Extended Problems

In preparation for our upcoming shakedown trip, I went out to check the air on the tires. Who knew that something as critical and seemingly simple, could be so difficult.

The fronts are no problem. Put my digital gauge on them and get a reading. The rears? The rears are another thing all together.

The rears are duals of course so it involves checking the inners and the outers. The outers, which seem like would be easiest are difficult. The valves actually point inward so getting my digital gauge on them is impossible. You need a gauge that has an angled head so you can put it on and pull back to get the reading. Okay, fair enough.

Much to my delight, the inners have a valve extension on them that brings the valve right through the outers and easy to check. Simple right?

Wrong.

I put my gauge on the valve. Press. Nothin'.

Hmm.

I use the cap to press on the valve core to see if I can bleed any air. Nothin'.

The tire isn't flat so I know there is air in there. Why won't it come out?

I finally unscrew the valve extension and put a screw driver through the outer hole to press the valve core. Air comes out.

So, there's something wrong with the valve extension. I check the other side. Same thing. WTF!

I know there are airless valve extensions - extensions with a core that goes the length of the extension. When you press on the extension core, it presses on the valve core to open the valve. The benefit of this kind of extension is that the valve at the tire remains closed normally so if the extension breaks, the tire doesn't go flat.

An internet search indicates that there is an adjustment that needs to be made to make sure the extension core engages the valve core properly when the whole contraption is put together. Cool, I'll just make the adjustments.

Except that my extensions don't seem to have any kind of adjustment mechanism. When I press on the extension core and look at the other end, nothing is moving so nothing is going to be able to push on the tire valve core to open it up and let air in.

The picture shows the extension core removed from the extension. You can see that it doesn't go the full length of the extension so there's some sort of something that is not going on properly at the end. The fact that both of them work (or don't work actually) the same way is perplexing.

The other thing with these extensions is that they are not supported in any fashion. They are simply screwed on and come through one of the holes in the outer. This means they are basically flopping around as the wheel spins going down the highway. The centripetal force pushes them out and indeed, I see scratches on the outer rim where they have rubbed.

On the internet, there are large debates over the merits of valve extensions. Some people swear by them, and some people swear at them.

For the shakedown cruise, I ended up leaving them off. I need to find some sort of solution though because I can't reach the tire valves to check the pressure. I can't even get the cap on or off without laying on the ground and wedging my arm between the tires. This will not do.