Advice: Tire valve extensions /TPMS/ Pressure EqualizersDRW

Kizer

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Hello,

I've read horror stories about chinesium "pressure equalizers" and valve extensions ... I'm not clear about where to find a quality product. E-trailer has some $$ options ... but I know it's chinesium.

Additionally, I'd like TPMS on the rears ... read the same type of stories and have the same question.

To be clear, this is on the "dually".
Your input is much appreciated.

Thank you in advance,
Kizer
 

gandalf

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I mentioned in another recent thread-- Not long ago I replaced a single tire on the rear of my dually. The work was done at Costco. As part of the service, while they had the truck, the tried to check pressure on all tires. The front was easy enough, as was one side of the rear where they had the outside wheel removed. However, they said some rather unkind things about the other side dually. It translated, roughly, to: "We can't check the pressure on this side because the valve stems are hidden, and at the wrong angle. We can't check the pressure without unmounting the wheels." Being a family friendly site and in keeping with the current word censoring list, I'm being very liberal in my translation.

I too am looking for a good extension set for the valve stems. They don't have to equalize the pressure. They just have to be *****-able.
 

chillman88

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As I mentioned in Gandalfs thread I'm running crossfire tire equalizers. They seem decent, but I haven't had them on terribly long either.


They were about $130/pair on eBay.

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IDIBRONCO

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I think that I'm going to be going with those myself. I plan to do all of my own tire work so at least there won't be any cussing about them from a tire shop.
 

lotzagoodstuff

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So I'm not really big on resuscitating old threads, but I had my inner valve stem on my dually leak today due to too much side loading from the extension hose. At first I was pissed as I really needed to pick something up today, but in the end I was really happy that I noticed the odd tire noise (I can't really describe it, just sounded odd with the window down) within a quarter mile of my driveway and I retreated before anything got damaged.

So I've been running a 90 degree extension for the outer dual and the hose extension for the inner. I'm going to replace the valve stems and I'm contemplating tying them together and/or using the qualizer gage set up. Just wondering if anybody has any strong opinions on brands, mounts, etc

Thanks in advance
 

lotzagoodstuff

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Forgot to add: I am really starting to loath the standard rubber valve stems. If anybody has any good upgrades for stock steel dually rim valve stems, I'd love to get something better than the failure prone rubber versions.
 

chillman88

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I'm still running those crossfire equalizers. They seem to work ok.

I'd ask the tire shop if they can swap out the valves for metal ones. Shouldn't cost too much, just the normal mount and balance fee I would imagine.
 

MIDNIGHT RIDER

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OKAY-----, braided stainless extenders are a must have on DRW inside rears, especially if you have Centramatics and stainless covers = there is just no way to air the inside tires without them.

I normally get twelve to fifteen years or more on "Chinesium" extensions before the liner gets a pin-hole and requires replacement.

In well over a million miles, the only time one of my tires has ever been flat was due to the extension leaking --- a very old extension.

I did find one of a set of four that leaked at the crimp straight out of the box; but, all four were less money from Amazon than a single of no better quality at the walk-in store, so I didn't panic about it.

I re-crimped it and leak solved.

I first had 7-inch as that was all that was available at the time (way back before Amazon and E-Bay); but, I have since switched to 12-inches and I like them a lot better, especially with all the interference I have between inside and out where I can see them.

I don't care where you buy them, they are all made in the same factory and nobody quality checks anything anymore; you, the consumer, are Inspector 13.

I buy four 12-inchers at a time; screw them all together and screw the last one to a small air tank; air the whole works to 130-psi or so, and poke them down in soapy water to look for any leaks.

I use these for all sorts of situations besides their intended purpose.

I have three of them plus a couple of 90° bends (they make those as well) on my well-pump pressure tank such that I can open a little door and check/add air without having to remove a big panel and a bunch of styrofoam.

I have several of them connected together and routed via a bulkhead through the floor of the wife's vehicle so that I can check the spare tire regardless of how much junk she has piled on top.

I do have a couple DRW 1st Gen. Dodge around here with bone-stock rear wheels/valves and I have a whole arsenal of various straight and angled DRW air chucks and nothing in my collection will air the inside tires --- and this on as-delivered O.E.M. equipment.

A lot of the Aluminum wheels on big trucks are impossible to access as well.


As for equalizers --- I am NOT a fan --- especially on a working truck; I hate them on a big truck/trailer --- slash one tire and the other is flat within minutes = not very bright in my book.


The moral of this story is just buy your braided extensions from the cheapest Amazon deal and check them out under pressure before installing them.

Lacking any other scientific means of investigation, just screw them all together and then screw them to a front wheel's stem and spray soapy water all over them, looking for foaming bubbles --- I doubt you will find any, but check them anyway.


Forgot to add = check the valve cores, not just for tightness, but completely remove them and inspect the little red rubber seal thingie for placement and integrity; although I haven't found a bad one in an extension, I have found a few bad cores in various other stems, usually with either the red seal dislodged and trapped under the little spring-loaded opener gizmo or just completely missing altogether.

Notice I said RED little rubber seal --- the red ones are for high-pressure big truck stuff.

Believe it or not, the black ones are low pressure passenger car and lawn-mower and wheel-barrow stuff; you seldom see the black seals anymore, but they are still out there and I run into them once in a while.
 
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MIDNIGHT RIDER

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Forgot to add: I am really starting to loath the standard rubber valve stems. If anybody has any good upgrades for stock steel dually rim valve stems, I'd love to get something better than the failure prone rubber versions.

Standard stainless stems can be had from just about anywhere; Amazon has many choices.

Installing them is simple and I would be ashamed if I had to have some air-gun guru tire jockey install them.

Lay the wheel on the concrete/ pavement (or a sheet of thick plywood).

With all the air out, put the foot of your hydraulic bottle jack on the sidewall against the rim.

Don't have a bottle jack ----- you need to visit Harbor Freight and remedy that situation quick...

Of course you are doing this under something heavy like the rear bumper of the truck or a gooseneck trailer or a dozer blade.

Raise the jack against your heavy item and carefully keep jacking while the foot of the jack presses the bead of the tire loose from the rim.

Once the bead is loose, slide the wheel out from under your heavy item where you can work on it without bumping your head.

Smash the sidewall down out of the way and cut the rubber stem out.

Slather some rubber lube or vegetable oil or cooking spray on the appropriate rubber seal that came with the new stems.

You should have gotten two seals per stem, a 5/8 and a 1/2; used to, everything was 5/8; but, for the last forty years, most things are 1/2.

Put the seal on the stem with the little ridge up; this little ridge, 5/8 or 1/2, goes in the hole in the wheel.

Poke the stem up through the hole and add the stainless washer and nut.

Snug the nut down with your Deep Well 9/16 socket.

No need to try and hold the stem from turning, when it gets tight enough to want to turn the whole thing, that is tight enough.

Slather some of your lubricant all the way around the tire bead and air it back up.


As we are talking about valve stem extensions and all the various attachments one may have on and between dual wheels, I highly warn against allowing any tire monkey anywhere around the wheels; they can do more damage and cost more money in a few minutes than I can make in a week --- best to do all your tire work yourself and leave the shiny pit-crew airgun locked away; airguns have no place around wheels and lugnuts --- ignore this at your peril.
 

MIDNIGHT RIDER

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Here you go:

Stainless Valve Stems four for $7.20 delivered; you can see what I mean by coming with two seals.

Braided Extension Kit Around $19 delivered - The reason I show this kit is on account of it also has some little angle-changers.

Take note of the two angle-changers in the center, the ones that are more than 90°; these are the ones you want on your outside rears so you can just go straight in at them with the air chuck.

See those brass bracket things on top of the braided extensions --- DON"T use them --- all they are good for is skinning up wheels.

Instead, make a little simple bracket that catches one of the axle-flange bolts.

Find yourself some nuts that are the same thread as the threaded portion where the valve cap goes; two nuts per stem; one nut under your bracket and the other above.

Needless to say but your bracket needs to be quite thin as there is not the most threaded length on the extensions.

The kit I linked to has two eights and two twelves; I am sure some looking will yield the same kit except with four twelves.

That entire kit is less than twenty bucks; forty or more years ago, I paid about thirty bucks apiece for the first braided extensions I owned and they were only seven inch.
 

Booyah45828

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If you're using hose extensions, use stainless stems as well and you'll have no issues for years.

FYI your standard tr413 rubber stem is rated at 50 or so psi. You're likely over that on anything but a half ton truck, so you should be using either tr600 if you need a little flexibility, or tr416 if you don't.

As far as extensions are concerned, we carry and install kits made by phoenix. You can get their aml1 kit for less then 80 bucks on the internet, and they work for 99% of the applications. High quality stuff that IIRC is made in usa.

If you're wanting tpms, get the kits that place the sensor inside the tire, and uses bwd qwik sensors, as a large number of shops carry those if you ever need replacement. Some kits use proprietary sensors, which can leave you SOL when one fails. I don't like the sensors that attach as valve stem caps. I've seen them break the stems, either due to hitting something or the extra weight causing the stem to fatigue flex and fail.

I've also installed cats eye monitors too. Nothing wrong with them, but at the cost they are you can get better systems for less.
 

lotzagoodstuff

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Thanks to all for the collective info and recommendations.

I appreciate all the insight on the stainless steel valve stems, and I will go that route when I replace the tires, but I wanted to be able to remove/replace a leaky stem on sight without breaking down the tire. I figured this might come in handy on anything with a tubeless tire. I saw a couple of pretty interesting external "emergency repair stems" that could be installed from the outside (Colby valves are the most popular) but then I came across this tool by AME: https://www.amazon.com/AME-51025-Quick-Valve-Change/dp/B005K8E9FY This tool works exactly as advertised, I didn't have to break down the tire, and I'm back up and running.

Ironically I bought the exact same braided extension hoses as Midnight Rider proposed. They were decent quality and I ended up using the shorter of the two hoses and two of the 135 degree bent stem metal extensions. I was very happy with the revised routings for the inner and outer rims.

Again, thanks for all the input. Makes me feel better about reviving an old thread rather than doing my own research :rtfm but you guys are a treasure chest of useful tips and tricks.
 
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