Needed a low pressure gauge for the tires on my Argo, which runs a min 2.5 psi and a max of 3 psi. Tire pressure accuracy is essential on an Argo as the tires are your only suspension. Too high and it will bust your kidneys wide open, too low and you’re popping the bead off the rim on every second or third skid steer turn.
There’s nothing in the local stores that goes low (most don't go below 5 psi min) or with that kind of resolution (most are 2-2.5 psi accurate). The argo came with its own special tire gauge, but that disappeared with a PO a looong time ago.
Then I struck on an idea: sports ball inflation gauge! They usually don't go more than 10 psi and are good right down to “0”.
Problem is, they're made for a need to push in to the ball inflation port so there’s nothing to push open a tire valve core:
Changing the head would ruin the gauge, so that's not an option. So I bought a fairly standard tire gauge:
Pressure it way too high for the Argo. But it clips on to a tire valve, has a bleed port, a filling port and the hose rotates to make it easy to see the scale when hooked up to the tire. The fill and bleed ports are pretty handy when trying to drop just enough air to make a .5 psi difference.
Now the problem was screwing the sports ball gauge on to the fill port still wouldn't read tire pressure and pretty much anything under 15-20 psi didn't show at all on the big gauge. I could just remove the core from the fill port, but that means the large gauge is now useless and I can't add air without removing the whole contraption. I'd also like to not have more than 10 PSI spike the little gauge if the tire I'm checking is too high for some reason (like checking someone else's tires for them), so hooking up the big gauge to check first would be a plus. Can't do that if I remove the core. I could carry a valve core tool and remove/install the core as needed, but that's a major PITA and asking for trouble loosing the core if I have to check on the trail.
So I dug around in my bins to see what I had and ran across a steel valve extension:
That's great, but it still won't depress the tire's valve when attached. So I stuck the end of a zip tie in the end of the extention, cut it flush and made sure it was jammed solid:
Then screwed it into the low pressure gauge and screwed that into the fill port on the big gauge:
Works perfectly:
Resolution is perfect for my use, I can bleed psi off easily and see the change right away, air up a bit if I go too low and I Still have a gauge I can use on higher pressures.
