Five tire rotation and TPMS

After searching and reading through some other threads, I still don't feel like I have a solid grasp on the five tire rotation and TPMS situation.

I don't really need to see accurate PSI for each tire on the truck, but I would like to avoid the low tire idiot light if possible. Is it worth buying an extra sensor for the fifth wheel, or will the low tire light be lit 80% of the time as long as the new wheel is on the truck? I know some threads had high hopes for the Autel tool, but then others made me think Techstream is necessary too. I'm starting to think it is more trouble than it is worth to do a five tire rotation, and I'll be better off putting a cover on my new full size spare on my swingout, and calling it a day.

Has anyone been able to successfully install a sensor on a fifth wheel and been able to prevent the idiot light? Ideal situation would have the tire pressures on the dash too, but that is a luxury I could live without if necessary.

 

Short answer- nope, it isn't worth the trouble. The truck only accepts four sensors at a time.

So you have a choice if you want to do a five tire rotate.

Either you keep a detailed log on which transponder is on which wheel and go through the painstaking process of reprogramming through techstream with each rotation, or

You mount and balance 5 rotated tires on four wheels, every time.

Neither is worth it.

 

Yeah that's sort of what I gathered from the other threads. I will definitely be doing either of those things. So wrapped up spare that lives on the carrier will be the choice for me I suppose.

 

Excuse my response/thoughts

All this electronic BS. I'm surprised there isn't an air quality sensor in the damn seats.

 

My '06 TRD OR AC does have a sensor in the spare. It has never been included in the tire rotation. I rotate twice per year when I install/remove my Winter tire & wheel set. The sensor at 14+ years old is now a PITA as its battery has died. So I deal with things the old fashioned way - I visually check the tires on my truck - if one looks low I check with my gauge and adjust if necessary. The light on the dash now flashes constantly because of the spare. I've learned to ignore it.
I'm hopeful that my '21 has only 4 sensors in the active wheels and once I update the sensors in my Winter set, all will be good.

 

I'm all for five tire rotations with having Jeeps, one to get the money out of that tire, equal wear, and just easier to rotate.

So can the warning lights just one time be turned off?

 

I don't think it can. If a sensor can't read the wheel it lights up.

 

I've done the calculations many times. It's not worth it to rotate five tires. Best solution? Buy the same tires when your current set wears out and use the spare in the new rotation. Most economical choice.

 

I do 5 tire rotations and just live with the fact that at certain times one of the sensed tires in the spare bay. The tire w/o the TPMS has a different stem so I know to check that one manually from time to time, just like I used to do in the olden days. The upside is that I often know how much air is in the spare without having to check it!

On a related note, I have a set of steelies w/MT's that have no TPMS. It usually takes 30-60 min of driving before the system flashes a warning and you get the little orange light on the dash. Somewhat annoying but easy to ignore, if you're so inclined.

 

I've used this method and it is indeed the most cost effective. I have noticed that since I don't drive nearly as much anymore, by the time I am ready for new tires the model I have is no longer available or has been changed enough to aesthetically not match the existing spare. Finding a tire manufacturer and model that has some longevity is the key with this method.

 

The warning light won’t come on, because the system can read the sensor in the current spare because it’s wireless.

 

Out of curiosity, when your spare has the TPMS sensor, do you get a warning light ever? My guess would be no as when I first changed out my tires, my stock tires had my sensors still in them and my new tires didn't have sensors and on the times I'd drive far enough to have my tpms light come on, it would turn right back off when I'd park in my garage which was close enough to my stock tires to register the sensors. So I imagine having the spare on the truck, you still wouldn't get the warning light. Is that true?

 

As I said with equal wear ... work your spare in and it matches wear with the rest of the tires, which helps if you actually damage a tire (which I've done) and therefore you're not adding a new tire in with older worn tires, and it makes it simple to rotate tires in the driveway (lift one tire, put the spare there, drop it, move to the next tire).

I've always followed this rotation pattern (on Jeeps):

 

Nope, no warning.

 

Oh that's a good point. The system still thinks there are four tires with sensors, and is reading four sensors. Can anyone conform the rear TPMS reader would read the sensor off the spare in the swingout location? With that thinking, there would be no reason to install a sensor in the fifth rim (because the truck can only remember four), and the only downside is that the tire pressures at the four corners on the dash display would be in the wrong locations.

I can definitely live with that. No extra money for installing a fifth (and useless) sensor. With this thinking theres no reason I can't experiment with this for myself once my swingout actually comes in and I install it.

 

I do a normal rotation and let that B sit under the truck

 

It should no problem. As I mentioned in my post above, mine used to read the sensors when I'd park in my garage and that was across a 3.5 car garage. If it's on the truck, I have zero doubt it would still register it.

 

I don’t have a swing out, but I know the system is able to read the spare in my bed.

 

I put my studded snow tires on mounted gen 2 sport wheels on last week when we had snow. I kept two of my 3rd gen tires/wheels in the bed for weight, the other two were on my back patio. Never got a low tire warning for the entire week. And I drove the truck all week. So the truck had to be reading tire pressures all the way from inside my garage, through my family room, to where the tires/wheels were sitting on my back patio.

 

Also, you could take all of your pressure sensors and put them in a "pressure bomb" which is a small container that you pressurize up to x amount of psi and never worry about them on your wheels and then you can do the 5 wheel rotation. But you wont have the tpms to tell you when you have a low tire. If you care about that.