PowerTank.com TIG-R100 Digital Tire Gauge and Filler
We have all heard about the importance of properly maintained tire pressures for our cars, trucks, RV’s and motorcycles but how often do you check yours and what are you using to check it with?
Improper tire inflation is the number one cause of tire failure. If you get a flat in your car, you can usually pull over safely and then deal with it. What happens if you have a tire failure on your motorcycle though? Proper tire inflation will increase the life of your tires and increase the performance of them as well.
Let’s look at a few scenarios:
Auto street tires:
Over inflated car tires tend to crown in the middle or get a high spot in the center of the tread. This decreases the amount of rubber touching the road also known as your contact patch. With less rubber touching the road all of the wear is concentrated in a very small patch and your tires wear out faster. With a smaller contact patch you will also have less traction and with too much pressure, you will have a rougher ride. All of these lead to potential tire failure and unsafe driving conditions. Under inflated tires can leave your car feeling vague, squirrelly and your steering will feel heavier. People who autocross or drive on a road course know exactly how important proper tire pressure is to the handling of their cars. Maintaining the correct PSI will also increase your fuel economy. That’s money in your pocket!
Offroad tires:
Depending on the type of offroading that you do from driving in sand and mud to snow and full out rockcrawling, your tires PSI is very important and very different from the pressure you would use if you drive that same vehicle on the street. When off road we typically want to lower the pressure in our tires to increase the contact patch of the tire to the surface. If you have too much pressure in your tires when you are driving in sand or deep snow then you will have a tendency to dig in and get stuck. Lowering the PSI in your tires allows the tread to spread out over the surface for a wider footprint increasing the tires ability to “float” over the surface and stay on top of it. The same idea is true with rockcrawling were you want your tires to conform to the surface of the rocks allowing them to grip with a wider contact patch.
Motorcycle street tires:
Proper tire pressure on a motorcycle can go even further than their automotive counterparts. A motorcycle tire needs to be able to maintain optimal contact from several angles whether you are cruising on an open highway, dragging a knee through a corner or braking straight up or leaned over. Any variation in tire PSI can drastically affect the way the bike handles. You should be able to know your bike well enough to feel if your tires are under inflated by even a few PSI. I bought a bike not long ago from a guy that said it was just too much for him to handle. He had just ridden the bike over 150 miles days earlier. The bike had 12psi in the front tire and 8 in the rear when they both should have had closer to 40psi. A motorcycle with flat tires is too much for anyone to handle safely…..
So now that we all agree on the importance of proper tire inflation, what do you use to check yours? How many different gauges do you have and have you noticed any variation between them? When and how often should we check them?
First, really how long does it take to check your tires? When so much is riding on them, check them often especially on a motorcycle. The manufacturer has put the suggested pressure on the side of the tire for you. Check you PSI when the tire is cold as the air in the tire will expand as the tire heats up. Rockcrawlers know that if they drop the air pressure in their tires on a cold morning that they will have to let more air out of them as they temperatures heat up during the day.
Now let’s talk about what type of gauge that you are using? Is it a good one and if so, how do you know? For this review I went to a company that specializes in tire inflation http://www.powertank.com They got their start in the offroad community years ago when we were all trying to figure out a good way to be able to air down our tires and then fill them back up at the end of the day to be able to drive home. Since those early days of purpose built CO2 tanks, the company has expanded into all areas of tire inflation, deflation, patching, monitoring and even into construction with portable air for nail guns and air tools. For this test I wanted to know that I was getting true pressure readings for filling my tires and at the same time I wanted to test out my other tire gauges for accuracy. I settled on the TIG-R100 digital tire gauge and inflator from Power Tank that reads from zero to 100psi. It is a tire inflator but can also be used as a stand alone pressure gauge. This gauge has a steel braided hose and a 90deg. brass chuck with a metal clip to hold it onto the valve stem for one handed operation. My first impression was how solid and well built this gauge is but feels very comfortable and natural in your hand. It is easy to read and has a backlit display that you can adjust the amount of time it stays on. The TIG-100 also comes with a lifetime warranty and can be sent back to PowerTank for recertification. http://www.powertank.com/products/sfID1/14/productID/493
Improper tire inflation is the number one cause of tire failure. If you get a flat in your car, you can usually pull over safely and then deal with it. What happens if you have a tire failure on your motorcycle though? Proper tire inflation will increase the life of your tires and increase the performance of them as well.
Let’s look at a few scenarios:
Auto street tires:
Over inflated car tires tend to crown in the middle or get a high spot in the center of the tread. This decreases the amount of rubber touching the road also known as your contact patch. With less rubber touching the road all of the wear is concentrated in a very small patch and your tires wear out faster. With a smaller contact patch you will also have less traction and with too much pressure, you will have a rougher ride. All of these lead to potential tire failure and unsafe driving conditions. Under inflated tires can leave your car feeling vague, squirrelly and your steering will feel heavier. People who autocross or drive on a road course know exactly how important proper tire pressure is to the handling of their cars. Maintaining the correct PSI will also increase your fuel economy. That’s money in your pocket!
Offroad tires:
Depending on the type of offroading that you do from driving in sand and mud to snow and full out rockcrawling, your tires PSI is very important and very different from the pressure you would use if you drive that same vehicle on the street. When off road we typically want to lower the pressure in our tires to increase the contact patch of the tire to the surface. If you have too much pressure in your tires when you are driving in sand or deep snow then you will have a tendency to dig in and get stuck. Lowering the PSI in your tires allows the tread to spread out over the surface for a wider footprint increasing the tires ability to “float” over the surface and stay on top of it. The same idea is true with rockcrawling were you want your tires to conform to the surface of the rocks allowing them to grip with a wider contact patch.
Motorcycle street tires:
Proper tire pressure on a motorcycle can go even further than their automotive counterparts. A motorcycle tire needs to be able to maintain optimal contact from several angles whether you are cruising on an open highway, dragging a knee through a corner or braking straight up or leaned over. Any variation in tire PSI can drastically affect the way the bike handles. You should be able to know your bike well enough to feel if your tires are under inflated by even a few PSI. I bought a bike not long ago from a guy that said it was just too much for him to handle. He had just ridden the bike over 150 miles days earlier. The bike had 12psi in the front tire and 8 in the rear when they both should have had closer to 40psi. A motorcycle with flat tires is too much for anyone to handle safely…..
So now that we all agree on the importance of proper tire inflation, what do you use to check yours? How many different gauges do you have and have you noticed any variation between them? When and how often should we check them?
First, really how long does it take to check your tires? When so much is riding on them, check them often especially on a motorcycle. The manufacturer has put the suggested pressure on the side of the tire for you. Check you PSI when the tire is cold as the air in the tire will expand as the tire heats up. Rockcrawlers know that if they drop the air pressure in their tires on a cold morning that they will have to let more air out of them as they temperatures heat up during the day.
Now let’s talk about what type of gauge that you are using? Is it a good one and if so, how do you know? For this review I went to a company that specializes in tire inflation http://www.powertank.com They got their start in the offroad community years ago when we were all trying to figure out a good way to be able to air down our tires and then fill them back up at the end of the day to be able to drive home. Since those early days of purpose built CO2 tanks, the company has expanded into all areas of tire inflation, deflation, patching, monitoring and even into construction with portable air for nail guns and air tools. For this test I wanted to know that I was getting true pressure readings for filling my tires and at the same time I wanted to test out my other tire gauges for accuracy. I settled on the TIG-R100 digital tire gauge and inflator from Power Tank that reads from zero to 100psi. It is a tire inflator but can also be used as a stand alone pressure gauge. This gauge has a steel braided hose and a 90deg. brass chuck with a metal clip to hold it onto the valve stem for one handed operation. My first impression was how solid and well built this gauge is but feels very comfortable and natural in your hand. It is easy to read and has a backlit display that you can adjust the amount of time it stays on. The TIG-100 also comes with a lifetime warranty and can be sent back to PowerTank for recertification. http://www.powertank.com/products/sfID1/14/productID/493
TIG-R100
This system is certified to be accurate within +/- .25psi and each unit comes with a certificate of certification so that you know how accurate the one you got is.
Click to enlarge specs
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Click to enlarge
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The gauge I received was certified to be within +/- 0 to
.1psi at 4 different test points!
To perform this test, I wanted to be able to test two gauges at the same time because each time you put a gauge on or take it off, you loose a little bit of pressure and will change your PSI. I built a simple manifold and connected it to my shop air supply.
To perform this test, I wanted to be able to test two gauges at the same time because each time you put a gauge on or take it off, you loose a little bit of pressure and will change your PSI. I built a simple manifold and connected it to my shop air supply.
Test Manifold, click to enlarge
Next, I dug through all of my hiding spots and found several
tire gauges and fillers to compare. Below are several photos of different
gauges and the variation that they read compared to a certified known gauge.
37.4 actual VS 44
36.9 actual VS 36
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39.1 actual VS 36
38.9 actual VS 34
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40.9 actual VS 40
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39.4 actual VS 38
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So what does all of this mean? Well, I was surprised with some of the results. Some of the gauges that I own are accurate and some are not. In one case the difference in the reading was over 6.5psi and this was not on a cheap gauge. Can you feel 6.5psi difference in your tires? It depends on what you are driving and how you are driving it. If it is a motorcycle, then you better be able to feel that much difference or you are not paying very close attention. Even if you can’t feel the difference, the difference will show it’s self in accelerated tire wear, a change in fuel economy as well as a decrease in the stability of your vehicle. The bottom line is that one of my cheap and cracked gauges was one of my most accurate up till now but my go to tire inflator gauge was one of my least accurate and you will have no way of knowing unless you have a certified gauge to test them against. I know that not everyone can run out and buy a tire gauge for a couple of hundred dollars but think about the amount of money we spend on tires, suspension, performance and other tools to get the best out of our rides. All of that money is wasted if you aren’t getting that level of performance to the ground because you have the wrong tire pressure. Consider if you don’t want to buy one of these just for yourself but have a couple of friends or are part of a group or club about going together on one. This way you can all know if what you are using to check your tires is accurate or not. Ask your self this, do you own a torque wrench? If so, why? Probably because you know how important it is to have an accurate way of measuring the torque applied to a bolt so why wouldn’t you want an accurate way of measuring your tires PSI? Go invest in a quality tire gauge now, PowerTank has many styles and price ranges to choose from. Just make sure you get one that will do what it says it’s going to do.
