If you're a bit sad like me, maybe you too have been wondering why truck tyre manufacturers and others are going to so much trouble to develop tyre pressure monitoring systems (TPMS).
TPMS has been compulsory on vans and cars for a while now, and it will come for trucks. Over the years MT has seen some ingenious and complex truck TPMS, including tiny battery powered radio transmitting tags stuck to the inside of tyres, valve mounted transmitters that send signals to the driver and systems that talk to receivers on posts as the truck drives in or out of a depot.
But why I hear you ask can't trucks do as cars and vans do and just use the ABS to detect when a tyre deflates and the wheel starts turning faster than the others because the tyre circumference shrinks as the pressure falls?
After many months pondering this question The Hub decided the ask an expert, namely the boffins at Continental. The answer is intriguing:
"From a technological point of view an ABS-based TPMS would be possible for trucks and buses if all axles were equipped with ABS sensors. But not all all axles of commercial vehicles are equipped with ABS sensors (eg on trailer normally only one axle is equipped). Furthermore, the load variations, which are normal for commercial vehicles, influence the accuracy of an ABS based system, and a differentiation of twin tyres is not possible. With this approach one would only get an average value."
So there you have it. ABS-based TPMS works for small vehicles but not big ones.
Which explains why Continental is working on its own TPMS, ContiPressureCheck, featuring the afore-mentioned radio transmitting sensors mounted inside the tyre which constantly send pressure and temperature data to a receiver in the cab, warning the driver if any tyre on the vehicle (well, those fitted with the tags obviously) is going flat.
"ContiPressureCheck offers the most exact and reliable information on pressure and temperature to assure the economical, ecological and safety benefits of a TPMS for commercial vehicles," adds our source.
Quite.