When travelling with an RV on bitumen, gravel, sand or simply off the beaten track, you could potentially be looking at six or more tyres that need your attention. And while there are many ways to lower tyre pressures individually, we tried the Indeflate as it does things a little differently. Our Indeflate originally came directly from South Africa some years ago, but these days they’re now widely available in Australia as well. Let’s take a closer look at it.
ABOUT THE INDEFLATE
Unlike many other tyre products on the market that adjust tyre pressures individually, the Indeflate is a device that inflates or deflates two tyres simultaneously. There are several components that make up the unit, starting with the Indeflate’s aluminium central body valve system. It also has an adjustable barrel slide that’s used for dumping air when deflating.
Other features of the Indeflate include a readable pressure gauge that’s attached to the unit’s top, and this allows the tyre air pressures to be monitored during inflation/deflation.
Besides these, you’ll find two 3m flexible air hoses included that attach to the sides of the Indeflate body.
Both of these hoses are abrasion and UV-resistant, with each being fitted with clip-on chucks to help make the connection to tyre valves a quick and simple process.
There’s also an air inlet located on the base of the Indeflate that’s used to connect the unit to a compressor when inflating tyres. When not in use, its components can be packed away in the supplied carry bag.
HOW IT WORKS
Let’s start by looking at how the Indeflate works when deflating tyres. Start by taking the unit out of the bag and find a suitable location to place the Indeflate valve body. Then ensure the unit’s barrel slide is in the closed position.
The next step is to attach the supplied air line hoses to the two tyres you’d like to deflate. For example, this could be the left-hand and right-hand front tyres. Once the hoses have been connected, the Indeflate gauge will display the equalised pressure of these two tyres.
To begin deflating, start by moving the unit’s barrel slide upwards. This action opens the dump valve and allows air to escape. You can stop air escaping at any time by simply moving the barrel slide downwards as it covers the air dump valve. This action also allows you to view the gauge that displays the new lowered pressures.
It’s then a case of continuing to dump air via the above steps until you have reached your desired pressures. Once complete, disconnect the air hoses from the tyres, and move the unit to another suitable location so you’re able to adjust the next set of tyres, and so on.
Inflating the tyres is a similar process. Start by connecting the two Indeflate hoses to two tyres. Then, take an air hose that’s attached to a compressor at one end and attach the other end of the compressor’s hose to the base of the Indeflate unit (this end would normally go directly to a tyre valve if re-inflating an individual tyre). By attaching the compressor hose to the Indeflate’s valve body, compressed air is now able to flow to two tyres simultaneously. You can monitor the pressures on the Indeflate’s gauge until reaching the desired inflated pressure.
HOW IT WENT
The fact that we’ve been using this product to regulate our tyre pressures for more than five years across a range of vehicles and trailers probably speaks for itself as to how much we like it. It’s easy to use, and we’ve found it to be a robust, well manufactured unit. But we really love its clever design and the fact that it doubles as an inflation/deflation device.
We generally travel with a caravan or trailer in tow, so we need to adjust anywhere between six and eight tyres. And while we’re not in any hurry when we travel, getting the same pressure correct on left and right-hand sides can be a tedious process when adjusting the pressures individually.
Another benefit we’ve found with the Indeflate is how we no longer need to stoop down at tyre level for long periods. We’re not getting any younger! So we appreciate how the Indeflate has removed that effort.
These days we now use tyre pressure changes as a chance to take a break from driving, and simply enjoy a cuppa while the unit goes to work.
SUMMING UP
Some might say that changing tyre pressures isn’t rocket science, but when it comes to hitting the road and needing to inflate and deflate tyre pressures on different terrains, the Indeflate really makes light work of it all. For that reason alone, it’s not something that we’ll be looking to replace any time soon.
More info: https://www.maxtrax.com.au/indeflate/
