wmtire

That is what we refer to as a clamp-in valve stem in the tire business. They will hold over a hundred pounds of air pressure. It does have a rubber grommet in them, that will eventually dry out and crack, but this will be many years down the road. You can just replace this grommet without having to replace the stem. I know, that I personally carry the grommets for replacement, but the whole stem itself isn't very expensive. They cost me around .80 to a $1.25.

The solid black rubber coated stems are called snap-in valve stems. Depending on the brand, they are rated for between 60 to 65 psi. They do make an all rubber coated high pressure snap-in stem, but it's hard to correctly identify just by glancing at it.

Most of the high pressure snap-in valves stems nowadays are half black rubber coated and half exposed brass. It makes them a lot easier to identify by looking at them. Depending on brand again, these high pressure snap-in valve stems usually hold between 80 -100 psi.

There has been some discussion on these forums about the quality of some imported rubber snap-in valve stems. Our tire trade journals have been discussing this too. Some are being made with lesser quality material and are prone to drying out and cracking a lot faster than the more quality made ones. It's going to be hard for the average consumer to know a quality made stem from an inferior one. The imported ones cost about half as much as the quality ones. It depends on your tire dealer, and on how much money he wants to save and where to cut costs...on which stems he carries. Everyone needs to remember that. Your safer bet will be to go for a metal clamp-in type like Wbmiller3 has smartly installed (see pic) on his. These stems are heavier than the rubber snap-in type, and subsequently will usually require more weight to properly balance the tire/wheel assembly.

If you do purchase a snap-in valve stem (for your vehicle, trailer, motorbike, etc), try to find brands like Schrader. They are argueably the best in the tire industry.

Here is a link to Schrader, with catalog pics to see the different types of valve stems, we just discussed.

http://www.schraderbridgeport.com/br...cation_id=5276

I'm going to add this tidbit in conclusion of my long winded post.There are certain kinds of wheel cleaning products out there, that don't play nice with valve stems. The chemicals in the cleaner will actually deteriorate the material in the valve stem. Try not to spray cleaner onto your valve stems, if possible.