Several manufacturers produce tire pressure monitoring systems for heavy trucks which are designed to detect low tire pressure and alert the driver. This paper reports on a series of test procedures conducted on these aftermarket TPMS to determine the suitability of these tests for use in developing performance requirements.

Five TPMS were installed one at a time on two heavy trucks. The minimum activation pressure of the TPMS was determined. After driving for a period of up to fifteen minutes, the vehicle was stopped and air was released from one tire to bring its inflation pressure to a point below the minimum activation pressure for the system. The vehicle was driven and the time needed for the system to detect the loss of pressure and alert the driver was recorded. Multiple tire deflations and failure modes were also tested.

Data were obtained from independent onboard instrumentation that measured tire pressure, vehicle speed and distance, and ambient temperature. A video of the TPMS driver display was recorded. Other properties were also evaluated, including temperature compensation accuracy of system pressure measurement and failure modes. The study’s results are limited to the five systems tested. Although these systems were chosen to be representative of TPMS on the market, this was not an exhaustive study of all such systems.