Tested: Tyre Dog pressure monitor

Have you ever thought what might happen if you blew a caravan tyre at speed?

You might have had a slow leaking puncture for some time after picking up a nail or screw from a service station forecourt. You’d never know unless to kept an eagle eye on your tyre pressures and pulled out a gauge at every rest break.

Even a 5-psi difference in pressure can cause a tyre to overheat badly in hot weather, while the extra drag can increase fuel usage substantially.

It’s a problem that has come more into focus in recent years with the advent of more powerful, 3.5 tonne-rated tow cars capable of hauling large vans right on the speed limit, which in much of country and inland Australia means at least 110km/h.

These largest caravans have tandem, or even triple axles to share the load, but there is an increasing number of single axle off-road caravans out there with an ATM of 2.5-2.6 tonnes, which means each tyre is carrying the best part of 1250kg or more.

Remember even the heaviest Toyota Land Cruiser probably carries no more than 700-850kg laden on each of its four tyres.

Now there’s an easier and safer way to keep tabs on your tyre pressures on your next caravan trip, thanks to technology that’s commonly available these days on a range of cars and has been used by the trucking industry for years.

Tyre Dog Wireless Pressure & Temperature Monitoring has been used by the transport industry for many years to keep an eye on up to 26 separate tyres used on heavy transport vehicles, but with the similar systems being now commonly fitted to many cars, it has become an increasingly popular option with caravanners and 4WD enthusiasts.

Zylux, the Australian distributors of TyreDog now offers a range of TPMS (Tyre Pressure Monitoring Systems) from two wheel upwards on motorcycles, but we trialled their new 8-Wheel TD-2300A-XO8 system on a tandem-axle New age caravan on a recent 9500km trip to Far North Queensland.

The system is simple to install, even by the mechanically inept. You attach the relay unit under the rear of your tow vehicle facing the road, powering if either by the four supplied AA batteries or better by taking power from your trailer plug – something can be done quickly by any automotive electrician.

You then replace all your tyre valve caps with the supplied Tyre Dog sender units, each fitted with its own flat CR2632 battery. You then finally attach the display to your windscreen via its suction cap, switch it on and wait for all your tyre pressures to be displayed.

The replacement sender valve caps are all numbered and we fitted 1-4 down the left hand side and 5-8 on the driver’s side, with the display then showing us immediately the pressure of each type is a logical order.

It can take a few minutes after firing up the tow vehicle for all tyres to be displayed, but we never failed to get an accurate reading during our trip.

You can choose to read the pressures in PSI or BAR, or toggle the display to show tyre temperature rather than pressure and if there is a variation above or below the parameters you input, a warning buzzer will sound and the affected tyre's icon will flash.

We were intrigued to see how even the moderate ambient temperatures in the high 20s caused a marked increase in both tyre pressure and temperature once the day had warmed up and is was a timely warning to travellers to reduce pressures when travelling in very hot weather or risk tyre failure.

The system is also invaluable for travel on heavily corrugated roads, when dropping [pressures across a rig to around 28psi is recommended and in these conditions it not only indicates any build-up of temperature, but serves as a useful reminder to re-inflate when the bitumen and higher travelling speeds return.

The tyre Dog system isn’t cheap... or is it?

At a RRP of $799 (and seen for as little online as $645) the system to monitor both your tow-car and a four-wheel tandem axle caravan isn't cheap, but have you priced the cost of a couple of heavy duty tyres lately, not to mention the trauma or cost of travelling time of a tyre failure?

More information: Tyredog.com.au