I am coming from a GM product and I am used to the way their driver information center works. On the GM's it will display the actual tire pressure of each wheel in the DIC of the cab.

If I am understand the Ford TPMS correctly, the actual tire pressure is not displayed any where. It only displays a warning if the pressure exceeds/falls below a certain threshold (like within 10% of the stated air pressure required?). So I should not keep looking at all million things in my Ford DIC because actual tire pressure is not reported. It tells me just about everything else, but tire pressure.

Can someone please let me know if I'm correct or if I'm mistaken? I read the manual and that is what led me to believe only the warning is displayed.

 

You are correct, actual pressure is not displayed.

 

That is my understanding also that we only get a warning...

 

Page 236 in the owners manual discusses the operation of the TPMS. It apparently illuminates a warning symbol if one or more tires is low. Doesn't tell you which one.

 

THANK YOU!!!

Can you tell I'm OCD about tire pressure? I think I'm going to order a HawksHead TPMS for my truck and trailer. I like to keep an eye on my trailer tire pressures when I tow. Anyone hear have any experience with these units or have another system that they use and recommend?

 

Yea the Ford TPMS is weak. the computer knows the PSI of each and which tire is soft(because you have to retrain the system after a tire rotation), but still only turns on a idiot light. Its a real shame that there is the nice LCD DIC on many of the trucks, would have been real easy to have one of the panels display tp.

 

YES, I have experience. Order anything else!!! This was one of the worst buy's I've ever made. The sensors go into sleep mode to save the batteries and don't wake up. Then as you're going down the road, you get a fault warning. To reset them you have to unscrew the cap and R&R the battery. This takes a few tries sometimes. Customer service after the sale is non existent. Forget getting them on the phone and maybe 3-6 days to reply to emails. I sold mine on eBay at half price just to get rid of it as I had no faith after constant faults and no service. TST is the way to go. Funny thing is I had ordered with TST (Truck System Technologies) first but they were backordered. Being impatient, I canceled and ordered the Hawkshead. BIG MISTAKE.

 

Glad I asked! Ok, so no HawksHead. Do you have the TST system? Any thoughts on that system?

 

You know, after I sold the Hawkshead, I was so discouraged, I never bought anything. (Never had a problem either.) Now that we sold our TT and have a 5ver toy hauler, I'm thinking of going down that road again with all that weight back there. I have read tons of excellent reviews of the TST of the RV forums which is why I recommended them, but I don't have personal experience.... yet.

 

Ok...I'll do some researching too. If you find anything worth sharing, please post and I will do the same. Thank you again for sharing your thoughts on the HawksHead. That would have sucked!

 

Glad to have saved you. Wish someone had done it for me! Will drop you a line if I jump on anything and try it out...

 

I don't understand.

The truck does not indicate which tire is low, so why does the TPMS have to be retrained? I've rotated my tires 4 or 5 times and have never done this.

I assumed that it wouldn't matter where the tire with low pressure was, I'd get the CEL regardless.

 

I have not purchased one but I have done a lot of research also. There was a very good article in trailer life sometime first half of last year. Pacific Dualies TPMS was one that looked pretty good. Honestly, I don't think you need to add 4 more to your truck as the Ford system will tell you if they are anything more than 3 pounds low based on my experience. I know it won't tell you which one is low, but honestly this is a rare occurence and to me the major help I want is the travel trailer to avoid tearing up the fender skirts etc. buying 8 more sensors instead of 4 will add cost and give you twice the opportunities for one to fail and give you trouble which seems to be common from the forums on RVs and reviews on Amazon. As you choose, know that some have replacable batteries and some do not. The ones that do not mean you have to purchse new sensors about every 2 years.

Good luck and share your results if you do purchase.

 

Battery replacement is big for me too. The new TST 507 is the route I think I'm going to take.

 

Because from the factory, TPMS is set to a lower pressure in the front, than the rear.

From the owners manual:

"To provide the vehicle’s load carrying capability, some vehicles require

different recommended tire pressures in the front tires as compared to
the rear tires. The tire pressure monitoring system (TPMS) equipped on
these vehicles is designed to illuminate the low tire pressure warning
light at two different pressures; one for the front tires and one for the
rear tires.
Since tires need to be rotated to provide consistent performance and
maximum tire life, the tire pressure monitoring system needs to know
when the tires are rotated to determine which set of tires are on the
front and which are on the rear. With this information, the system can

detect and properly warn of low tire pressures."


As a separate side-note, I had my selling dealer set my TPMS thresholds to 60PSI all the way around, so that retraining is not necessary. I run 65psi on all four when unloaded, and bump up the rears to 70-80psi depending on my load.