One-piece extended valve stems for 3500?

I'd seen these discussed before but am having difficulty finding them in a forum search. I'm looking for the one-piece extended valve stems for the 3500, and also any comments from owners as to their fit on the Sprinter wheel and their reliability over time.

I had been using standard extenders on metal valve stems but they can be fussy plus I recently had one fail (fatigued metal valve stem, luckily I believe in carrying a spare tire.) To be fair it lasted 5 years and 40 k miles but even one failure is too much, and I don't want to wonder if the others could end up the same way given enough time.

I seem to remember the impressions of the one-piece units were good. How do the long inner wheel extenders manage their weight? Do they attach to the outer wheel somehow?

Call Your Tire Shop Supply, http://yourtireshopsupply.com/category/796/dually-valve-kits, and order the Borg one piece stainless steel stems. They will make it so easy to maintain your tire pressures. The kit comes with a stabilizer for the long inner dually stems. Since I am using Tire Pressure Monitoring Sensors I made rubber discs that go over the stems and fill the Simulator cover hole. I then use small cable ties to secure those rubber discs to the Simulator. Then I installed my TPMS Sensor and the stems are supported nicely, no moving. I've had mine on for 20,000 miles and never a tire issue, love them. Make sure you keep your Simulator/Wheel Covers tied down to your steel rims with high Tensile strength, UV resistent Black cable ties, https://www.amazon.com/Tensile-Stre...43154&sr=1-4&keywords=200+lb+black+cable+ties. Many also use stainless steel cable ties that has similar strength. The Simulators do move over time and can actually cut into the stems. Many people have also had trouble with the Simulators just popping off while driving, which is devastating if you have a Tire Pressure Monitoring System sensor on the stems. There are a lot of posts on this subject so a search is easy.

Thanks, that is exactly what I am looking for. Pricey, but not being under the vehicle at 20F at a rest stop is priceless.

Do you have aluminum or steel wheels, and do you remember which kit you ordered?

http://yourtireshopsupply.com/category/796_832/sprinter-class

smiller said:

Thanks, that is exactly what I am looking for. Pricey, but not being under the vehicle at 20F at a rest stop is priceless.

Do you have aluminum or steel wheels, and do you remember which kit you ordered?

http://yourtireshopsupply.com/category/796_832/sprinter-class

Click to expand...

The Aluminum (i.e. Alcoas all around) is kit DL1SPAA. I had that one installed on my LTV with Alcoas and it has been great.

I have steel wheels with wheel covers, guess I'll ask them what they recommend.

One draw back, Balancing appears to be an issue:

Balancing
Having Duallyvalves makes it difficult for the tire shop to balance your inner tires on a standard machine due to the long inner valve stem

Yeah, I noticed that. My thinking is that if the shop can't balance on the spin machine then a static (bubble) balance would probably be adequate, considering that the limitation is on the inner wheel only and the vehicle rarely sees over 65 mph.

My experience static balance ( bubble) is not adequate on a modern vehicle even on the rear of a dually. My brand new Michelin nibbled ( shimmy) on the front and thumped on the rear when it was not balanced correctly. (Took the tire dealer three attempts to get it right).


My solution to the “valve stem thing “ is pull the hub cap on every check. Use a light weight plastic valve extension on the inner that is not pressurized. Carry several air chucks and hose extensions. Going with the simple low tech no extra failure points.......and suffer through the pressure checking hassles and inconvenience.

Anyone ever try balance beads?

http://innovativebalancing.com

smiller said:

Thanks, that is exactly what I am looking for. Pricey, but not being under the vehicle at 20F at a rest stop is priceless.

Do you have aluminum or steel wheels, and do you remember which kit you ordered?

http://yourtireshopsupply.com/category/796_832/sprinter-class

Click to expand...

I have steel wheels and found it is best to call Your Tire Shop Supply so they can ask you the right questions that get you the correct kit for your wheels. I got the kit for all 6 wheels and the longer front stems that support TPMS. I used a company called Fleet Care to do my install and rebalance of each wheel. My thinking on getting the balancing right was take it to a place that routinely handles large tires like the 16"ers. Just call around and talk to shops about their balancing machines, your looking for Hub Centric balancing. If the hub centric diameter is not truly concentric with the balancing machine spindle axis, all they will be doing is
balancing the resulting run out....not balancing the tires/wheels. There is an adapter for the balancing machine that gets the wheel/tire positioned correctly for a proper balance. This thread discusses this more, https://sprinter-source.com/forum/showthread.php?t=41603&highlight=Hub+centric. I also changed the Continentals out for Michelin Defenders at the same time. The change in ride, to very smooth, and ease of maintenance has exceeded my expectations and Fleet Care is an excellent job.

pfflyer said:

Anyone ever try balance beads?

http://innovativebalancing.com

Click to expand...

One of the most debated and controversial products on the market.
No vehicle manufacturers or tire manufacturers use, allow or recommend.
No double blind independent engineering studies or confirmation.
One independent motorcycle testing magazine did a test concluded they did no harm but did not help balance.
A ton of anecdotal stories and youtube parlor trick videos on the general topic

Has been hashed and rehashed a few times on this forum.

Has anybody tried the Centramatic dynamic balancers? I emailed them awhile back and they do have a part# for the rear dual wheels on our 3500 vans. Apparently there isn't enough clearance to use on the front wheels.

http://www.centramatic.com/