Tires and tire valves May 12, 2016, 01:41:58 pm Hi All,There has been a lot of discussion on tire valve, extensions and tires. Let me tell you my experience. On our way back from Green Valley, AZ in April we had a flat tire on Hwy 17 north of Phoenix on a Sunday afternoon. I try to read this form daily as I glean so much information from it. In December before our trip from Washington State to AZ I purchased a tire pressure monitoring system from EZZ RV Products for the motor home and my car. I set it up before we left and everything worked great. So back to the story. We were driving uphill on Hwy 17 on a curve. I was in the right hand lane behind some trucks doing about 45 mph. When the TPMS starting going off. I quickly looked at the monitor and saw that I had a rapid loss of pressure. I managed to pull over to the shoulder which was wide enough for the motor home and car. The monitor said that the pressure in the left outer dually was at zero. I called Good Sam for assistance. Once they found me on their system they sent a service truck out. That took an hour and a half. What happened was the the rubber tire valve blew and not the extension, which I thought it would be. The tire guy took the tire off and replaced the valve. So start to end was about 3 hours. Good Sam charged me for this call as it was a tire fix and not change out the flat tire for the spare. My spare was too old anyway. Good to know that they do not fix tires. When we got home I read about the dually tire valves from this Form and the discussion about the Camping World set. I ordered the chrome dually valve from Camping World and also the front chrome ones from Borg Equipment (www.yourtireshopsupply.com) I even called Borg to see if they would give me the camping world deal but no luck. I ordered both on the same day (Monday) and they both arrived on the Friday. Both the Camping World and the Borg valves packaged came from Borg! I also checked the date on my rear tires and they were coming up to 7 years old. I made an appointment with Costco for 4 new tires and if they would install the Borg valves, They did that yesterday. They only charged me for the new tires which were on sale and $15 for each of the 4 tire for balancing and installation. They did not charge extra to install the Borg valves for the rear nor the front tires. My front tires where only 2 years old as they were part of the Michelin recall. What scared me was that it was no the rubber extension that failed but the rubber tire valve. From reading the comments and suggests from this form I made the decision to go to the metal tire stems. Thank you all for your ongoing support.Kevin Hannah, Poulsbo, WA
Re: Tires and tire valves Reply #1 – May 12, 2016, 02:16:43 pm I suppose if you had a good spare (which I think you should get if you haven't already), Good Sam may have installed the spare for free. But then you would have had to go get it switched back if you wanted to keep the dual rear wheels in pairs, which has been recommended.I contacted a Costco before I replaced my tires last December in Florida. They said I would have to bring all the wheels in which was not going to happen. I guess some of them can deal with larger vehicles than others.I also noticed a couple of my rear valve extenders were being worn as noted in another post by rubbing on the wheel covers. I was afraid to bend them more than a little which did get them not to touch the wheel cover when the RV was parked. I duct taped a piece of plastic around the stem. We'll see how that goes.Jay Carlson
Re: Tires and tire valves Reply #2 – May 12, 2016, 10:47:20 pm Kevin, hope they sent you the rubber stabilizers for the inner duallys. I originally didn't have those and when I added a TPMS it caused vibrations that broke the metal stem where it joins the wheel. The metal valves originally weren't quite long enough and I ordered Borg stems with the stabilizers and in over 7 years now have had no further issue.Jim
Re: Tires and tire valves Reply #3 – May 12, 2016, 10:56:13 pm Jim, yes they did. The Costco installer wanted to put them on the inner and outer dually, but there was only two rubber stabilizers. I said that they only go on the inner wheel and that is what they did. I also got a new spare tire at the same time as Jay suggested. I re- installed the TPMS and everything works fine.Thanks,Kevin