When monitoring tires, up-to-date information is absolutely critical - there’s nothing worse than being on a long drive and losing communication to one or more of your sensors for an extended period of time. Fortunately, most instances of signal loss are rare and last for only a few seconds. But what happens if you’re seeing lots of communication issues? Is there a way to resolve it? That’s what we’re going to take a look at in this article.
TYPES OF SIGNAL LOSS
Before we start, it’s important to get the ‘lay of the land’, so to speak. Not all signal loss is created equal.
As we mentioned in the intro, most signal loss is very minor and happens as a result of background interference that’s localized to an area you’re driving through. An example would be driving in close proximity to a cell tower. Minor signal loss instances like these will affect any kind of Tire Pressure Monitoring System (TPMS) equally, and last for a very short amount of time. During these kinds of dropouts, you’ll want to be extra aware - but, beyond that, there’s very little to be done other than keep moving.
Signal loss can also occur due to a damaged or missing sensor. Again, this really isn’t dependent on the type of system you own - sometimes, damage occurs simply from the act of driving (for example, a rock or piece of gravel getting kicked up and striking your tire/sensor). The best thing you can do to mitigate this type of signal loss is to double-check all of your sensors at least twice per day: Once before you head out, and once when you arrive at your destination.
Then, finally, we have instances of heavy signal loss, which is what we’re going to focus on. Heavy signal loss is qualified as signal loss that occurs for longer than 15 minutes. Seeing signal loss this extensive is exceedingly rare. However, when you do, it’s commonly a result of a device or appliance within the motorhome throwing off or crowding the frequency that your tire monitors use to transmit on, rather than a hardware issue within your system itself. As such, simply replacing components within your system (or switching systems entirely) is typically not the best answer, as the source of interference will persist through these changes.
HOW TO MITIGATE HEAVY INTERFERENCE
One of the best and simplest ways to reduce the effect of interference is to move your central transmitter/receiver around to a more optimal location. Take the RVi Command Center Hub, for instance (we’re going to use the Command Center and our Tire Patrol product as our reference for the remainder of this article). Normally, you can place this Hub anywhere in the middle-to-rear of your motorhome. However, when we run into heavy interference, this location becomes much more important - even a difference of a couple feet can drastically change things.
If you’re experiencing extreme interference, start with the Hub in a good neutral location away from all other visible electronics and appliances. A place we’ll typically recommend is in the center of the bed at the rear of your coach. If this location doesn’t work, we want to try multiple other spots. The best test is to move the Hub, drive for an hour or two, then move it again if you’re still seeing issues. When you’re moving the Hub, there are a couple of important things to keep in mind:
- Competing signals tend to get less dense towards the roof of your RV, so getting the Hub (or whatever your system uses as a transmitter/receiver) up higher can sometimes help.
- Interference can take the form of EMF fields from large appliances, slide controls, etc. - it’s not just limited to devices that transmit a radio or WiFi signal. Additionally, some of these sources can be hidden by walls, paneling, or something else and not easily visible. Even if you don’t see an obvious culprit in the area, you’ll still want to relocate your Hub if the interference is heavy.
- Most devices that do transmit have ways to change bandwidths. Routers, for example, can be set to different channels. If you have a router present (even if it’s not in use or fully set up), it’s best to try and turn this off. If turning the router off isn’t an option, then try changing over to either Channel 6 or 11. These two channels have the least amount of crossover with our Command Center Hub. (This is just an example. If you have a non-RVi system, you’ll want to apply this same principle to your setup. Additionally, this applies to more than just routers - it goes for ham radios, satellite internet/radio devices, etc.)
- Aluminum wheel wells, while not typically the primary cause of interference, certainly don’t help the situation. If your sensors are deeply recessed within your wheel wells or rims, it’s worthwhile to try and extend these out a bit to give your Hub or transmitter a fighting chance to connect to them.
BOOST YOUR DEVICE SIGNAL
Another thing that can be helpful is to “crank the volume” on your TPMS transmitter/receiver. This doesn’t necessarily solve the root issue, but it can help to mask or overcome it. We would still recommend following the best practices outlined in the previous section, as reducing the actual source of your interference will lead to better experience long-term.
However, if you’re in a heavy-interference situation, it’s worthwhile to reach out to your system’s manufacturer and see what options they have for extending your range. Here at RVi, for example, we have our X-tend Antenna, which is a new product at the time of this post. The X-tend Antenna can help to amplify the Hub’s signal and allow it to better cut through sources of extreme interference. It’s available as an upgrade to any customer.
Again, swapping out hardware doesn’t necessarily eliminate the risk of interference persisting into the future, but getting any kind of improvement to your system’s signal can improve your experience.
CONCLUSION
Signal interference is a drag, but it can be especially frustrating when it comes to things like tire monitoring. Protect yourself against this issue by (a) having a system designed specifically for RVing setups, like RVi’s Tire Patrol Tire Pressure Monitoring System, and (b) using the best practices outlined here to troubleshoot anything that does come up.
As always, we’re here to help if you have questions beyond the post - reach out to us by phone, chat, or email anytime. And, in the meantime, happy RVing!
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