Cob Jockey

My next truck (same truck I have now, just 15 years newer) is going to come with a factory-installed trailer tire pressure monitoring system, which I'm going to refer to as T-TPMS. 

Someday, someday.

But I'm still 2-4 years away from that truck being in my price range used, so I started looking into aftermarket T-TPMS systems.  Why would you want a T-TPMS system? 

1. It does real-time tire pressure alerting, so no more walking around the trailer with a tire gauge checking them all before you leave (although you should still double-check the accuracy of the T-TPMS every once in a while)
2. It does real-time temperature alerting.  Because tires tend to heat up before they blow, in theory you should be able to pull over before it blows your fender off (not that I have any experience with that...)
3. You can catch a slow leak early by watching it as you drive down the road.

I ended up buying this from Amazon, which comes with the main unit, four valve stem sensors, and two extra button batteries for those sensors, for $40. 


Installation was stupid easy.  Turn off the main unit.  Unscrew and remove your valve stem caps, screw the sensor caps on (paying attention to the front/rear left/right markings on them).  Turn on main unit.  Done.


If you're worried about theft they include four locking rings, but if you use those you have to have a specialized wrench with you at all times (to get the sensors off to air up your tires), and that seemed more risky than someone stealing sensors that are useless without the main unit so...I didn't.

It also says to check for leaks by spraying soapy water over the valve stems after installation.  I didn't.  Living on the edge.  No leaks so far.

The main unit is both solar powered and also charges via micro USB.  They include adhesive because it's designed to be mounted to your dashboard where the sun can charge it.  Because my truck already has a TPMS and I'm only going to use this when the trailer is hooked up, I chose to stash it in a storage compartment and not mount it.


The screen is customizable, and when I said this thing alerts you to low temp/high pressure, it ALERTS you.  It is LOUD.  Even if you're jamming out in the truck cab, you won't miss it if there's a problem with the trailer's tires.

Blue is PSI, green is temperature.  For those of you in metric countries, both are customizable.

Bottom line: $40 for mitigating tire problems while hauling?  Everyone should have one of these things!  There's no excuse not to.