Wanted: best damn tire gauge

...and when I say "best", I mean "most able to withstand abuse and maintain calibration". American-made would be super neat. I have a 20+ year old accu-gage that I love, but it's no longer in calibration.

Ideas?

Combine quality brass or stainless air chuck with short braided stainless hose and the best quality mechanical pressure gauge you can afford from McMaster-Carr. Set you back $25-500 depending on your calibration desires.

I'm pretty sure GRM had a comparo a few months back and the electronic ones came in first in accuracy, even the cheap ones were better than some of the more expensive mechanical ones.

I got a pencil gauge to "explode" when I used is on a 65(?)psi doughnut spare

You'll put your eye out and we'll lose the house.

I have a "pencil"-type gauge left over from my aviation days. This one goes to 150 PSI and isn't as small as a pencil, it's about 10-12 inches long and is the most accurate gauge I've run across. Even more accurate that the fancy dial gauge w/release button which reads exactly 3 PSI low.

I remember the article and recently bought a Michelin-branded gauge that cost about 10 bucks. My question for the fine folks on the board is how do you go about checking the calibration?

I've got a Camel brand digital i've had for 12+ years! it still within 1/2 lbs when i check it with the cal standard we have here at work. It was cheap too think it was $8 or so. It measure to the 1/2 lbs but if its right in the middle it will toggle back and forth so darn close to 1/4psi.

I used to use a mech unit heres a tip for you if your the it has to be mechanical type guy. Buy a beer can cozzie poke hole in the side near the bottom and feed the hose through the hole push guage down to the bottom you've now got a foam ring around it this will keep the impacts down and aids in shading the sun on race day.

44

In reply to eastpark: Have an HVAC guy check it against his gauges??

44Dwarf wrote: I used to use a mech unit heres a tip for you if your the it has to be mechanical type guy. Buy a beer can cozzie poke hole in the side near the bottom and feed the hose through the hole push guage down to the bottom you've now got a foam ring around it this will keep the impacts down and aids in shading the sun on race day. 44

Doesn't the condensation from the beer can get all over the guage?

I don't know where these are made...

This is the best gauge that I have found, bar none.

http://www.mensor.com/model2500dpg.htm

If $3500 is too rich for your blood, use this cheapie:

http://www.gesensing.com/downloads/datasheets/920_181a.pdf

But you are only at 0.01% FS above 15 psi - weak.

This might be easier to use:

http://www.gesensing.com/downloads/datasheets/920_110b.pdf

But now you're into 0.014% FS - that's over a hundredth of a psi off on a 100 psi gauge! I don't know how much that last cheapo gauge costs, but the DPI 150 is a bargain at only $1400.

Hey, they're your tires...

eastpark wrote: I remember the article and recently bought a Michelin-branded gauge that cost about 10 bucks. My question for the fine folks on the board is how do you go about checking the calibration?

At our old shop we used to have a air manifold with a regulator at one end and a schrader valve at the other. Hook up a air line before the regulator and set it to a variety of pressures while checking your tire pressure gauge against it

In reply to Marty!:

Great suggestion - Thanks!