|
|
|
|
| North American Grand Cherokee Association | ||
| Your one stop source for Jeep Grand Cherokee Information | ||
Trailhead™ Automatic Tire Deflators
Finally someone came out with an automatic tire deflator. Oasis Off Road Manufacturing of Lake Forest, California has stepped up to the plate and become the pioneer of this long awaited product. There are lots of companies, including Oasis, that provide tools for airing up our tires and until now no one had gone to bat to devise a tool to air our tires down to a pre-set pressure. The key word here is pre-set. You want to set these at your pre-determined pressure at home, before hitting the trail. I found that a bicycle tire works best for setting your 4 Trailhead Automatic Tire Deflators. If you use your vehicle tire you will spend a LOT of time on the initial set up.
This kit comes complete with a tire
deflation guide, laminated instruction booklet, 4 automatic tire deflators (ATD),
5/32" allen wrench adjustment tool, 0-20 PSI tire pressure gauge, Oasis decal and a
leather pouch. The first thing you will want to do is compare your tire size with the
gross vehicle weight on the tire deflation guide. This will give you the suggested
tire pressure to run on the trail. Next you will install the first ATD on the
inflated bicycle tire. When the air stops remove the ATD and check the pressure in
the tire. If the pressure is too high then turn the adjustment screw counter
clockwise to decrease the pressure and clockwise to increase the pressure. Each
complete turn of the allen screw will increase or decrease the pressure 1-2 PSI depending
which direction you are going. Re-inflate the bicycle tire and repeat the
installation of the ATD. Keep doing this until you have it set at your desired
pressure. Continue with the same procedure on the rest of the ATD's.
Deflate your tires while you drive
After you have your ATD's set up you are ready to hit the trail. Oasis claims that you can install the ATD's prior to reaching the trailhead and drive with them on your valve stems. I personally don't recommend this for several reasons. The first is it will put strain on your valve stems as you are driving. The centrifugal force may be enough to finish off the weak valve stem. The second reason is I wouldn't want to take a chance of loosing one of the ATD's on the road. I prefer to install them at the trailhead while everyone else is deflating there tires the old fashion way. It is nice knowing that I can install my ATD's and deflate my tires while Im disconnecting my sway bar, checking my gear and visiting with friends. When it is time to hit the trail I just remove the ATD's, replace the valve stem caps and we are ready to go.
The ATD's come in two versions 8-20 PSI and 20-40 PSI. The one that you want for your 4 wheel drive vehicle is the 8-20 PSI version. They are available in blue, red and polished aluminum.
Just Screw them on and walk away!
I feel compelled to offer a few warnings about deflating your tires. You should never exceed 20 MPH while your tires are deflated. Heat build up in deflated tires at speeds over 20 MPH can cause blow outs, loss of control and possible injury or death. When you are ready to go back on the blacktop or at speeds in excess of 20 mph, re-inflate your tires to the vehicle manufacture's recommended pressure.
The pressures in the deflation guide are for reference only. You will have to experiment with your vehicle. There are a lot of variables that will change your recommended air down pressure. For example, trail conditions, number of passengers, brand of tires, and weight of gear in vechile for a few examples. Don't be confined to the guide, experiment while you are on the trail. Sometimes you will need to lower your pressure more to stay on top of the snow and other times you might need to increase the pressure to get your rig higher off the ground.
Have Fun and maybe we will see ya on the trail.
MSRP
$55.95
North American Grand Cherokee Association
www.nagca.com
Copyright © 2006 by NAGCA All rights reserved.