In 1991, a trucker with a napkin sketch approached Phillip Zaroor. His drawing was a cap that fit on a tire’s valve stem, sampling the tire pressure and reporting it to a monitor in the vehicle’s cab. Zaroor bought the idea, patented it as TireMate and founded Advantage Enterprises, Advantage PressurePro’s parent company.
“Before my dad, nobody knew what TPMS was,” said Advantage PressurePro COO Vanessa Zaroor Hargrave on the acronym for Tire Pressure Monitoring System. Her father is credited with coining the term, which the company has trademarked. “We are the longest-running TPMS provider in the United States,” Hargrave said.
When Zaroor patented TireMate, the only TPMS solution was in Porsche’s 959 models. With TireMate’s success, Advantage Enterprises added its Advantage PressurePro division in 2003 to design and patent new products. The same year, the company expanded TPMS offerings to more heavy-duty vehicles, ports and lifts.
“He did not just have to create and develop a system but make a whole market,” Hargrave said of her father’s success. “The RV industry was our first industry. It is not our largest anymore, but they really hold a special place in our hearts.”
Rhita Zaroor, Hargrave’s mother and Advantage PressurePro’s owner and chairperson, said the company started in the RV industry early on by catering to those who wanted to protect their investments.
“A lot of them are retired and not in a hurry,” Zaroor said, “and being older, are unable to crawl underneath chassis to check tire pressure. We got to know these people on a first-name basis and they would start dropping in, bringing us Florida lemons on their way to see their cousins in Michigan.”
Though it started with safety, Zaroor said RVers started realizing Advantage PressurePro products save fuel and are better for the environment. “TPMS has so many side effects, thank god they are all positive,” Zaroor said. “We went from having a few RV customers to having an international market.”
Before Advantage PressurePro released a branded TPMS line in 2004 with universal sensor options, there were different TPMS caps for different PSI ranges and tire locations. Unlike the original TireMate, Advantage PressurePro’s new products did not have to be location specific and could be used on all vehicle tires.
“I do not think there has been a year in our history that we have not had some sort of major announcement or new feature,” Hargrave said. Beyond TPMS sensors, Advantage PressurePro offers advanced monitoring options, including data logging and integrated options that allow customers to store, recall and analyze tire performance data. The company’s Pulse device sales are quickly catching up with other best-selling products.
