Ever looked at the cockpit of a plane, or played a flight simulator? There are all sorts of controls, and all sorts of little viewscreens telling you all the vital statistics that you need to know. Altitude, air pressure, temperature, orientation – everything you could ever want or need to know. Now, admittedly, you’ve got a lot more going on if you’re flying a plane than if you’re just driving a car, truck or motor home. You’re moving in three dimensions rather than two, and that means that there’s more to keep track of. But the fact remains that a standard dashboard for a road vehicle is pretty simple. You’ve got a speedometer, an accelerometer, your total mileage, how much fuel you’ve got left, temperature, and maybe a bit of other stuff. If it’s a newer vehicle, you’ve maybe got a GPS too, so there’s a map. But there are all sorts of other things about your car, or whatever vehicle you’re driving, that you can’t see from the dash.
You have to open the bonnet to check your oil, and you need specialised equipment to check your tyre pressure. All in all, it’s a huge hassle, but there are ways around it. And one of those ways is the tyre pressure monitoring system.
A TPMS automatically measures your tyre pressure so that you don’t have to worry about checking it yourself. Thanks to tyre sensors attached to your wheels, the monitor knows when the pressure goes outside the optimal range and will alert you as soon as that happens. That way, you can pump up your tyres as soon as it’s convenient, without the decrease in pressure catching you by surprise. With an automated pressure monitor, you’re more informed than ever.