Jaeger_S2k
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Someone mentioned on another thread, tyre inflater and accuracy.
Some may know I own a jittery 248BHP mota' which demands a lot from it's tyres so tyre pressures are paramount as 2psi can make a difference. On another forum I frequent I did some research on tyre pressure gauges and their ability to accurately inflate and measure the pressures.
Here's some info I found and posted, it's just a regurgitation of the original.
I started out hoping to buy a reasonable (cost wise) solution to allow me to inflate my tyres at the most opportune time (Cold) and have that facility at hand (in the garage).
In looking into this further I found there was an even greater need, if I could ever fulfil the first one, to carry with me an accurate means of checking the pressure I think I'm putting in the tyres is close to what I wanted.
It's quite confusing out there and many claims are made by many sellers of 'tyre gauges'. Then there are the types of dials etc. Some have said, on here too, the analogue is the most accurate. Personally I would have thought digital would be better? But more on this later!
OK, yes it's a long post. But there could be a lot more, I started out to reach my goal.
I've done that, but I think as tyres pressures are posted about and quoted about as often as they are some of you may find this useful and hopefully informative. If not don't worry, there are 2 points to this post....
1. To share the information and save you doing it, that's what this forum is all about?
2. To bring you a GB which will appear once all the figures and fittings have been finalised. If you are interested in a GB for an accurate tyre gauge, let me know on this thread and I'll get it going probably just after the weekend, time and supply of components allowing. I've already purchased all the parts required and will be finalising things with the supplier later.
Having read many, many posts ...
Rear wheel steer is throwing me across lanes - Tyre pressures.
Side walls flexing causing fishtailing - Tyre pressures.
Not the grip I expected - Tyre pressures up them by 1 or 2 PSI.
There are more and I've seen many threads about Tyre pressures including 'Get this gauge', 'Don't inflate when hot or even warm' etc......
So .... To get the best possible results you would need to get an air supply at the earliest point Home! - So get a compressor.
Now I can get air in the tyres when cold but I now need an inflater.
- So get an inflater.
So I've got my Air and my Inflater
So lets get a check on accuracy of the inflater? I drive (****** the tyres will warm up!) but slowly and it's less than a mile and I wait to allow the tyres to cool, as best I can. Tyres where 32 PSI at home now they're 36 PSI, OK maybe my inflater isn't so accurate?
Next time I try another garage, but I've not inflated at home this is from the previous garage setting, about 1 and 1/2 miles away, beside the air line there's a water line, so I fuel up and then pour water over the tyres to assist the cooling (sad, maybe?) after waiting some time to get them as cool as possible, now they're 31 PSI.
Over a period of a couple of weeks and with the tyres as cool as possible, checking before returning home at the closest air line, etc. I'm getting various results.
Some searching, research and a couple of calls has brought some interesting figures to light. There are Standards to which Air Lines must comply namely STATUTORY INSTRUMENTS 1988 No. 186, WEIGHTS AND MEASURES, The Measuring Instruments (EEC Requirements) Regulations 1988 incorporating Council Directive No. 86/217/EEC. Lots of 'interesting' reading in these
But then you get to talking or reading from/to trade bodies, manufacturers and motoring organisations and you discover that things are not as accurate as we (well I) first thought.
Most forecourts I visit have the following style of inflater ...
Made by PCL and made for many others 'Brands' by PCL, good British Company very happy to talk about their product even to 'Joe public'.
The specifications of the above the PCL MK3 Tyre Inflater is Reading Accuracy : 0.1bar / 2 lbf/in² / 10 kPa.
Now that for me was a little disconcerting, if I fill my tyres to 32 PSI there could be anything between 30 PSI to 34 PSI, if you then allow for ambient temperature changes it changes again. To be fair not by much but there is another change on an already inaccurate reading.
There are more reasons for correct tyre inflation than the ones we tend to highlight more often than not, yes I know we all know them? See below (a)
In a recent survey done by the IAM Motoring Trust revealed some interesting results. The link here is to the actual survey but basically they found inaccuracies that were to me unacceptable for a car such as the S2000 and for many more.
Feel free to read it of you want but I would stress there are, quite surprisingly IMHO some comments that I cannot possibly agree with in their conclusions about tyre gauges. Read it yourself and draw from it what you will.
There was a recent survey done by the IAM Motoring Trust in April 2007.
But the most compelling statement .....
At present, however, in spite of greater accuracy, motorists cannot rely on using filling station tyre-pressure equipment to maintain accurate, safe and fuel-efficient tyre pressures.
So in short, when we think we're running at 32 PSI are we? We talk about 1 PSI making a difference, these inflater's aren't and don't have to be THAT accurate. Don't get me wrong, PCL have been really helpful and they do work to very high tolerances.
They completely understand why I'm asking and what I'm looking for, I was to be honest pleasantly surprised.
So what have I found?
Well this
Click to read data sheet but the bit that got me interested Reading Accuracy : 0.01 bar / 0.2 lbf/in² / 1 kPa
As I mentioned before PCL make and Brand their equipment for many others and this in particular is branded for Draper, it's called Draper Pcl Accura 1 Digital Tyre Inflater. Have a search around and you'll find it.
BUT! What about when I'm not at home and need to check my tyres. Well that was my thought too, I don't want to be pulling into a service station having a coffee and fecking my tyre pressures? So with the help of a couple of adaptors the above can be carried in your car and used as a Tyre Pressure Gauge separately from any airline and still give you accurate reading to with 0.2 PSI (I've been assured by PCL that they get better than that but can only advertise 0.2 PSI).
So there we have it, a tyre pressure gauge accurate to 0.2 PSI (certified) that you can take to Track Days, on holiday and keep in the car, but if you have an air supply at home you can attach it to your airline and get accurate tyre pressures from cold.
Interested? Please feel free to comment.
(a)
Correctly inflated tyres are important for many reasons:
i) Safety – under inflated tyres run at higher temperatures than they were
designed for, especially at high speed. Overheating due to under
inflation is one of the most common causes of “blow outs” at speed,
which in turn cause accidents.
ii) Grip and handling are adversely affected by over or under inflation.
iii) Fuel consumption – under inflated tyres have higher rolling resistance.
A generally accepted estimate is that 20per cent under inflation
leads to 3 per cent higher fuel consumption.
iv) Emissions – higher fuel consumption arising from under inflation
produces higher CO2 emissions and the extra friction may be
responsible for particulate emissions as the rubber wears away.
v) Cost – wrongly inflated tyres wear more quickly.
Some may know I own a jittery 248BHP mota' which demands a lot from it's tyres so tyre pressures are paramount as 2psi can make a difference. On another forum I frequent I did some research on tyre pressure gauges and their ability to accurately inflate and measure the pressures.
Here's some info I found and posted, it's just a regurgitation of the original.
I started out hoping to buy a reasonable (cost wise) solution to allow me to inflate my tyres at the most opportune time (Cold) and have that facility at hand (in the garage).
In looking into this further I found there was an even greater need, if I could ever fulfil the first one, to carry with me an accurate means of checking the pressure I think I'm putting in the tyres is close to what I wanted.
It's quite confusing out there and many claims are made by many sellers of 'tyre gauges'. Then there are the types of dials etc. Some have said, on here too, the analogue is the most accurate. Personally I would have thought digital would be better? But more on this later!
OK, yes it's a long post. But there could be a lot more, I started out to reach my goal.
I've done that, but I think as tyres pressures are posted about and quoted about as often as they are some of you may find this useful and hopefully informative. If not don't worry, there are 2 points to this post....
1. To share the information and save you doing it, that's what this forum is all about?
2. To bring you a GB which will appear once all the figures and fittings have been finalised. If you are interested in a GB for an accurate tyre gauge, let me know on this thread and I'll get it going probably just after the weekend, time and supply of components allowing. I've already purchased all the parts required and will be finalising things with the supplier later.
Having read many, many posts ...
Rear wheel steer is throwing me across lanes - Tyre pressures.
Side walls flexing causing fishtailing - Tyre pressures.
Not the grip I expected - Tyre pressures up them by 1 or 2 PSI.
There are more and I've seen many threads about Tyre pressures including 'Get this gauge', 'Don't inflate when hot or even warm' etc......
So .... To get the best possible results you would need to get an air supply at the earliest point Home! - So get a compressor.
Now I can get air in the tyres when cold but I now need an inflater.
- So get an inflater.
So I've got my Air and my Inflater
So lets get a check on accuracy of the inflater? I drive (****** the tyres will warm up!) but slowly and it's less than a mile and I wait to allow the tyres to cool, as best I can. Tyres where 32 PSI at home now they're 36 PSI, OK maybe my inflater isn't so accurate?
Next time I try another garage, but I've not inflated at home this is from the previous garage setting, about 1 and 1/2 miles away, beside the air line there's a water line, so I fuel up and then pour water over the tyres to assist the cooling (sad, maybe?) after waiting some time to get them as cool as possible, now they're 31 PSI.
Over a period of a couple of weeks and with the tyres as cool as possible, checking before returning home at the closest air line, etc. I'm getting various results.
Some searching, research and a couple of calls has brought some interesting figures to light. There are Standards to which Air Lines must comply namely STATUTORY INSTRUMENTS 1988 No. 186, WEIGHTS AND MEASURES, The Measuring Instruments (EEC Requirements) Regulations 1988 incorporating Council Directive No. 86/217/EEC. Lots of 'interesting' reading in these
But then you get to talking or reading from/to trade bodies, manufacturers and motoring organisations and you discover that things are not as accurate as we (well I) first thought.
Most forecourts I visit have the following style of inflater ...
Made by PCL and made for many others 'Brands' by PCL, good British Company very happy to talk about their product even to 'Joe public'.
The specifications of the above the PCL MK3 Tyre Inflater is Reading Accuracy : 0.1bar / 2 lbf/in² / 10 kPa.
Now that for me was a little disconcerting, if I fill my tyres to 32 PSI there could be anything between 30 PSI to 34 PSI, if you then allow for ambient temperature changes it changes again. To be fair not by much but there is another change on an already inaccurate reading.
There are more reasons for correct tyre inflation than the ones we tend to highlight more often than not, yes I know we all know them? See below (a)
In a recent survey done by the IAM Motoring Trust revealed some interesting results. The link here is to the actual survey but basically they found inaccuracies that were to me unacceptable for a car such as the S2000 and for many more.
Feel free to read it of you want but I would stress there are, quite surprisingly IMHO some comments that I cannot possibly agree with in their conclusions about tyre gauges. Read it yourself and draw from it what you will.
There was a recent survey done by the IAM Motoring Trust in April 2007.
But the most compelling statement .....
At present, however, in spite of greater accuracy, motorists cannot rely on using filling station tyre-pressure equipment to maintain accurate, safe and fuel-efficient tyre pressures.
So in short, when we think we're running at 32 PSI are we? We talk about 1 PSI making a difference, these inflater's aren't and don't have to be THAT accurate. Don't get me wrong, PCL have been really helpful and they do work to very high tolerances.
They completely understand why I'm asking and what I'm looking for, I was to be honest pleasantly surprised.
So what have I found?
Well this
Click to read data sheet but the bit that got me interested Reading Accuracy : 0.01 bar / 0.2 lbf/in² / 1 kPa
As I mentioned before PCL make and Brand their equipment for many others and this in particular is branded for Draper, it's called Draper Pcl Accura 1 Digital Tyre Inflater. Have a search around and you'll find it.
BUT! What about when I'm not at home and need to check my tyres. Well that was my thought too, I don't want to be pulling into a service station having a coffee and fecking my tyre pressures? So with the help of a couple of adaptors the above can be carried in your car and used as a Tyre Pressure Gauge separately from any airline and still give you accurate reading to with 0.2 PSI (I've been assured by PCL that they get better than that but can only advertise 0.2 PSI).
So there we have it, a tyre pressure gauge accurate to 0.2 PSI (certified) that you can take to Track Days, on holiday and keep in the car, but if you have an air supply at home you can attach it to your airline and get accurate tyre pressures from cold.
Interested? Please feel free to comment.
(a)
Correctly inflated tyres are important for many reasons:
i) Safety – under inflated tyres run at higher temperatures than they were
designed for, especially at high speed. Overheating due to under
inflation is one of the most common causes of “blow outs” at speed,
which in turn cause accidents.
ii) Grip and handling are adversely affected by over or under inflation.
iii) Fuel consumption – under inflated tyres have higher rolling resistance.
A generally accepted estimate is that 20per cent under inflation
leads to 3 per cent higher fuel consumption.
iv) Emissions – higher fuel consumption arising from under inflation
produces higher CO2 emissions and the extra friction may be
responsible for particulate emissions as the rubber wears away.
v) Cost – wrongly inflated tyres wear more quickly.