Underinflated tires waste expensive gas, and shorten tire life, and frequently make your car handle badly.  Accutire’s MS-4359 is a cool tire monitoring system that allows you to quickly check the pressure in your car’s tires by touching the gauge to the cap.  The smart caps then measure the tire pressure with a 1 PSI accuracy give you a reading using 3 LED’s–green=tire pressure OK, yellow=getting low, red=needs air.  The gauge can also work as a standard tire gauge with an accuracy of .5 PSI. 

Programming the smart caps is relatively easy.  You enter the pressure you need for the tire (the device allows for separate pressures for the front and back tires) and place the smart cap on the gauge.  The gauge quickly programs the pressure into the smart cap. 

The smart caps come with a built in lithium battery with a 3 year life.  Unfortunately the battery is not replaceable so you have to replace the caps when the battery runs out.  So far we haven’t found replacement caps for the device.  This also means that you can only monitor the pressure on one car with one gauge.  The smart caps are quite a bit larger than a regular valve cap to accomodate the battery, sensor and LED’s–not exactly a sleek look. 

So is it worth it?  It is for me, I have the best of intentions about keeping the tire pressure just right on those expensive low profile tires but always get busy.  This tool makes it easy. 

We’ve had a lot of spring storms lumber through Texas recently resulting in downed trees and treee limbs throughout the backyard. Reading through the pages of warnings that come with a chainsaw is enough to intimidate most people with terms like chainsaw kickback, broken chains, etc. Looking for a better solution I found Black & Decker’s Alligator Lopper. The 6″ chain and 4.5 Amp motor is ideal for storm clean up allowing you to prune tree branches and cut up fallen branches into manageable pieces. It makes it easy to cut branches up to 4″ in diameter–far too big for manual pruners and loppers.

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