vettenutchas

Who makes accurate gauge at a reasonable price?

waddisme

I have the Joe's racing one from Amazon for like $25. It is easy to read, easy to use. Seems like I read on here to get one where your pressures are in the middle of the gauge's range, as it would be more accurate. So I got the 0 - 60 lbs one.

HTH.

Gordy M

Attended an alignment workshop a few years ago by Danny Kellermeyer and we were asked to bring our tire gauges. We had everything from a $10 gauge to $100 liquid filled gauges. Danny proceed to inform us how these were set and how much they would vary year to year. He had a 5" scientific gauge, that he keeps at Standard Temperature and Pressure, mounted as a test instrument and set it at 36lb. Each year he measures his "every day" gauge against it to see how far off it was. We all measured our own gauges and every one was off by .4 to 1.1 lbs. Bottom line, get a gauge that is accurate to 1%, they run $25-100.

Ludedude

I've been using Longacre gauges for over a decade now. The oil filled ones are accurate and more importantly repeatably so since they have temp/pressure equalizing mechanisms. They're pretty tough too and have served me well at the track as well as during my offroad adventures.

Like Gordy said, +/- 1% is a good number so I'd look for something that meets that target if possible. Easily done for under $100.

apex26

I had a Drager, made in W Germany for about 30 years. It finally gave up the ghost, and they are selling used on ebay for $70-80 now. Heck with that, replacing it with a Longacre.

Ludedude

Can't complain about 30 years of service!

YYZ06

Longacre here too.

LateBreak

I have a Joe's racing one that works well but have used Intercomp and Longacre in the past on other teams, both were great.

CHJ In Virginia

Longacre with the large dial ! The large face gauge allows reading smaller increments of pressure than a smaller gauge face.

rfn026

Everything I know about tire gauges I learned from Danny.

Rule 1: Accuracy is not as important as reliability. A tire gauge can be a lb. off but it has to be a lb. off all the time.

Rule 2: Use the same tire gauge all the time. When you start to swap around you'll get in trouble.

Here's an article that Danny helped me write.

Richard Newton

acrace

I, too, have a Longacre dial gauge, 0-60.

Hint . . . I also have a cheap pencil gauge that's my reference gauge. When I used to compete, every month I would compare my "track gauge" to my reference gauge, just to make sure that my "track gauge" didn't shift. Years ago I battled a handling issue for several weeks before realizing that my "track gauge" had been damaged and was reading 5 psi different.

Ludedude

Exactly. Same gauge every time so you can have repeatable measurements for YOU. Bonus if it's temp/pressure compensated as all good gauges should be.

Nice article btw.

Bill Dearborn

Accuracy is fleeting in air gauges. A pencil gauge may be more accurate than a $100 gauge. Even Danny has to make sure his scientific gauge is calibrated by a standards lab on a regular basis if he plans to measure other gauges against it.

The key thing is to always make your pressure measurements with the same gauge. You will set your pressures relative to that gauge and choose the pressures that make your car perform the best.

To make that easier to do you want a gauge that is easy to read, provides good resolution (can tell half pound increments) and is rugged so it doesn't break when you drop it as you will eventually do. I like a gauge with a straight Vs angled chuck a bleeder valve that lets me drop the pressure by pushing the valve. A gauge that holds the pressure isn't desirable since it makes it difficult to bleed pressure down and can be a problem if you forget to release it when moving to the next wheel.

Bill

AzMotorhead

Joe's gauges for me I have 2 a 0-60 and a 0-15 low pressure one is for my sand toys.

Charley Hoyt

I use a large dial Longacres guage that is accurate to .5%. Prior to that I had a nice digital guage from Griot's Garage that reads in .1 lbs and is accurate to .5%.... I used that guage for years until it ran out of batteries at the track one day. That is when I decided to switch to the Longacres guage that doesn't require batteries.

Charley