Well THAT was an adventure. I was telling my story to Box5 over AIM (LOL) but I think he probably got bored and left so I am going to tell my story here!

Anyway, so its gonna be a bit of a haul to the Dyno Day in western NC tomorrow, so I figured I should give my truck a good once-over. I checked my tranny fluid earlier today after coming off I-40... check! Oil... check! Coolant... check! Lights... check! Tire pressure... errr... I needed to add some air.

So, I start with the front tires as usual, get out my seemingly only tire gauge that will read over 50PSI, and the front ones were a bit low, so I fired up the compressor and filled them up, that went fine.

So I looked at the back ones, and it was hard enough for me to get the valve stem cover off the outside wheel, let alone the inside one. So I was able to get it off, but no matter how I positioned my air chuck I just couldn't get the darn thing on the stem. So I put the caps back on and headed for the hardware store at 8:55 to see if I could get there fast enough to see if they had some kind of an extension... of course as soon as I signal to turn I see the last car pulling out of the lot... so I then headed for the carwash/service station and I pulled out their air hose to see if it would work, it was one of those ones that has the flexible tube and then the chuck on the end of it... that didn't help either.

So while my head is under the dually fender and my hand is practially stuck between the tires I thought well I'm just gonna go home and see if maybe taking the wheel skins off would make it easier.

So I drove back home and pryed the skins off, and that definatly gave me more room to get my hand in there, and I was able to put some air in the tires. It still wasn't easy though, got plenty of dust blasted all over my face when the chuck didn't get on there right. I put the front ones up to 55 and the rear duals up to around 64 each. Thats what the sticker said they should be at and the ratings on the tire were within those numbers on the sticker so I just put what it said, its probably a bit more than I need since I'm not loading it up heavy or towing heavy right now, but oh well .

Anyway, who hates it as much as I do now? (This was my first time). I'm sure theres a tool out there that would make it much easier... In fact I'm off to look for one now.

 

Theres a set of extensions you can permanantly mount , that lets you do it with ease. best 40 bucks iv spent.

 

I got a truck double headed air chuck which allows me to get the inside and outside stems easily as long as I take the skins off first. Seems easy enough with the right tools.

Edwin

 

I got a double headed chuck too and a nice matching gage that I keep in the map pocket. I also have the valve extensions. A bit tedious but doable on a good day.

 

I have a double headed truck tire inflator that has the chucks angled the right ways - most of them are wrong. The end chuck is straight and the side chuck is angled so it works good for inside and outside. I think mine came from napa. I also trashed the sticky gauge pin and spring and adapted one of my refrigerant low side gauges to it so I now have a 1% accuracy gauge with 1 psi increments. Craig

 

I take the wheels off. It is a pain in the butt.

The other thing that sucks is dropping the valve cap between the wheel and the skin out front. Time to break out the air wrench again...

 

I pull the wheels.
It gives me a chance to check the air pressure, check for nails/other damage, pull the drums and clean out the dust and readjust the rear shoes, and rotate the rear tires...all in one operation.
I check my pressure about twice a week with a "Thump Test".
Then about every three or four months I do the above maintenance.

 

It also helps to use metal extensions on the outer duals. The plastic ones break too easy. Craig

 

What ever floats your boat man.

 

That's one of the reasons I didn't go with a dually this time out, and also the reaching over into the bed to grab something with that big fender in my way. More tires to buy and rotate didn't really bother me though.

 

when i was working on big trucks that was one of my least favorite things to do. the outside wheels were not that bad, but if i didnt get the chuck on the inside wheels it was a pain.

 

I used to have the same problem but I also went and bought a dual foot chuck gauge/filler combo for like 40 bucks from northern tool, product #1591711. Now all I have to do is take the wheel skins off and stick the chuck on and it's a piece of cake. A little more hastle than a SRW but not too bad.

 

I just run my load range E's at 160 psi. That way I don't have to check them for loss or low pressure till they wear out. Or blow out.

 

yes, I was kidding....