Valley Tire Pressure Monitoring System

Valley’s Tire Pressure Monitoring System. I’m Greg Martin with today’s Line On Agriculture.

I grew up in the midwest where there was almost always sufficient rainfall and irrigation was a rarity. But here in the northwest where lush crops are grown in high desert areas the site of a center pivot irrigation system is quite common with their water jets and large tires making circles in the fields. John Rasmus is with Valley Irrigation and he talks about an exciting innovation for irrigation users.

RASMUS: Up until now there really hasn’t been a way to monitor tire pressure on irrigation equipment so we’re the first in the industry to do that. One of the advantages of the product is obviously you can tell if your tire is low or where the location of that particular tire is. Most tires aren’t detected until the center pivot stops.

Valley has introduced the Tire Pressure Monitoring System (TPMS) and it is a recipient of the 2012 World Ag Expo Top-10 New Products award. Incorrect tire pressure on your car can affect gas mileage but what is the effect on an irrigation system?

RASMUS: In this situation if you have an under-inflated tire and you continue to run it obviously you can damage the tire itself but you can also damage the wheel or the rim as well as any of the drivetrain components. It could mean a gearbox or any of the driveshafts or the components related to that.

Just fixing a low or a flat tire when it’s first discovered is not all that difficult or costly but Rasmus says that might not be the case.

RASMUS: And the average cost to repair a flat tire can range anywhere from $500 to $1500 per repair. What you want to do is catch that tire pressure early. If you know you have a slow leak or just the low pressure, catch it at that point if at all possible so you don’t have the structural damage.

Rasmus talks about how the TPMS works.

RASMUS: The tire pressure works very similar to what’s on your car. You have a tire sensor that’s located on the valve stem itself that senses the tire pressure. That sensor actually communicates with a tower box that’s installed on the pivot. There’s two ways to monitor. One is on the control panel itself which would be the Valley Pro 2Control Panel. The second option is to monitor remotely with the Base Station 2 SM which you can either monitor on the control panel or on the laptop.

Rasmus says there is also an option that will allow you to also monitor the water pressure at the end tower which he says is one of the most critical places. For additional information on the Valley Tire Pressure Monitoring System be sure and contact your local Valley dealer.

That’s today’s Line On Agriculture. I’m Greg Martin on the Ag Information Network.