Tire maintenance, hub caps in the way

Short form: what tire gauges and pumps (manual or electric) do you use to maintain the tires on this vehicle? Without having to remove the hub caps. Bonus points for tools that a reasonably spry elderly person could manage

Long form:

I'm currently visiting my elderly mother and even more elderly stepfather. The TPMS light is on in her 2012 Prius. My step father would normally have taken care of this, but he is even older and recent physical problems have put an end to his days of driving and working on tires. Their tire gauge accidentally went away with his car when they gave that to one of the grand kids. OK, thought I, tires are just tires, and pulled the tire pressure gauge and Serfas bike pump out of my 2007 to use them to check and/or fill any tires which are low. (Assuming it wasn't a failed TPMS unit in a tire.) Nope, the hub caps foiled me at every step. First the tire gauge, the kind that presses on perpendicular to the stem, wouldn't seal because there was no angle where it wasn't obstructed by the hub cap. Tried to hook the bike pump fast release on and it wouldn't clear the hub cap, which once again blocked access. The hub cap on the 2nd generation isn't very different from that on the 3rd generation, but the tire stem sticks up far enough out of the notch that these two devices attach without problem, whereas on her car it is down in the notch too far for them to fit. Later stopped at an O'Reilly's and bought their house brand dual headed pencil gauge

https://www.oreillyauto.com/detail/c/xtra-seal/xtra-seal-10-to-120-psi-tire-gauge/xts0/151031

which did seat nicely, and showed that at least that one tire was low - 28 PSI on the front. Yikes. (This model gauge is hard to read though, because it has such a large range the values for this car are just a fraction of a mm apart.) I could get a valve extender (should have done that while at O'Reilly's) to use with my pump for now, but that won't be a solution for her going forward. I need to find an electric tire pump that she can hook up, set the pressure, and let it run until it stops - without removing the hub caps. My mother is pretty spry for her age, but there is no way she will be pulling off the hub caps to maintain her tires. Picture a 90 year old doing this:

Hers has different hub caps than in the video, these:



Thanks.

 

Found an old bike pump in the corner of their garage with a smaller chuck. That one fit on if the hose was aimed at the hub, but the lever was so stiff I was afraid of breaking the stem from the force. Now I just need to find an electric pump with a chuck that size or smaller, with a lever that an old lady can move, and she should be good to go.

 

There is an America's Tire about a mile away, so that would be a good option. Les Schwab only has a single store in the Bay Area, and driving from San Jose to Fremont to fill the tires seems a little excessive. Thanks.

I did suggest to her that this would be easy if the hub caps could go, but she doesn't like the look of the bare wheels (they have lost hub caps before).

I'm thinking of getting her one of these from Home Depot:

Husky 120-Volt Inflator H120N - The Home Depot

It has a "set the pressure and it fills to that and stops" option, with a nice digital display. Apparently it isn't the most reliable device in the world, and can only run for 5 minutes at a time, but should still be OK for topping off the tires if they do it more or less regularly. She is OK plugging in devices, whereas keeping one of the battery powered inflators charged is a bit of a stretch for her, and plugging something into the power socket of the car, and possibly blowing the fuse, is never going to fly.

 

My understanding is that leaving valve stem extensions on TPMS stems is a bad idea, at least if the car is going to be driven at any appreciable speed. No problem using them temporarily to check pressure or add air, and they can stay on just to roll around a shop. Probably not such a great idea to use them on regular tire stems either. I know they are common on trucks, but in those cases the original stems are steel, as are the extensions, and they even sometimes have rubber or other supports added to take the strain when they are spinning at high speeds. Like this one:

Inner Dual Tire Valve Stem Extension Stabilizer 2-1/2″ Round for Accur - Tire Supply Network

 

Is the tire end of that tube a quick release of some kind? I can never tell in the pictures if it is a screw on hose or not. The ones with a lever it is obvious that they are a quick release.

Another thought, I believe the TPMS units are not OEM. Perhaps the OEM TPMS units have longer stems, so that the tip is not so deep into the hub cap, and they are easier to get to? My 2007 is right next to my mother's 2012 and the thickness of the hub caps does not seem very different, which would put the variation at the TPMS units.

 

So, I measured the tip of the quick release on that Home Depot pump and it was slightly smaller than the one on the old bike pump, so it would fit. Bought it and brought it home and showed it to her and my mother decided even this simple device was going to be too much, so she will be getting her tires filled up elsewhere.

 

It is a 400 mile drive, each way.

 

Her husband always used to do the tires. I think she has decided that at this age she would rather pay someone else to set the pressure in the tires than start doing it herself. There has been other delegation recently, like hiring a window cleaner instead of doing that, and that was a task she actually used to do.