Long line at the air pump

[mclasser]

I was filling up at BJ's gas the other day and noticed a long line of cars at the air pump. Those TPMS lights must've been on with the fluctuating temps lately

I glanced over at one guy airing up his newish BMW X5 and the tires were down to 25

 

[dogememe]

i find it odd people don't have a portable tire pump in their car. I have the Slime one for less than $30 that automatically fills up to the PSI you set.

 

[exranger06]

Temperatures around here dropped significantly in the last week or so. I know I need to add air to all my car tires and I'll do it this weekend. I don't have TPMS, except for the Cadillac, but I know they're all low. I always add air to the tires when the temps drop, and let some pressure out in the spring when the temps rise. I'm still on "summer pressure."

 

[maxdustington]

Originally Posted by dogememe
i find it odd people don't have a portable tire pump in their car. I have the Slime one for less than $30 that automatically fills up to the PSI you set.
I find it odd that people are inflating hot tires. That information is in every article written about keeping your tires filled, right after increased MPG and longer tire life.

 

[bdcardinal]

I had my tire light come on yesterday on the drive into work. Of course Ford's system being completely useless, it could not tell me what tire was low or what the pressures were. I parked on the lot at work and at the end of the day checked all the pressures so they would be cold. The 4 tires were between 26 and 27, not bad after filling them to 35psi with our old nitrogen system 2 years ago.

 

[dadto2]

Originally Posted by maxdustington
Originally Posted by dogememe
i find it odd people don't have a portable tire pump in their car. I have the Slime one for less than $30 that automatically fills up to the PSI you set.
I find it odd that people are inflating hot tires. That information is in every article written about keeping your tires filled, right after increased MPG and longer tire life.

I carry a 12v pump in each vehicle, but I still fill from the pump at BJs. It's free, and I fill all four tires in the same time it takes to fill just one with my portable pump. I guess I'm just lazy.

 

[slacktide_bitog]

Long lines at the free pumps, no lines at the ones that make you put in quarters

 

[mclasser]

Originally Posted by maxdustington
Originally Posted by dogememe
i find it odd people don't have a portable tire pump in their car. I have the Slime one for less than $30 that automatically fills up to the PSI you set.
I find it odd that people are inflating hot tires. That information is in every article written about keeping your tires filled, right after increased MPG and longer tire life.

I have a portable pump that I use to air up cold on my driveway. If I need to air up hot on the road, I add a few extra PSI, which brings me close to spec when cold.

 

[mclasser]

Originally Posted by slacktide_bitog
Long lines at the free pumps, no lines at the ones that make you put in quarters

BJ's has the only digital pump in my area, and it's free! The other ones are run down analog ones that eat your quarters.

 

[xBa380]

I also use a pump that plugs into the cigarette lighter and fills automatically to the set temp (even compensates the small amount of air loss when removing the stem). PSI is spot on to the pressure shown on the car display. Just topped all the tires for our cars this past weekend as the temps have been dropping.

 

[Snagglefoot]

Originally Posted by slacktide_bitog
Long lines at the free pumps, no lines at the ones that make you put in quarters

Quarters? They are on to dollars in Calgary. Also, some take credit cards. Still, the air valve is usually a POS with a worn rubber seal. I'll do it home, thanks.

 

[SwampSurvivor]

I have two DC pumps. The big one pretty much lives in the Jeep because I use it to air up all 4 tires at once on the jeep --- with a cool 4 port tire manifold thing.

The other was powered off of the cigarette outlet. But after I managed to melt a few acutal cigarette outlets in my Jeep, I cut the ends off, upgraded the cables and made it so it can clamp directly to the battery. Works much better that way.

 

[CR94]

I use a muscle-powered pump, which is faster than some of the cheap 12-V ones, as well as more reliable. Driving to a store with free air and waiting in line is a silly waste of time.

 

[SubyRoo]

Which portable pump are you guys using? I was checking some out on amazon and there were a lot of reviews that weren't so great.

 

[Gimpy1]

I think you have it backwards. As temperature increases pressure increases, therefore if you are at spec PSI cold, and add air when the tire is hot you are overfilling the tire, that is why you always check cold PSI. If a HOT tire is at spec then your tire is under filled when COLD.

 

[BMWTurboDzl]

Originally Posted by dogememe
i find it odd people don't have a portable tire pump in their car. I have the Slime one for less than $30 that automatically fills up to the PSI you set.


When I turned 16 a family friend bought me a Sears portable and I had it until I turned 35. Since then I've gone through 2 small portable pumps and gave up on them. They just don't engineer them like they used to.

I have a slime kit in the back with a portable but that's only because I'm not running RFT's.

 

[ARCOgraphite]

Hope that wasn't ones of those gas station "box on a stick " "water pumps" Say good bye to the TPMS.

Aired up wife's from 26 to 33, aired up mine too much, from 31 to 33. Destination LE2 Firestones ride like "Stones" when aired up; really hard with terrible impact harshness.

Man, the factory Conti's were MUCH smoother.

Two below freezing today in So. NH

 

[Nick1994]

I have the $39 Ryobi One+ 18v inflator from Home Depot. Love the thing, it stops where it needs to and fills the tires up pretty quick. I bought the 2 year warranty from Home Depot for $7 and am glad I did. I've had to replace it like 3-4 times over the past 2 years, the display will quit working or it'll display a totally wrong tire PSI. Not a big deal, they just give me another one when I walk into Home Depot. Their 2 year warranty actually starts after the manufacturer's 3 year warranty, so I've got 5 years of free replacements.

 

[maxdustington]

Originally Posted by BMWTurboDzl
Originally Posted by dogememe
i find it odd people don't have a portable tire pump in their car. I have the Slime one for less than $30 that automatically fills up to the PSI you set.


When I turned 16 a family friend bought me a Sears portable and I had it until I turned 35. Since then I've gone through 2 small portable pumps and gave up on them. They just don't engineer them like they used to.

I have a slime kit in the back with a portable but that's only because I'm not running RFT's.
It's not that they don't make them like they used to, I've seen some people post some pretty nice VIAIR compressors in threads. It's that they cost a lot more than they used to. TBF, me and my friend bought the same 120/12V compressor from Canadian Tire. His lasted a year, mine is going on 5 years now. I only use mine on 120V, I never asked him about that actually.....
Originally Posted by ARCOgraphite

Hope that wasn't ones of those gas station "box on a stick " "water pumps" Say good bye to the TPMS.

Aired up wife's from 26 to 33, aired up mine too much, from 31 to 33. Destination LE2 Firestones ride like "Stones" when aired up; really hard with terrible impact harshness.

Man, the factory Conti's were MUCH smoother.

Two below freezing today in So. NH
This post made me laugh, water pumps and stones lol!

 

[Hall]

Originally Posted by maxdustington
I find it odd that people are inflating hot tires. That information is in every article written about keeping your tires filled, right after increased MPG and longer tire life.

What is the average person supposed to do ? They're driving and their low-pressure light comes on and they add air. The average person doesn't have an air compressor so they can't park their car for hours until they're cold to check "properly". Why are there air pumps at gas stations then ? Why do tire places do 'free air fill-ups' ?

On that topic, a co-worker was returning to the office after an 8-hour drive and told me his TPMS light came on. I check the pressure when he got back but told him we should wait until they're cold to be sure of the pressure and how much to fill them. Even then, after 8 hours of driving, they were all in the 30-31 psi range (door jamb says 38 psi). The next day, after his 10-minute drive to work, he parked it for 5 hours before I checked. Each tire was still in the 30-31 psi range ! Admittedly, I was confused about that.... Same PSI as after an 8-hour drive ?? Filled them to 37-38 psi.