Yes...I know I drilled 3 holes in my center cap...Lol


I heard about the crossfire system on a thread on this forum, (can't remember who wrote it), so I bought a set on Amazon. I tried a few different mounting solutions, 1st one I removed the center caps and mounted them to one of the axle cap bolts, (worked well, but didn't like the look). 2 mounted a thin piece of angle to the center cap with 3 machine screws (angle was to flimsy, which with centrifical force and harsh roads in LA, caused one of my center caps to come off, no damage tho, hoses held it on till I got stopped). 3 and hopefully final solution. 1/8"x 1-1/2 aluminum angle cut to 1-3/8 length. 3/8" hole for crossfire mounting bolt, 3ea 3/16" holes to mount to center cap using #8-24 x 1/2" stainless machine screws with stainless lock nuts. Works well so far. The crossfires keep both inner and outer tire pressure the same and 1 valve stem airs both tires at the same time. Crossfire claims there is a check valve in case of blowout that would keep the other tire from going flat. (I have no first hand knowledge how that works as of yet) I am very happy with them so far...

 

pardon my ignorance, and I dont even own a DRW, but if one tire develops a leak, do you lose both tires now?

EDIT: Just reread your post, and saw you said "Crossfire claims there is a check valve in case of blowout that would keep the other tire from going flat"

 

>Crossfire claims there is a check valve in case of blowout that would keep the other tire from going flat.

 

sdetweil, if I had this to do over I would probably go with the system you posted a while back, yours is a nice simple clean install... and less expensive. But, I had already bought the crossfires and I was determined to make them work...my wife says I'm stuborn like that...lol. thanks for the quick reply to djousma, I was working on a reply when yours came through

 

Any issues with balancing if you don't mount that thing dead center of the wheel?

 

We have this exact same thing on our firetrucks at work and they function as advertised. A single fill point for both tires to the same pressure, but no loss of both for one blowout. We actually lost the outer tire a while back on one of the trucks, but the inner was fine and we never lost air as a result of this system. If it's reliable enough for a fire truck, I would trust it on my own truck.

 

I wanted to mount them dead center for balance reasons but couldn't because of the hose lengths. That said, I have been up to 80 mph and no balance issues at all, except for when one center cap came off. I didn't lose the cap because the hoses held it on, but I felt it immediately when it came off..the original bracket I made wasn't stiff enough and centrifugal force caused it to bend, which then combined with a very rough highway caused the center cap to come loose. I've had no issues since I made the stiffer 1/8" aluminum brackets.

 

I used balance beads in my tires so they are dynamically balanced all the time.

 

We used to run these on our med units(NOT this exact brand)until we had several slow leaks in one tire that resulted in both tires becoming dangerously low. They did as advertised during a blow out. Now supposedly, the new valve inside them will only stay open to a certain air pressure, then close off and let no other air out. This just did not work on our trucks. I hope this one works as advertised. If so, I will probably purchase one too.

 

The company I drove for experimented with them 10 or 15 years ago, and I remember them giving us some problems, but I don't remember just what. Seems like cold weather affected them, or something like that, especially after they aged a bit. They wound up chucking all of them. When they were new, they worked great, tho! Maybe they have improved by now, too.