bigoltool
Registered
Let me start off by saying that I am a tool guy. I can appreciate a well-built tool and I have gotten rid of, or just stopped using a lot of inferior ones. Tire Gauges/inflators are to be the focus of this particular rant. I have a variety of tire gauges in my arsenal, ranging from your basic, tried and true pencil type gauge to large digital Inflators. I carry a digital gauge in all our cars, and on my bike, as well as tire pluggers and compact 12volt inflators in my car & bike. Probably the best gauge I have is an old Digital one I think I bought at Lockhart Philips back in the 80’s (Its the one wrapped in red phase tape to hold the battery in)
Back to the current source of my frustration. My kid bought me a Tcisa Digital Tire inflator off Amazon as a gift a few years ago. When I first got it I was actually pretty impressed. It seemed like a pretty well-made item, rubber armored and relatively accurate. The first sign of trouble is that the damn thing just wouldn’t shut off after use no matter how hard or long you press the power button. I resorted to taking the batteries out! Then when I go to use it after that, it is all over the place on pressure and has no apparent way to zero the damn thing. It is now just a fancy piece of junk. I have a couple of other analog Tire Inflators that work fine but I really want to get a good reliable Digital Inflator for the garage that my old eyes can read easily.
First one I looked at is a Digital Model from Motion Pro. Unfortunately, the head looks practically identical to the one I have now and I am just a little concerned it is just the same old Chinese guts in a shiny new wrapper. It doesn’t appear to have a reset/zero button either. MP do make a nice Liquid Filled Analog Gauge as well but I think I want a Digital!
The other one I was looking at is from Longacre, who is well known in the car racing circles. This is the far more spendy version, but I think this might be the best of the breed. They also sell a bunch of different gauges and inflators from the budget models to the liquid filled bad boys including just the heads so maybe that is an option.
I looked at several others from Griots Garage, Eastwood etc. But all of them look like the same old guts wrapped in a slightly different wrapper.
So… any suggestions? Whatcha got, what don’t you like etc.
Back to the current source of my frustration. My kid bought me a Tcisa Digital Tire inflator off Amazon as a gift a few years ago. When I first got it I was actually pretty impressed. It seemed like a pretty well-made item, rubber armored and relatively accurate. The first sign of trouble is that the damn thing just wouldn’t shut off after use no matter how hard or long you press the power button. I resorted to taking the batteries out! Then when I go to use it after that, it is all over the place on pressure and has no apparent way to zero the damn thing. It is now just a fancy piece of junk. I have a couple of other analog Tire Inflators that work fine but I really want to get a good reliable Digital Inflator for the garage that my old eyes can read easily.
First one I looked at is a Digital Model from Motion Pro. Unfortunately, the head looks practically identical to the one I have now and I am just a little concerned it is just the same old Chinese guts in a shiny new wrapper. It doesn’t appear to have a reset/zero button either. MP do make a nice Liquid Filled Analog Gauge as well but I think I want a Digital!
The other one I was looking at is from Longacre, who is well known in the car racing circles. This is the far more spendy version, but I think this might be the best of the breed. They also sell a bunch of different gauges and inflators from the budget models to the liquid filled bad boys including just the heads so maybe that is an option.
I looked at several others from Griots Garage, Eastwood etc. But all of them look like the same old guts wrapped in a slightly different wrapper.
So… any suggestions? Whatcha got, what don’t you like etc.
