RV TPMS – What it is and Why You Need It

An RV TPMS (Tire Pressure Monitoring System) is a safety feature that not only protects you (and everyone riding in and around your RV while you’re on the road), but it also helps to keep your tires in tip-top condition, a goal near and dear to the hearts of RVers… for many reasons. This post is dedicated to the ever-important RV TPMS – something every motorhome should have and can have.

Let’s take a look at why this system is so important.

What is an RV TPMS?

The purpose of an RV tire pressure monitoring system is to track the pressures of all tires on the rig to make sure proper tire pressure is maintained as you travel. Many factors can cause tires to lose air, including changes in ambient temperature, slow leaks, fast leaks caused by objects the tire strikes in the road, or simply the effects of time and travel.

Using the motorhome we traveled in for a couple of decades as an example, we were 43 feet long (without the car in tow!) and very heavy. If we were rambling down the highway at 65 miles per hour and one of our RV’s tires had blown out, we could have found ourselves in a very precarious situation. Not only would we have been in danger in this scenario, but anyone traveling near us on the road could also be at risk.

This is what makes an RV TPMS so critical! Constant monitoring of tire pressure allows you to be alerted to any changes in the tire pressure of every tire on your rig as they happen.

How Does an RV Tire Pressure Monitor System Work?

A TPMS places a sensor at each of an RV’s tires, and the sensors allow the constant monitoring of each tire’s pressure.

As soon as the pressure in any one of the tires drops below the appropriate level, the driver is notified via the information on the TPMS console mounted on the dashboard (either the dash of your motorhome or that of your towing vehicle).

Those are the basics of how a TPMS system works, but depending on the model, some offer a variety of additional features. Our system, for example, offers customizable high- and low-pressure alerts, as well as a high-temperature alert (since each sensor also monitors the temperature of the air in the tire).

Why Do You Need an RV TPMS?

There are several important reasons to have an RV TPMS. The first and most important by far is safety.

Safety

A system that monitors your tires contributes to your safety, the safety of everyone in your RV, and the safety of everyone in the vicinity of your rig. A TPMS system is a good tool for every vehicle, and even more so for RVs. Most motorhomes are large, long, tall, and very heavy. Some have twice as many tires as the average vehicle on the road.

Our rig had eight tires, and our toad had four more. So, we rode down the road on 12 tires. Our RV alone weighed over 18 tons, and we spent a lot of time on the road. At any given time, any one of those 12 tires could have had an issue, and we wanted to be alerted as early as possible.

A blowout in any vehicle is dangerous. A blowout in a 43-foot motorhome towing an SUV while hurtling down the highway (or on a pickup truck towing a large fifth wheel) could very easily be catastrophic. We wouldn’t have been without our RV TPMS in our motorhome (and we still wouldn’t in our current travel trailer), and the number one reason for that is safety.

An RV TPMS Extends Tire Life

Tires that are over- or under-inflated wear out more quickly than those that are maintained at their recommended pressure. Overinflation leads the tire tread to wear more quickly at the center of the tire, while underinflation can cause the outer treads to wear prematurely. For this reason, a TPMS extends tire life, and with lots of very expensive tires to maintain, we’re all for that.

Environmentally Friendly

Under-inflated tires wear sooner and reduce fuel efficiency by increasing drag. This makes a TPMS an environmentally friendly system in several ways.

First, there’s the fuel consumption issue, of course. Improperly inflated tires can increase the drag resisting the rotation of your wheels, causing your RV’s engine to have to work harder (i.e. burn more fuel) to roll down the road.

“Under-inflated tires can lower gas mileage by about 0.2% for every 1 psi drop in the average pressure of all tires.”

— FuelEconomy.gov

There’s also the matter of tire replacement. A worn tire requires replacement, and the more tires we replace, the more rubber, steel, nylon, silica, polyester, carbon black, petroleum, etc., we use (and dispose of)!

Types of RV Tire Pressure Monitor Systems

There are two types of RV TPMS – direct and indirect. Let’s take a look at what distinguishes them from one another.

Direct RV TPMS

The most common form of TPMS, this type of system adds a sensor to each tire (either installed inside the tire by mounting it to the wheel/rim, or externally on the valve stem). The sensor is programmed to that tire position and then provides real-time data, alerting the driver if the tire’s pressure drops below the appropriate level.

Some direct TPMS units will also alert you to a slow leak in a tire as well as when a tire’s temperature rises above a certain point.

Indirect RV TPMS

Indirect tire pressure monitoring systems are less common. They work along with the anti-lock braking system of your RV or vehicle by monitoring how fast the wheels are spinning. When one wheel rotates at a different speed from the others, it generally indicates improper tire pressure in that tire. The driver is alerted to the discrepancy and can stop and tend to that tire.

With an indirect TPMS, the sensor must be recalibrated every time the tire pressure is changed.

Indirect TPMS units are factory-installed only and are not available as aftermarket systems.

What to Look for in an RV TPMS

Here’s where we get into the details. RV tire pressure monitoring systems have a number of features that are important to assess when considering the purchase of a system for your rig.

Display

The type of display on a system you need to monitor while driving is an important consideration. If you can’t read the display in the sun, for example, the monitoring system is relatively useless whenever you’re driving in those conditions. On the TPMS we had in our motorhome (shown below), the display was a feature we really appreciated because the screen was easily read even when we were wearing our sunglasses.

While this may seem like an obvious feature of any TPMS, we can tell you that it isn’t. The TPMS we had previously was made such that when we wore our sunglasses (something we often need to do while driving the RV), neither of us could read the display.

We also appreciate that our system had a 4 ½” x 3” screen, which made it that much easier to read (Hey – we’re no spring chickens here!), without being so large that it took up too much room on the dash. Seriously, it’s very important to have a TPMS with a high-quality display that’s easy to read.

Ease of Use & Installation

This is self-explanatory, but no one likes to spend hours trying to figure out how a system works. We all want one that’s easy to install and easy to use so that we can set it up, learn how to use it quickly, and carry on about our business. So, when shopping for a TPMS, be sure to read reviews where you can often find comments from people who will frequently express how frustrating a system was to install or to learn.

You want a system that you’ll install and walk away saying, “That was easy,” and one that you’ll use almost without having to think about it.

Reliability

The reliability of any product is always essential. But when you’re counting on a product to provide accurate information related to a safety item, you want to be extremely sure that the information is reliable. We’ve heard complaints from others about wireless connectivity issues. If your TPMS only monitors the condition of your tires some of the time, then it’s not serving its intended purpose.

This is another reason why we loved our current system. Our RV TPMS system included a booster that we mounted to the wall in the back of our bedroom closet. With it, we never had a drop-out in the years we owned and used the system.

That’s the kind of reliability we want in a system that monitors the pressures and temperature of our tires as we roll down the highway. The reliability of the system’s response is crucial. The system must adequately respond to changes in tire pressure and temperature; otherwise, it’s of no real use and could even present a danger if it provides inaccurate information.

Flexibility

One size does not fit all with a tire pressure monitoring system. The reason is that we’re all driving and/or towing different rigs. For example, when we had our Class A, we generally flat-towed our Honda CR-V. But let’s say we were taking a road trip and leaving our toad behind.

Our TPMS allowed us to separate the two different parts of our towing configuration. So, if we were to leave our toad behind, we could “drop” the CR-V from the system and monitor only the tires on our motorhome. Alternatively, we could take the monitor with us in the CR-V and “drop” the RV’s tires, so the system only monitored the car’s tires while we were out on a day trip.

This is perhaps an even more important feature for fifth wheel/travel trailer owners (like we are now). You need to know that even if you’re not towing your RV, your TPMS will work on our truck.

Another essential element of flexibility is whether you can purchase as many sensors as needed, based on the number of tires you have. We bought 12 sensors with our motorhome system (because we had 12 tires), but we could have purchased sensors for anywhere from 4 to 26 tires!

So, flexibility is an important feature to consider in a TPMS.

User-Replaceable Sensor Batteries

A system that allows for battery replacement is an important consideration when purchasing a TPMS. At one point, we had a TPMS system that didn’t have user-replaceable batteries, and as the batteries began to die, we started experiencing issues with individual tires not correctly reporting. The cost of replacing the low-battery sensors was more than buying a whole new system, so that’s when we decided to see what improved technology we might be able to take advantage of with a new system.

Our next system, however, had a monitor with a built-in rechargeable internal lithium battery that lasts up to 60 hours on a single charge and comes with a standard USB charging cord that can be connected to a USB port for easy charging. The tire sensors each have replaceable batteries (size CR1632).

Suppose you’re considering a system that doesn’t have user-replaceable batteries. In that case, you need to know the predicted life of the included batteries and whether the sensors can be sent back for replacement when they’re no longer functioning accurately due to low battery power (or perhaps replacements are offered at a discounted price).

Cost/Budget

Budget is always a consideration when shopping for a product, and a tire pressure monitoring system is certainly no exception. There are various systems available at different costs. When we were buying the new TPMS for our motorhome, for our money, considering the cost of running 12 tires and tens of thousands of pounds of our home, office, vehicles, and possessions (and ourselves!) down the road, we shopped for quality.

But we also had experience with our first TPMS, and we didn’t love it. We loved the new system, though, because it was so easy to use and so reliable.

As far as cost is concerned, we felt our system was reasonably priced for what we got. Again, we bought 12 sensors with our system, which also came with the large, high-quality color monitor, signal booster, mount, and mounting hardware, USB adapter (for a cigarette lighter port), cords, and well-laid-out instructions. It also came with a three-year warranty, which was important to us.

Understanding that budget is a consideration for everyone, we found the cost of our system to be competitive in the industry. We also are generally of the mind that we’d like a quality product up front, so that not only will it perform well for us, but we won’t have to replace it for a long time to come.

What Tire Pressure Monitor System Do We Use?

The system we like is the EezTire E618, an updated model (brighter, color screen) from the one we used in our video below. We found it to be highly reliable, with features that make it one of the best and most cost-effective tire pressure monitoring systems available. EezTire is an industry leader with a good reputation for building high-quality RV TPMS since 2005.

The system’s accuracy in monitoring pressure (up to 210 psi) and temperature gave us peace of mind. The system is motion-sensitive and continuously monitors tire pressure and temperature at 6-second intervals. It’s great to get visual and audio warning alarms immediately when tire pressure or temperature falls outside the safety parameters. Additionally, after 15 minutes of no motion detected, the monitor will enter power-saving mode to conserve battery power.

We found it exceedingly easy to set up and program. With this system, you can simply walk around the RV with the monitor and all of the tire sensors, installing one on (and programming it to) each tire as you go. They offer your choice of anti-theft sensors (the smaller style we use) or flow-through sensors (or even different combinations of both sensors) to meet the needs of various tire types.

Many people report liking the flow-through sensors, since you don’t need to remove the sensor to add/remove air from your tires. But since you’re going to screw a cap onto the outer valve of the flow-through sensor… you always have SOMETHING you have to unscrew. Since the flow-through sensors are longer, larger, and heavier, we prefer the anti-theft sensors.

The high- and low-pressure alerts and the high-temperature alerts are all customizable, another feature we love.

Our system featured a booster that amplified the signal over distance and eliminated electromagnetic interference challenges from the engine and other electronics. With our monitor on the dash at the front of the RV, the rear tires on our CR-V were easily 60 feet back, with a lot of metal, wiring, and electrical equipment in between. But we never had an issue with those tires dropping out of range.

When we were full-time, we were fairly heavy users of tires and tire monitoring systems. We covered a lot of miles and some pretty rugged terrain from time to time. We posed quite a challenge for a TPMS, and this system met the challenges we threw at it from the time we bought it in early 2019.

Back in 2019, six months after purchasing our EezTire TPMS, we made the following video to let our readers know how the system was working out for us. If you have any interest in seeing exactly how our system works, you’re welcome to check it out here:

Get an RV TPMS For Your Safety & Security

You can’t put a price on peace of mind, and you certainly can’t put a price on safety. An RV TPMS is a must-have to keep you safe as you’re rolling down the road on any number of tires that are impacted by any number of variables.

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