Recommendations Wanted for Digital Tire Gauges

[Ed and Sandra]

We would very much appreciate recommendations from The Garage Journal participants for high quality, easy to use, reliable and accurate digital tire pressure gauges. Cost is not a concern.

We have a digital one which was a gift that came from Brookstone. Frankly, it’s proven to be a piece of fancy junk because most of the time it’s impossible to get a good seat on the valve stem with it and consequently the readings are always suspect.

Looking forward to the recommendations.

Best regards,
Ed and Sandra

http://edsandra.com/esgeneral/Garage1.htm

 

[eschoendorff]

Does it need to be digital? This is what I use and I have been very happy with it:
http://www.sears.com/sr/javasr/prod...otive+Specialty+Tools&vertical=TOOL&ihtoken=1

 

[kartracer55]

If your looking for hte real deal skip the sears/sharper image stuff and go for either an intercomp or a longacre branded one. My personal gauge is a longacre, as is my durometer. I find thier products to be of excellent quality and reasonably priced. I use a dial gauge, 0-30lbs with 1/2lb intervals. They have larger face gauges that go into smaller measurements and higher pressures. They also have digital guages, as well as digitals with memory. But your going to pay upwards of 100$ for a digital


Jim

 

[Fast Orange]

Snap-On has a couple.I've got the TPGHDD150 which is a 150 PSI truck guage that reads in .5 lb increments.Cost is about $35.00.It's accurate enough for my daily drivers and the trailer I use it on.
George

 

[bmwpower]

So you don't want a tire pressure/filler gauge, right? I prefer the kind you can both read psi AND fill the tires.

 

[neblinc]

I am thinking about ordering one of these Don't kow if they are made in China or not.

Randy

 

[iiibdsiil]

I've got a Cambell Haus... however you spell that last part LOL

I figure at the very least, it's consistent. A couple pounds off in ALL your tires is better then them being all outta whack.

 

[BoostAddiction]

Grassroots Motorsports magazine (or was it European Car?) did a comparo of all the digital tire gauges some time ago. You might be able to find the results on the web with some searching.

Like BMWPower, I use a combo unit that fills, measures and purges; it is attached to my air tank. The gauge doesn't need a battery, and glows in the dark for easy reading in the pits at night.

Here is a pic:

-Will

 

[wilbilt]

I prefer analog gauges. As for finding an accurate one...good luck.

 

[Charles (in GA)]

http://www.schrader-bridgeport.com/brochure.cfm?brochure=5209&location_id=5276#TOPOFPAGE

I do not have any idea of the prices. Schrader-Bridgeport manufactures the new electronic tire pressure monitoring systems for add on and OEM that are required by the government on new cars. Coming soon to a dealer near you.

I work for an airline. several years ago we had Schrader custom manufacture some electronic tire gauges for us. The difference between ours and the standard ones is ours went to 300 psi, and they did not have a rigid chuck head on them, but rather a tiny brass chuck on a 3 inch hose. This was to keep the chuck from being broken off the gauge body. We also had them epoxy coat the circuit boards to protect from moisture. My experience over a couple of years use of these was that they are extremely accurate, or totally out of wack, never any question about it. Our MD-11 aircraft had electronic tire pressure monitoring on the aircraft and each check we had to do a print out of the pressures on the aircraft's system and then use our tire gauge to compare. I never found my gauge disagreeing with the aircraft's system by more than one pound! this is with a separate sensor on each of 12 wheels on 15 different aircraft!

The link above is to the present Schrade electronic gauge line. This is Schrader-Birdgeport division of Tomkins PLC, based in Northern Ireland and also owner of Gates Rubber, Stand, Plews, and Standard-Thompson, all very familiar old line names in the auto industry. They are NOT related to Schrader-Bellows division of Parker-Hannifin Corp.

Charles

 

[ersatzs2]

If your looking for hte real deal skip the sears/sharper image stuff and go for either an intercomp or a longacre branded one.

+1 on this. Longacre or Intercomp are the two trusted brands racers use most. They each have 30+ models for every price range.

 

[JCR]

Grassroots Motorsports magazine (or was it European Car?) did a comparo of all the digital tire gauges some time ago. You might be able to find the results on the web with some searching.
-Will

http://www.europeancarweb.com/auto_tools/0304ec_tool/index.html

 

[Willy Victor]

Ed and Shirley I 've got two from Sears different models, neither one is any good in the cold unless you warm them up first. Since they are both kept in the vehicles, do you see where I'm going here.

Willy

 

[OctaneMotorsports]

Ed and Shirley I 've got two from Sears different models, neither one is any good in the cold unless you warm them up first. Since they are both kept in the vehicles, do you see where I'm going here.

Willy

Ed and Sandra

I personally use a Longacre. Analog, 0-30 PSI with 1/2 lb. increments (sounds like the same one as Jim). Very nice guage. I have never really trusted the digital variety, although it has to be more precise in racing and a digital will be fine for road cars. The key is to try and find something that is within your tire's range. For example, if your car's tires call for 30 PSI, don't get a guage that goes up to 150 PSI.

 

[HighOctane]

For example, if your car's tires call for 30 PSI, don't get a guage that goes up to 150 PSI.

DURR! thats impractical too!

 

[Charles (in GA)]

The key is to try and find something that is within your tire's range. For example, if your car's tires call for 30 PSI, don't get a guage that goes up to 150 PSI.

From my experience with mechanical and electronic tire gauges, it makes a difference on a mechanical type, expecially the dial type with some mechanism to it, but on electronic units, it really doesn't make any difference. That 150 lb gauge will be just as accurate at 150 lbs as it will be at 30 psi. Those solid state pizoelectric pressure tranducers don't seem to care much.

For what its worth, I recall a Consumer Reports article, they tested a multitude of brands of pencil tire gauges, and several of each brand bought in different locations in the country. they also tested a few digital ones that were on the market at the time. They found the pencil type to be just as accurate as you could get, while they did pick a couple as the best ones, it largely wasn't because of accuracy, it was head angle and chuck design. Digital ones were no more accurate, and round dial type were no better and probably on average, somewhat less accurate.

Charles

 

[stupidjet]

^good post

so i would be ok with this craftsman one? i just liek craftsman tools and want something kinda accurate for my truck tires that run 80psi

http://www.sears.com/sr/javasr/product.do?pid=02823013000&vertical=Sears&BV_UseBVCookie=Yes

 

[VDubJoe]

Ive been using this one for a while. Recomended from the cycle race guys. Works great attaches easily with no leakage.

http://www.ghmeiser.com/specialtydial.htm

Gauges have a full geared, solid brass precision movement with bronze bourdon tube.

Unlike piston-plunger-type gauges, the bourdon tube movement is not affected by changes in temperature, humidity or altitude. EZ-Air Tire Gauge
Model# EZ02

Use with air compressor for quick tire inflation
Clip gauge on tire and read pressure.
No need to remove gauge while inflating
Saves time and money inflating tires
Accurate pressure in one smooth operation
2" dial
Push button valve bleeds air to desired pressure
Continuous reading until chuck is released
Includes protective rubber gauge guard

 

[VDubJoe]

Forgot to mention. Found them a t Auto Zone . ANd they have a lifetime warrenty.
Joe

 

[G1K]

If price is no concern, I'll post up mine tonight. IIRC it was between $600 and $800, but reads in a multitude of units, and is very accurate , has max and min recall. This is probably way overkill for just checking tire pressures..


** eidt: found the link for it.
http://www.transcat.com/Catalog/productdetail.aspx?itemnum=23300P-100

R

 

[JohnZ]

I've found the $19.95 "AccuTire" digital gauge, available in all the catalogs, to be just fine - it's just as accurate as my calibrated race gauge, and doesn't have any delicate mechanical parts, bourdon tubes, gears, shafts, etc. I also had a collection of about a dozen pencil-type gauges from car show goodie bags, mail promotions, etc., and three of them calibrated very nicely, threw out the rest - the three remaining are now OK to use too.

 

[Ed and Sandra]

We wanted to follow up on our earlier request for recommendations of a top quality digital tire gauge. We decided upon the Longacre model 50352 1.5 to 60 PSI by .1 PSI and are extremely pleased with it! Experimenting with it we were amazed at how far off some of our “stick” gauges and one piece of junk digital gauge from Brookstone were. We discovered this latter device consistently was reading 5 pounds too high - that is whenever we could get a decent seat with it on the valve stems! It really disturbed us when we realized we had been hauling very heavy loads on our electric garden truck with the tires inflated at 17 lbs. instead of the maximum 22 that we had intended. Fortunately we hadn’t been relying upon it for our motor vehicles, which brings us to our last point. On our Escalade and XLR the driver information displays show tire pressures and it was always a “trying” experience to get the readings the same for all four tires on each vehicle. With the Longacre digital it’s a piece of cake!

We sincerely appreciate all the help that was offered here on The Garage Journal Board.

Best regards,
Ed and Sandra


http://edsandra.com/esgeneral/Garage1.htm[/QUOTE]

 

[Ed and Sandra]

By the way, the link to the Longacre gauge we gave in our previous post is not the one to the company from which we purchased the unit. They provide a good illustration and seem to have a nice price on the unit, but we know nothing about them. We bought our gauge at a higher price via Real Trucks, Inc. on Amazon and their performance was fine.

Best regards,
Ed and Sandra


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