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Old August 16th 19, 12:59 AM posted to rec.aviation.soaring
Steve Koerner
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Posts: 430
Default Tire pressure monitor

As it turns out, I just recently addressed this issue for the JS3 tailwheel.. The retractable tailwheel is quite small. The air volume is such that any attempt to put a gauge on it will drop the pressure quit a lot. Also being so small, I found it hard to judge by eye.

The method I came up with uses a machinist outside caliper to measure tire bulge. It's easily understood with these pictures:

https://photos.app.goo.gl/uyt8BgJWRSKKHuj6A

There's a certain skill required to use the machinist caliper -- the key is zero spring pressure. Accuracy is about 5 PSI.

I was able to accomplish the calibration without any reference to dimensional measurements (inches or mm).

Since this was just devised a couple weeks before the OP came on with his question, it hasn't had much field testing. We'll see if this is a good solution after I've used it awhile.