Check your tire pressure GAUGE!!

Dirt_Dad

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We've just had the roof and gutters replaced and we are finding screws all over the place. So I went out this evening to check the tires on the cars to make sure we don't have a flat tomorrow morning. My car was fine, DMs brand new vehicle showed 22lbs on all her tires. That seemed very odd to me. Her car has a tire pressure gauge showing on the dash, so I turned it on and all tires were showing within a pound of correct pressure. Another look with my super accurate gauge I've been using for years and it was still at 22lbs.

So I started grabbing the cheapo gauges I had put away long ago. Three more gauges of different brands and operation. All of those agreed with her in-dash gauge. Next I went to my car and found the 35lbs I had been running was more like 45lbs. A check of the bike and the expected 39lbs was actually 47lbs. Holy crap.

I've been using that gauge exclusively for years...many, many years. Have no idea how long I've been running the wrong pressure.

Goodbye you POS.


Guess when I say I never air-down for dirt riding I'm really not kidding.
 
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Dirt Dad - I had a similar experience. I recently learned that my Syracuse pencil gauge that I have been using for 30 years for my motorcycles under reads the pressure by about 20%. For some reason, I checked the bike tires with my 35 year old Accu-Gage and saw the difference in a reading I had taken the day before. I then bought an Accutire gauge (rated best choice by Consumers Report) and determined that my Accu-Gage is correct and the pencil gauge was bad. The over inflation of my Tenere tires would explain why the Mitas E07 wore so quickly in the center and why the traction in the loose stuff was so bad on the KTM until I figured this out. ;)

If you have not thrown away the Accu-Gage yet, it has a lifetime warranty. You can mail it back to the company (info shown in the link below) with $3.00 to cover shipping and handling and they will refurbish and re-calibrate the gauge. I'm sending mine back for a refurb. The gauge still reads accurately but it bleeds off the pressure after checking tire pressure.

http://www.ghmeiser.com/warranty-info.htm

The Accutire gauge that I bought is the MS-4021B. It sells for $9.20 at Walmart.com.
 

RIDEMYST

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I went to a tire seminar a few years back. They said old gauges were often incorrect and recommend that you benchmark your tire gauge often against others. -JEP-


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jmcgilroy

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Good post...thanks.

I've got 6 or 7 of those cheapo pencil gauges and I haven't a clue if they're accurate or not. It's money well spent for a good one, which I'm about to do right now.
 

Dirt_Dad

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FrontRangeRider said:
If you have not thrown away the Accu-Gage yet, it has a lifetime warranty. You can mail it back to the company (info shown in the link below) with $3.00 to cover shipping and handling and they will refurbish and re-calibrate the gauge. I'm sending mine back for a refurb. The gauge still reads accurately but it bleeds off the pressure after checking tire pressure.

http://www.ghmeiser.com/warranty-info.htm
Good to know. I'll pull it back out of the trash. Thanks...
 

arjayes

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Dirt_Dad said:
We've just had the roof and gutters replaced and we are finding screws all over the place. So I went out this evening to check the tires on the cars to make sure we don't have a flat tomorrow morning. My car was fine, DMs brand new vehicle showed 22lbs on all her tires. That seemed very odd to me. Her car has a tire pressure gauge showing on the dash, so I turned it on and all tires were showing within a pound of correct pressure. Another look with my super accurate gauge I've been using for years and it was still at 22lbs.

So I started grabbing the cheapo gauges I had put away long ago. Three more gauges of different brands and operation. All of those agreed with her in-dash gauge. Next I went to my car and found the 35lbs I had been running was more like 45lbs. A check of the bike and the expected 39lbs was actually 47lbs. Holy crap.

I've been using that gauge exclusively for years...many, many years. Have no idea how long I've been running the wrong pressure.

Goodbye you POS.
Thanks for the heads up. I've been using that exact same gauge exclusively for the last 2-3 years and I love it. But good reminder to compare readings once in a while.

When I was a kid I was inflating a tire on my stingray bicycle at a gas station (this was the 60s when air was free - imagine that!) and the tire blew up in my face. Scared the f'ing hell out of me and I probably suffered permanent hearing loss. To this day I think of that virtually every time I air up a tire. Can't imagine what an exploding car or motorcycle tire would sound like up close.
 

Philistine

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I went out and got a Blue Point gauge from the Snap On truck in a nice case, was about $120Au I think. I use that to check the calibration of my other pressure gauges then put it back in the tool chest out of harms way. I never trust the gauges at the fuel stations
 

magic

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I gave my tire pressure gauges to a buddy who is an instrument mechanic. He then checked them for accuracy and labelled them. Both Harley Davidson gauges were reading +1, another expensive gauge was reading +6. There are some local testing and measuring companies that can do this too. For example, companies that calibrate industrial measuring equipment like scales and measuring tools can check your gauges very easily.
 

Checkswrecks

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RIDEMYST said:
I went to a tire seminar a few years back. They said old gauges were often incorrect and recommend that you benchmark your tire gauge often against others. -JEP-


Sent by using these little bitty keys on my iPhone using Tapatalk

I'm with you on cross-checking because ALL gauges go out of cal sooner or later. I've got about four near the compressor and when one seems to diverge from the pack it gets tossed.
 

dietDrThunder

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Old but useful and informative.

http://www.mcnews.com/mcn/technical/200511gauges.pdf

I have a high dollar gauge left from my racing days that I used to have calibrated a couple of times a year, and the one I've linked below is more consistent, more accurate, and about 22x less expensive. One of these lives in my tank bag, one in my tool box, and one in each car. They all read the exact same pressure, and none has had any issue of any kind.

https://www.amazon.com/TEKTON-5941-Digital-Tire-Gauge/dp/B0037V0EW8/ref=sr_1_2?s=automotive&ie=UTF8&qid=1479390951&sr=1-2&keywords=digital+pressure+gauge
 

Dirt_Dad

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It took 4 or 5 weeks for the gauge to come back from the warranty repair. It is once again working correctly. I'll be sure to crosscheck it now every so often.

Thanks again on that FrontRangeRider.
 
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You're welcome. I'll be sending mine out for warranty repair once the ice builds up and I can no longer get the S10 out of the garage for a ride. My garage doors face north. :-(
 

BadNews

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Resurrection time for this tire pressure gauge thread. I recently bought a couple of new gauges and thought I would compare them with some of my older gauges. First, though, I recommend this short article with some charts:


What I gather from that article is that to measure the most accurately our tire pressures in the 15-45 psi range, you need a gauge with a reading span of 0-60 psi. That way your reading will be roughly in the middle of the scale where the ANSI B40.1 standard is most accurate. There are quite a few gauges claiming to be ANSI B40.1, but they should also say what grade they are. The JACO gauge I have claims ANSI B40.1 compliance, but nowhere can I find what grade it is. It could be grade D for all I know. The only gauge in this comparison that claims ANSI B40.1 Grade B compliance is the Accu-Gage.

The gauges:
IMG_0587.jpeg
Jaco, Accu-Gage, a Suzuki gauge I bought from a dealer years ago, an old digital RoadGear, an unknown but stout pencil gauge I keep in my truck, and the gauge that came with my Moto-Pump kit.

The results of checking the pressure in one of my truck tires (cold) that I keep at 35 psi:
JACO = 34 psi
Accu-Gage = 35 psi
Suzuki = 35 psi
RoadGear = 32 psi
Unknown pencil gauge = 34 psi
Moto-Pumps = 35 psi

I took several readings with all the gauges and they were all consistent except the RoadGear, which gave inconsistent readings. It's pretty old, and I don't want to deal with batteries anymore so it's going in the trash. Also, the Accu-Gage won't always hold pressure; sometimes it bleeds off. I may have to tighten something up or maybe a drop of oil in the bleed off valve. I was surprised that the Moto-Pump gauge was dead on accurate, it is very light and seems cheapo, but it gave consistently accurate readings.

My favorite gauge is the at least 10 year old Suzuki gauge. Still dead on accurate, always holds pressure, well built.

I'll repeat the advice from earlier in the thread: Keep several gauges and double check them against each other from time to time.
 

StefanOnHisS10

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Resurrection time for this tire pressure gauge thread. I recently bought a couple of new gauges and thought I would compare them with some of my older gauges. First, though, I recommend this short article with some charts:


What I gather from that article is that to measure the most accurately our tire pressures in the 15-45 psi range, you need a gauge with a reading span of 0-60 psi. That way your reading will be roughly in the middle of the scale where the ANSI B40.1 standard is most accurate. There are quite a few gauges claiming to be ANSI B40.1, but they should also say what grade they are. The JACO gauge I have claims ANSI B40.1 compliance, but nowhere can I find what grade it is. It could be grade D for all I know. The only gauge in this comparison that claims ANSI B40.1 Grade B compliance is the Accu-Gage.

The gauges:
View attachment 82724
Jaco, Accu-Gage, a Suzuki gauge I bought from a dealer years ago, an old digital RoadGear, an unknown but stout pencil gauge I keep in my truck, and the gauge that came with my Moto-Pump kit.

The results of checking the pressure in one of my truck tires (cold) that I keep at 35 psi:
JACO = 34 psi
Accu-Gage = 35 psi
Suzuki = 35 psi
RoadGear = 32 psi
Unknown pencil gauge = 34 psi
Moto-Pumps = 35 psi

I took several readings with all the gauges and they were all consistent except the RoadGear, which gave inconsistent readings. It's pretty old, and I don't want to deal with batteries anymore so it's going in the trash. Also, the Accu-Gage won't always hold pressure; sometimes it bleeds off. I may have to tighten something up or maybe a drop of oil in the bleed off valve. I was surprised that the Moto-Pump gauge was dead on accurate, it is very light and seems cheapo, but it gave consistently accurate readings.

My favorite gauge is the at least 10 year old Suzuki gauge. Still dead on accurate, always holds pressure, well built.

I'll repeat the advice from earlier in the thread: Keep several gauges and double check them against each other from time to time.
Very good reminder! Thanks for the heads-up.

Stefan.
 
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