling and thanks for a very useful and well made product.
Regards
Bruce Donnelly