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Old fashioned tire gauge quetion.

oldnslow

It's a way of life!
The old type tire gauge; the kind that the rod slides out of the end; do they wear out? How come some slide very easily and others have alot of resistance? If I were to lubricate the slide, would it cause false readings? Silly questions to which I need to know the answer.
 
I don't use them anymore, but I think if you're going to use them, you want to check them against a dial guage of known accuracy first.
 
The old type tire gauge; the kind that the rod slides out of the end; do they wear out? How come some slide very easily and others have alot of resistance? If I were to lubricate the slide, would it cause false readings? Silly questions to which I need to know the answer.

Hi
To answer your questions
1: usually to do withthe tight ones being dirty. The slide gets junk on it and jambs them up
2: a very lite spray wont hurt but be aware of point 1 above as lubricant will attract small dirt particles.
I still use one all the time. They are fine.
Best regards
Pauul
 
I wish that the tire pressure operation at the rally would be able to provide a way of checking our tire gauges. Dial & digital gauges can be inaccurate too. Maybe a pound or two either way wouldn't matter too much but we are members of the MOA thus having the instrument spot on is a matter of great significance.

Expense does not guarantee accuracy. The passage of time & an occasional drop most likely will cause deterioration of what ever accuracy the device started with.
 
Dial & digital gauges can be inaccurate too.

Yeah, they can, however, the 4 or 5 digital gauges I own all read exactly the same. (both freebie cheap and relatively pricey) Never owned a pop out gauge that gave me the same reading twice in a row.
 
In prepping my bike for a trip this past week I did an air check on my new tires. I have several pencil gauges laying around and grabbed 2-one from tool box & other from bikes travel tool kit-BTW,both Made in USA & they read about 5#'s diff each time so I got out my "homemade" gauge which is a gauge fastened to a hose with a chuck on it and threw one away! I still like the digitals best I have in my vehicle glove boxes.
 
There was some discussion on air gauges recently

Hmmm. Both the above links lead nowhere.

IIRC, the general conclusion was that many air pressure gauges are accurate within [+/-] a pound or three, whether it's an expensive gauge or an inexpensive one. The details and absolutes escape me now, however.

A brief search of the MOA forum pages turned up the previous thread on the subject- which includes the above referenced articles, as well as some good info/discussion, from this "gear" forum:

http://forums.bmwmoa.org/showthread.php?64739-Tire-Pressure-Gauge&highlight=Tire+gauges
 
The old type tire gauge; the kind that the rod slides out of the end; do they wear out? How come some slide very easily and others have alot of resistance? If I were to lubricate the slide, would it cause false readings? Silly questions to which I need to know the answer.

I never had one apart, but I remember reading that they operate with an expanding rubber bladder that presses against the rod. More pressure, rubber expands more, rod moves out more. For that reason, I would not use a lubricant that could affect the rubber.

Spend some coin and get a quality gauge.

I bought a Longacre 50356, 0-60 psi with angle chuck. Not cheap, not a toy and not a single regret. For starters, when I press that chuck on, it seats!...without the usual hissing sound of escaping air. It can be user calibrated and the 9V battery is user replaceable. Accurate to 0.3% or 0.2 psi at full scale.
 
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I use the top of the line gauge as I like the psi to be spot on, but get this, I have a pencil gauge in my tool box from my Firestone days and I stirred coffee with it, wiped off with a clean shop rag and put back in my pocket protector.
That was 18 years ago and just for fun I test it to the "Real Gauge" +- 2 psi every time......

:D
 
I use the top of the line gauge as I like the psi to be spot on, but get this, I have a pencil gauge in my tool box from my Firestone days and I stirred coffee with it, wiped off with a clean shop rag and put back in my pocket protector.
That was 18 years ago and just for fun I test it to the "Real Gauge" +- 2 psi every time......

:D

The old ones were MUCH better. The last new one I bought got tossed into the woods on a dirt road in New Brunswick in 2008. It was off by 10psi. "Uhhh, no, I really didn't want 43 psi in my front tire on dirt!"
 
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