Tire Pressure Gage?

[Fly Boomer]

[Igor_U]

9 hours ago, WAFI said:

Side question does anyone fill their tires with nitrogen? Is that a thing in aviation? 

Not me but definitely "aviation thing". AFIK, all Air Transport Category airplanes Maintenance Manuals specify to fill tires with dry nitrogen. I suspect it came to racing and Pep Boys from there...

 

 

[EricJ]

4 minutes ago, Igor_U said:

Not me but definitely "aviation thing". AFIK, all Air Transport Category airplanes Maintenance Manuals specify to fill tires with dry nitrogen. I suspect it came to racing and Pep Boys from there...

In A&P school they said the transport category airplanes get nitrogen so that if a tire vents or explodes due to a brake fire that it doesn't add any oxygen to feed the fire.

Race cars do it mostly because supplied bottled nitrogen is dryer than air from a compressor.   Any moisture/water in a tire amplifies pressure changes due to temperature, which exacerbates the ability to predict or control tire pressures to manage grip and handling.   Dry air works just as well as nitrogen.   Here in AZ nearly nobody uses nitrogen in their race tires because the air is already pretty dry.

[larrynimmo]

I like 35 on the mains to reduce wear…my tires have always wore out on the outside…a little extra air seems to really help…and I’m not worried about hard landings as the LHS makes soft landing normal…and I don’t brake hard.

[Hank]

7 hours ago, skydvrboy said:

I got a cordless air compressor similar to this: https://www.amazon.com/AKASO-Compressor-Rechargeable-Automatic-Inflatables/dp/B098JHMLFM/ref=mp_s_a_1_19?crid=2HW63QJB35XHF&keywords=cordless+air+compressor&qid=1645625610&sprefix=cordless+air+compressor%2Caps%2C156&sr=8-19

 Absolutely love it. Every month or so, I set the desired pressure, connect, and pull the trigger. It couldn’t be easier. Plus it goes with me in the plane on all trips just in case.

If I spent beauceau dollars to buy a cordless compressor, when I needed it away from home base, it would either be:

• Sitting on the charger in my hangar
• In the back of the plane with a dead (or corroded) battery

So I get by with an inexpensive pancake compressor in the hangar that's always ready to plug in and use.

[carusoam]

Wait a sec….

If you don’t mention what tubes you have…

You have missed an important part about how often you check your tire pressure…

 

Ordinary tire tubes in a NJ Mooney will require a monthly top-off… because the air pressure drops continuously as it passes through the porous rubber membrane…

If you got the AirStop type tube… it has a barrier layer that keeps the air from passing through the more porous rubber…

Instead of Monthly… I probably go six months before looking… unless there is a reason…

The magic of having a portable air pump makes this pretty easy…

Change oil, adjust tire pressure…

Unlike car tires… our tires are tiny, they don’t have much air in them, their pressure can change easily with a small amount air leaving…

Really unlike car experience… we are using tubes still…. 

PP thoughts only, not a mechanic…

Best regards,

-a-

[A64Pilot]

I hate those pancake compressors with a passion, they are loud as hell and vibrate so bad they move across the floor on their own,but it’s mostly the God awful noise.

”Silent” compressors are available, they honestly are as quiet as a sewing machine and don’t move across the floor on their own. I had this one’s big brother on the boat to run a “Hooka” for me to breathe while cleaning the bottom, it’s very quiet.

https://www.amazon.com/California-Air-Tools-CAT-1P1060S-Compressor/dp/B01LYHYHEA/ref=sr_1_5?crid=3TVNVGU999Q9M&keywords=silent+compressor&qid=1645710256&sprefix=silent+compressor%2Caps%2C225&sr=8-5

[Boilermonkey]

I don't know if this is a real concern, or not.  If you use these cap pressure monitors I assume that they must depress the valve stem so they can measure the tire pressure.   Doesn't that make the system less reliable?    Normally you have the o-rings of the valve stem and in the metal cap as a backup to keep air from leaking out.   

I'd rather have the redundancy of two seals and manually check my pressure every week/month.

[Vance Harral]

On 2/23/2022 at 5:06 AM, A64Pilot said:

only flat I ever had was on the nose wheel of a 210, we added air just before I took off. Apparently when air was added the schrader got stuck just a little and I landed with a completely flat tire,

Same thing happened to me, and I now avoid airing up tires just before getting in and cranking up.  If I absolutely must add air to a tire right before flying, I'll wait at least a few minutes, and visually look at the tire to make sure it's not obviously going flat.

[Igor_U]

42 minutes ago, Vance Harral said:

Same thing happened to me, and I now avoid airing up tires just before getting in and cranking up.  If I absolutely must add air to a tire right before flying, I'll wait at least a few minutes, and visually look at the tire to make sure it's not obviously going flat.

Oh, man I know that feeling. It happened to me years ago as well. We were to depart early for Vintage Mooney group fly-in at south lake Tahoe and I topped off the fuel and air it tires a night before. Next morning I found right MLG tire flat as valve got stuck. Not only that but caliper's valve was in contact with hangars floor, which put the pressure on, drained the break fluid and cracked one of the break pads! We missed  the fly-in as no shop could take the plane and fix it within days (Crazy!).

My plane has reversed (rotated?) calipers as per LASAR STC so that could contribute to the issue. I'm not really sure what would happened at landing with flat; would that get damage as well? I know of few people having flat and no such ice so I always wonder about that. Anyone know for sure?

[EricJ]

2 hours ago, Boilermonkey said:

I don't know if this is a real concern, or not.  If you use these cap pressure monitors I assume that they must depress the valve stem so they can measure the tire pressure.   Doesn't that make the system less reliable?    Normally you have the o-rings of the valve stem and in the metal cap as a backup to keep air from leaking out.   

I'd rather have the redundancy of two seals and manually check my pressure every week/month.

That was my thought as well, and likely why the AS ad says "Experimental".    Those will add a leak site, and I'd expect the external threads of the stem to be a larger leak risk than the schrader valve.

[Will.iam]

I use valve stem monitors on all my vehicles that were made before the 2007 mandate of tire monitors. I have not had one leak except once and that was the beauty of the tire monitor it beeps when below a user defined preset level and you can address it before it gets completely flat. For any tire i have that doesn’t have a tire monitor like my airplane, go-cart, golf cart, 4 wheelers and motorcycles i always put my finger over the stem after fill up and feel for air leaking around my finger before i put the cap on. A little spit on the finger helps as it will bubble if there is any air leaking through the stem. 

[Boilermonkey]

38 minutes ago, Will.iam said:

I use valve stem monitors on all my vehicles that were made before the 2007 mandate of tire monitors. I have not had one leak except once and that was the beauty of the tire monitor it beeps when below a user defined preset level and you can address it before it gets completely flat. For any tire i have that doesn’t have a tire monitor like my airplane, go-cart, golf cart, 4 wheelers and motorcycles i always put my finger over the stem after fill up and feel for air leaking around my finger before i put the cap on. A little spit on the finger helps as it will bubble if there is any air leaking through the stem. 

Yeah, but doesn't the monitor open up the valve stem to measure the pressure...negating the finger test?    You need to have some assurance that the the only o-ring, in the pressure monitor, is not leaking.   Which I guess you would detect with the system, but you would still be creating a single point of failure.

[Will.iam]

8 hours ago, Boilermonkey said:

Yeah, but doesn't the monitor open up the valve stem to measure the pressure...negating the finger test?    You need to have some assurance that the the only o-ring, in the pressure monitor, is not leaking.   Which I guess you would detect with the system, but you would still be creating a single point of failure.

Correct that is why I don’t have them on my airplane or dirt bike or 4-wheeler and have caps instead. But before i put on the caps i make sure the valve stem is seated and sealed properly by the wet finger method. I don’t do the finger method on my cars that have the monitoring ststem as it is real time and if the cap is leaking or the seal is not good you will now in seconds that you are leaking air or when your cap monitor starts to leak or you have a nail in the tire, you get it.