Tire Pressure Monitoring System

By Karon Brown, Girl Camper Illinois Chapter Guide

Scary Situation

Are you considering adding a tire pressure monitoring system (TPMS) to your RV set up? Perhaps this story will help with your decision.

Last summer, a bad wheel bearing on our camper caused an axle fire. I was traveling back with my husband who had joined me at the campground after a Girl Camper Illinois event. We were just driving down a country road. Suddenly, in the side mirror, we saw what looked like sparks. The sparks turned out to be flames, from the front passenger side tire of our dual axle Rockwood Mini Lite. Luckily, we were able to pull over quickly and put the fire out with water. There was no damage to the trailer itself. The fire did too much damage to the axle, and unfortunately, the only remedy was to replace the whole axle. The service cost about $1500 and about 6 weeks without our beloved camper.

Give Me Peace of Mind

The axle fire really scared me. We were extremely lucky that the fire didn’t cause the tire to blow out or damage the body of the trailer. I got to thinking about all the videos and photos I had seen on social media just from tire blow outs. Many times, there is more damage and catastrophic effects caused by a tire blow out than our fire.

We had been talking about adding a TPMS (Tire pressure monitoring system) to our camper for quite some time. I am not saying that a TPMS system would necessarily have helped in our situation. The purpose of the TPMS is to monitor tire air pressure and temperatures. Our fire was in the wheel bearings which is the center of the axle.

Undoubtedly, it was a no brainer that we needed to add the TPMS when we got our camper back from being fixed.

The Solution

Thanks to Girl Camper and Lippert, they sent a Tire Linc^® RV Tire Pressure Monitoring System for us to try out. Watch my full installation and review video here:

Accessories!

We liked the Lippert Tire Linc system so much that we ordered the Tire Linc® Alert Indicator Kit the following spring. The Tire Linc® Alert Indicator Kit is a little module that links to the Tire Linc^® RV Tire Pressure Monitoring System. It pairs to the TPMS system just like your phone does through the One Control app. The Alert Indicator Kit allows you to receive audio and visual notifications when your tire pressures or temperatures go out of the specified ranges. While you can keep the One Control app open on your phone to monitor the TPMS from the app dashboard while you are traveling, the Alert Indicator Kit lets you to use your phone for other purposes such as GPS apps, music, or phone calls. The easy to follow notification lights display the status of the TPMS to alert you if something is amiss.

I love this simple addition to our Tire Linc^® RV Tire Pressure Monitoring System!