Dill TPMS

[Bill R]

I installed a Dill 1504-416 tire pressure monitor for our Escape 19, so wanted share my thoughts.

First, a description of the kit. The wheel sensors are like car TPMS -- the battery and sensor is inside the tire below the stem. The sensors transmit wirelessly to the monitor in the tow vehicle. The monitor needs 12-volt power (has no solar or battery). The kit comes with 2 antennas, a stubby antenna for the monitor and a long coax cable with an antenna at the end. I bought it from Tire Rack.

The valve stems in the standard kit fit the Escape aluminum rims. Since I was also replacing the tires, I just gave the stems/sensors to the tire guy and he installed them when he mounted the new tires.

I mounted the monitor in the center stack, ran the coax to the back of our 4Runner, and mounted the antenna behind the back bumper skin. I installed a wired trailer backup camera in the 4Runner back in 2014, so I already knew how to route the cable. I tapped into accessory power, so no wires are visible.

We have used it for about 2500 miles, it has worked well, and I'm glad I got it. The monitor has stayed connected to all four sensors.

What I like:
- The tires just show a valve stem, so they are easy to fill and have no external sensor to wobble or leak or steal.
- Predicted 7-year battery life.
- A powered booster for the trailer is not needed, as the passive antenna is at the back bumper of the tow vehicle.
- The monitor is fairly small, so fits in the center stack -- my preference is to have minimal stuff on top-of-dash.

What I don't like:
- The monitor shows one sensor's temperature/pressure at a time, so a quick glance only gives one sensor reading. It does automatically cycle through all the sensors, so you have to look at it for about 10 seconds to see all four readings.

Thanks to KountryKamper and skiman for their posts on the Dill.

Bill R

[Mike Lewis]

This is good info, thanks. I have a question: does the Dill system alert you to a low pressure event with an alarm of some kind?

[Bill R]

Originally Posted by Mike Lewis

does the Dill system alert you to a low pressure event with an alarm of some kind?

Yes, if a pressure or temperature is out of bounds, it sounds an audible beep-beep-beep and the display stops cycling and blinks the offending sensor. The audible warning is not a continuous alarm - not sure if this is good or bad.

The normal cold pressure can be set, and low out-of-bounds is 20% less than that. So I set 50psi and it alarms at 40psi. I actually purposely deflated a tire a bit to test this. :/

The manual says high out-of-bound pressure is 30% over the set pressure and high temperature is 176 degrees F.

Bill R