Hi all, new to the forum. I have a 2024 Class C motorhome that I just bought that's built on a Ford E450 Superduty chassis. I am currently using a set of the woven stainless steel valve extenders on the rear dually tires with a TST TPMS system sending unit attached to the end of each extender. I want to do the same thing I did with my last motorhome and get one piece brass valve stems so I don't have to use the extenders...which leak on occasion. But, the 2024 E450 (and maybe earlier models) have an OEM TPMS built into the dash with sensors in the wheels. I can't find any of the one piece metal extended length valve stems that work with the OEM TPMS sensors so if I go that route I'll have to remove the OEM sensors. The OEM system is a bit cumbersome to check and requires several button pushes on the steering wheel to look at the display. The TST has it's own external monitor that constantly displays the PSI as well as the temperature of the tires and also the tires on my Jeep Wrangler that I tow behind the motorhome (I have a set of sensor caps I put on the Jeep when I tow it), so I prefer the constant feedback of the TST system.
Has anyone replaced their valve stems without sensors or aftermarket wheels without sensors and if so, does the dash light up showing low tire pressure warnings or if there's no sensor does it just recognize that and ignores the tire(s)? My spare tire doesn't have a sensor on it so if I ever get a flat and change it that would be good info to know for that too. Thanks

 

Let me see if I understand your question.

1. You have an aftermarket TST TPMS that you are using right now, on your new 2024 E-450.

2. The OEM Ford TPMS system is still working, now concurrently, with your aftermarket TST TPMS system.

3. You prefer the aftermarket TST TPMS system, and don't use the OEM Ford TPMS system, because it is cumbersome, doesn't report the spare, and doesn't coordinate with Jeep toad.

4. You would like to replace the flexible braided woven stainless jacketed valve extensions on the dual rear wheels, with a fixed, brass, extended clamp in valve stem permanently attached to the inside dual wheels (which commits the inner duals to that tire position only), where the extended brass all metal valve stem passes through a hand hole of the outside dual rear wheel, similar to an aftermarket solution marketed as "Dually Valve," and similar to what you have done on a prior motorhome based on a Chevy cutaway.

5. The hurdle you have encountered in finding rigid extended tire valve replacements in your new E-450 is that you have not been able to find extended versions that accommodate the OEM Ford TPMS sensors.

6. The paradox: Does the hurdle in Point #5 above even matter if there is no intention to use the Ford OEM TPMS?

7. The reason for the post: Yes it matters, because it is also desired to avoid a warning light on the dash due to a missing OEM Ford TPMS sensor. Projecting, there may also be an issue with passing inspection in some states, where yellow warning lights on the dash may be deemed cause for not passing the safety check.

8. If the reason in Point #7 above is true, then a parallel question might be, is there a way to cleanly disable the Ford OEM TPMS system, without error codes and warning lights.

9. Notwithstanding, if rigid extended tire valves that have been proven to work with Ford OEM TPMS sensors exist, those would also be considered.

Did I interpret your post correctly?

If not, please correct which points need correcting.

I'm going to tag @ZooDad to render an opinion about using FORScan as a tactic to resolve the question in Point #8.


Welcome to FTE.

 

Wow! Your answer makes more sense than my post!!! Thank you very much, you described the issue so much better than me!!

I don't need/want the OEM TPMS system to work as the TST system offers more information and is always at hand. So as you pointed out, if I can find a hard extension valve stem I don't need the OEM sensors...provided the warning screen on the display doesn't light up.

Your item #8 gets to the gist of the entire post. Can I remove the sensors or disable the OEM TPMS system. I've been searching and I have not been able to find the one piece extensions that either have sensors attached or can use the OEM sensors.

There is only one place that I've found that sells the one piece valve extensions that I used before. They do have a system where you take the OEM sensor and mount them on a ring that then attaches around the wheel inside the tire using a strap and special cradle to hold the OEM sensor. I don't know what that system will do to the tire balance and it just seems like one more thing to break.

That's why I was also asking if anyone had aftermarket wheels that they didn't put the TPMS sensors in but had the OEM system in their dash display.

 

The earliest iterations of TPMS implementations in Ford truck wheels were strap mounted in the drop center of the rim, retained by a band clamp.

So that solution isn't foreign to production vehicles... it isn't something that Billy Bob came up with as a work around. I wouldn't fear it.

I also understand wanting a TPMS system that includes whatever you are towing, especially towing 4 down, where the air pressure, or lack thereof, in each tire that is generating heat while rotating over 600 times per minute on a hot asphalt road can be a causal factor in a blow out. The technology exists to monitor those tires in real time, so why not. I'm totally on board with your goals.

EXCEPT... the solid extended tire valve that is "permanently" installed... in other words, the tire has to be broken down from the rim in order to remove the extended tire valve, if that tire and wheel assembly needs to be moved to another wheel position on the motorhome, other than an inside dual position.

My reasoning against the rigid permanently mounted long extending tire valve isn't due to any type of tire rotation schedule either. I do not rotate DRW tire set ups. I mount drive tires in the back, and leave them there, unrotated for their entire service life, so that each pair wears evenly, with its pair mate and with the opposing pair.

However, there have been times, in an emergency, where for whatever reason, a spare tire wasn't available, and I have pulled an inside dual to mount on the steer axle to get the truck back home. If the inside dual had a big long extending tire valve on it that could not be removed without breaking the tire down off of the wheel, then that emergency option (driving home on 5 tires) would not be possible, especially on 5° bead taper wheels like your E-450 has.

I don't like braided woven stainless extensions that actually are field removeable, either, for different reasons, beyond the scope of our endeavor here.

What I perceive we are doing here is to either

A. Disable the E-450's OEM TPMS system altogether... which seems to be a real possibility to disable legally, even while the vehicle remains compliant with Title 42 of the US Code of Federal Regulations (which mandates TPMS on most vehicles), because FMVSS regulations on TPMS apply to vehicles under 10,000 lbs GVWR, and your E-450 is either 50 lbs or 500 lbs over 14,000 lbs. GVWR. And your rig is not a school bus. So maybe you can approach a Ford dealer, who can use a Ford scan tool to take care of that for you, which might be cheaper than...

B. Acquiesce and facilitate the continued function of the OEM Ford TPMS silently in the background, by having frequency compatible OEM TPMS sensors band mounted in the drop center of each wheel, with the tires and wheels "Road Force" spin balanced after reassembly (inclusive of the long extended rigid tire valves, and, the TST aftermarket TPMS sensors... creating quite the contraption to chuck up to balancing machine.)

I have the baby brother to your E-450... an E-350, in the shortest wheelbase available (only 138"). Even with relatively small LT225/75R16" tires, I have found that tire technicians are unable to repeat balance a tire and wheel assembly, using the same machine, on the same day, in the same hour, balancing the same tire and wheel, by the same technician, with no other change or alteration, other than I asked the technician to put the tire and wheel that he just balanced perfectly to 0.00... right back up on the same machine he removed it from a minute earlier, to see if it is still balanced. It wasn't.

As part of this study, which I did more than a quarter of a century ago, locating tire shops with state of the art, top of the line Hunter Road Force balancing machines, I'd bring in a half dozen tire and wheel assemblies (from the Ford E-Series cutaway chassis in the late '90's, and then later from the F-Series chassis cab after 2000), and ask that they be balanced, at whatever cost. I'd pay the full fee as quoted, but I kept an extra amount of cash in my pocket to pay my way through what the tire shop didn't see coming... which was me asking them to rebalance the same tire and wheel assemblies that they just got through balancing, without me ever leaving the shop.

The KEY DIFFERNCE is that I would wait until the technician REMOVED the tire and wheel assembly from the machine, because if I asked for a rebalance while the tire and wheel assembly was still chucked up to the machine, the resulting second balance would exactly repeat the prior balance, leading one to assume that the tire and wheel assembly is balanced. But that actually is not what is being balanced.

What is being balanced is the idiosyncratic RELATIONSHIP between the tire and wheel assembly and the balancing machine, as dictated by how the tire and wheel assembly was chucked up to the machine. Once the perfectly balanced tire and wheel assembly is removed form the machine, that idiosyncratic relationship is gone forever. Remounting the same tire and wheel assembly to the same machine, even within the same minute, is an entirely new relationship. Now that new relationship needs to be balanced again.

So that is why "perfect" balance on a spin balance machine is a misnomer. Balancing machines are useful to get close, but there is a lot of opportunity for variance involved in how the tire and wheel assembly is mated to the machine. Over the 27 years since I first went around flashing cash to tire techs who were shocked when they lost bets that the same tire and wheel they just balanced would be out of balance when they immediately remounted it to the same machine... the tire industry has vastly improved the specificity of piloting tools and manufacture specific adapters for mounting light truck wheels to spin balancing machines.

But bear in mind, the cantilevered offsets inherent in the dished discs of dual rear wheel assemblies will always be more of a challenge to balance than a single rear wheel disc with less of an offset.

To work around this, I use Centramatic dynamic wheel balancers that balance the tire, wheel, hub, brake rotor... the entire rotating assembly, once the vehicle speed reaches 20 mph or higher.

In your shoes, I would first see if you can work with a Ford dealer to disable TPMS in your over 14,000 lbs GVWR motorhome, which is not a passenger bus. I think that would be the cheapest solution, and is of course reversible, as it is merely software.

If no Ford dealer is willing, then perhaps a FORScan solution is available... which would involve the purchase of an adapter, and perhaps an Enhanced license for the aftermarket software (together less than $100).

Finally, if you do decide to have Ford compatible band mounted sensors installed in the drop centers of your wheels, relax in the fact that you can still have the tires and wheels balanced to get close, and can supplement that balance with dynamic wheel balancers that do not involve putting beads or liquid inside the tire, which could clump or deleteriously effect the TPMS sensor inside the tires.

 

my friend took the oem TPMS out of the stock rims when he put aftermarket rims on and then put them into a 46 inch piece of PVC pipe sealed with caps glued on each end. drilled and threaded one of the caps and put a tire valve in it. then pressurized the whole assembly and threw it under the rear seat. no more low tire pressure light on the dash. he has to repressurize it every two years or so.
this was on a 2018 F350, so it should also work on your E450 too

 

Now THAT is some Billy Bob BRILLIANCE right thar!

I'd probably remove the pressure tube from inside the cab of the vehicle, and strap it to the frame or bed somewhere under the truck.

Even if the pressurized tube is behind the seat that would presumably help protect passengers from injury, if a glue joint failed, or the plastic pipe splintered, it would be an awfully loud ear drum bursting bang inside the cab.

 

Thank you again for your input, you’re very helpful. I had never heard of Forscan before so I did some research and watched several YouTube videos on the software and I found several where they did exactly what I was asking about with the software. If I do go for the one piece extended valves Forscan with an adapter is the easiest way to deal with it. I hear what you’re saying about the extended valve being an issue for rotating tires and using the inside dual tire as an emergency spare. I’ve owned and driven class C motorhomes since 1986 and I guess I have been very lucky as I have never had a flat. I’m sure I just jinxed myself! New motorhomes do not include a spare tire so I bought a new wheel and the same make/model/size tire as the OEMs that I carry onboard. The spare has a regular tire valve installed. I don’t rotate the tires, never have on my motorhomes as the tires age out well before I could wear them out. I get new tires every seven years to play it safe as the rig will sometimes sit for two or three months without being used. But, I have options now and thanks to you a great deal more knowledge than I had before.

 

i guess you could but schedule 40 PVC pipe has a burst strength of around 450 PSI at room temperature. so i really cant see it failing at 40-45 psi. unless of course the glue joint was not done properly.

 

Disabling TPMS with ForScan is very straight forward.
I would not take YouTube videos for gospel as some of them don’t show all the correct ways of changing stuff.
we have extensive ForScan threads here on FTE.

Feel free to reach out with any questions

ZooDad

 

I have used Forscan on a few occasions to disable the TPMS on DRW F350s for a customer of mine who installs 19.5" wheels and like you, wants the long brass valve stems so he can actually check the air pressure without a leak-prone extender or specially-bent air chuck.