Phannie

Phannie
Photo taken near Monument Valley, Utah

Thursday, July 27, 2017

The Tire Saga Continues (I probably shouldn't admit to this.)

At Glacier Pines RV Resort, Kalispell, Montana...

You may recall my recent post about a tire problem on the new Mae. I recounted the experience in detail as to how I changed the tire myself (unheard of) and purchased a new tire from Discount Tire in Elkhart. (I found out later that the tire they installed was not the one I ordered, so I have a bit of a beef with them when we run across another of their stores.)

After getting back on the road leaving Elkhart, I was surprised to notice that the new tire also was leaking, but very slowly this time. We were in the middle of nowhere, so I kept going, keeping my eye on the tire pressure and airing it up as needed. In Butte, Montana, I had the new tire removed and checked, and the tire shop there couldn't find anything wrong with it. Assuming that I had yet another defective tire, I had another new tire installed in its place, thinking that getting two defective tires in a row was just an unbelievable coincidence. I returned to the RV park and hooked up to Phannie, and we drove off. Soon after I pulled away, the pressure alarm went off again on the second new tire. Imagine my surprise and angst after having unhooked and hooked Mae about four times in dealing with this tire! 

When the alarm went off this time, it was definitely an "Aha!" moment. In a sudden fit of lucidity, I realized that the problem had not been with the tires! Wouldn't it have been handy if I had thought of this earlier? I decided to do some troubleshooting and removed the screw-on pressure sensor from the leaking tire's valve stem. Then I waited the better part of an hour and rechecked the tire pressure; it was right where it was when I removed the pressure sensor! The problem never had been the tires; it was the pressure sensor that was leaking! It never crossed my mind until now that such a thing could happen. Luckily, I happened to have a spare pressure sensor, so I installed it and have had no more problems. 

This leads me to ponder a couple of things: 1) Should I have admitted publicly to being so dense, and 2) Since the pressure sensor remained on the tires when they were changed, why didn't the tire shop techs think of the pressure sensor as a potential problem, since they know a lot more about tires than I do? I guess I'll never know.

Does anyone need a couple of almost new tires?


Thank you, Lord, for this wonderful life; please forgive me if I don't appreciate it enough each day.



I had rather own little and see the world than to own the world and see little of it. --Alexander Sattler



13 comments:

  1. Did you have the Monitor in place when you brought the tire in for the repair or had you taken it off? If they don't see it they can't comment about them.
    We kept getting False readings on our TPMs. Then we could see they were visibly losing air. Returning to the Tire Dealer the first thing they said was our Monitors were the cause of the leak. Never had a problem after taking them off. Back to checking the old fashion way.
    Be Safe and Enjoy!

    It's about time.

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    1. Both tire shops changed the tire with the sensor in place. I'm surprised they didn't think of the sensor as the problem. I had an excuse--I was ignorant.

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  2. Replies
    1. Yes, Jan, but I wish I had had my thinking cap on.

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  3. Thanks for posting this, Mike. I'll put that in the ol' memory bank, should we have an issue down the road!

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    1. You're welcome. I hope someone gets something positive from that embarrassing episode.

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  4. If (when) you make this mistake for the second time, then I will giggle. Until then it was only the cost of education. And experience is an expensive education normally.

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    1. You're so right, Barney. And if I do make this mistake again, It won't be because I don't remember this episode. It'll be because I'm senile (and I may well be on the way there now.)

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  5. That is the very reason I choked on getting those pressure monitors. Everytime I was ready to buy, it seemed I ran across someone with just the issue you describe. I have been using a infrared temp guage to check the tires for years. It takes seconds to check and gives a good indication if you have a problem. Learned that procedure at a safety seminar in 2006.

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  6. Reminds me of the old saying, "learn from other peoples mistakes, you'll never be around long enough to make them all yourself".

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    Replies
    1. That's really good! And it describes this situation perfectly.

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  7. OOOhhhhh I love your new quote in your signature!!

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    Replies
    1. Pretty cool, huh? Oh, the places you will go, too!

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