"Published with permission from the Beachcomber, a Gannett newspaper."

Tire Deflators, TireBuddy II
  By John Bozman
 
Everybody could use a buddy of some sort, at some time.
Sue Foster sells tire deflators for about 20 bucks. That's sure to be a hit with people
who like driving cars, trucks, four wheel drive and sport utility vehicles on beaches.
This particular buddy is even small enough to fit into an already 
crowded glove compartment.

"It's one of our hottest items,"  Foster told the Beachcomber last week,
referring to the TireBuddy II gizmo.
"We probably ship more of them than anything else we carry, all over the country,"
she said. "I have sent them as far north as Maine and Massachusetts and 
as far west as California. Owners of 4 wheel drives love them." 

Foster is the owner/operator of Oyster Bay Tackle (410-524-3433) in Ocean 
City, 116th Street bayside on Coastal Highway. TireBuddyII is a deflator, 
one that screws directly onto a valve stem (after removing plastic 
cover) just like a valve cap. Once threaded into place, it automatically 
deflates the tire to a specific pressure (adjustable from 10 pounds per 
square inch to 30 psi) and emits a whistling sound that gradually 
diminishes as the air pressure decreases.
 
Each TireBuddy II comes pre-set to 15 psi, generally considered 
the ideal air pressure for beach travel and owners of 4 wheel drives.
"The high quality brass and stainless steel components assure 
accurate, fast and easy operation," it states on several Web sites.
Accurate, fast and easy are three words that don't readily come to 
mind when discussing the deflating process.

Some people count to 100 to get an approximation, a starting 
point to begin manually checking the tire while edging closer 
and closer to the magical 15 psi goal. Having achieved that one time 
means you only have to do it three more times before driving onto 
the sand. No, this is not as challenging as climbing Mount Everest. 
It is, however, time consuming and occasionally nerve-racking.
 
TireBuddy II (yes, there was an original TireBuddy) is not designed 
to remain on the valve stem. Once pressure has been lowered to 15 psi, 
Tire deflators are removed and attached to the next tire's valve stem.
Note: Tires must be re-inflated in the normal way when going from 
off road driving to highway driving. Be sure to carry your tire gauges.

"A lot of customers that own sport utility vehicles, in fact most of them, 
buy a pair of them so they can deflate two tires at the same time,"  Foster said.
A few customers even buy four, one for each tire. That's handy if you have 
a helper and can do both sides of the vehicle at the same time."
The dial indicator on TireBuddy II allows the user to raise or lower 
the target pressure, from 10 psi to 30 psi, in one-pound increments.
"These make great Christmas gifts,"  Foster said. "Really great stocking stuffers,
too, because of their small size,"  she added.