Keeping regular records on tires – date and mileage at installation, and then tread depths at mileage increments – gives you information to help assess the best tires for your application.
Not long ago the main specification guiding owner-operators through tire purchases was wear: The longer the tire lasted, the better it was. But the price of fuel, which is affecting most everything in trucking, also is changing the way tires are spec’ed. Now rolling resistance – or its lack – is a major specification because it translates to higher fuel mileage.
Major tire makers have responded with products to meet owner-operators’ needs for longer wear and higher fuel mileage. However, the two characteristics work against each other. Tires with the highest fuel mileage sacrifice wear and vice versa. So tire makers have products that offer longer wear or higher fuel mileage – or a compromise of both.
Of course, other factors affect wear and mileage: proper maintenance, tire quality and match of application to specs.
“When fuel costs continue to rise, the percentage reduction of fuel costs by using low rolling resistance tires increases,” says Michael Burroughes, Michelin America’s product manager. “You can buy tires that are optimized for wear, and an owner-operator who takes care of his tires can get about 400,000 miles out of them. If he buys tires optimized for fuel, he’s going to get 250,000 or 300,000 miles, and he sacrifices that wear. But when he factors in the savings from fuel, he actually comes out ahead.”
Burroughes acknowledges that most owner-operators are skeptical of this reasoning, but not carriers. Large fleets usually opt for low rolling resistance tires, even to the point of using rib (steer) tires on drive wheels, he says. “Even though they get significantly fewer miles of wear, their savings in fuel more than pays for the additional tires.”
“Owner-operators need to consider removal miles, durability, retreadability, tread design for the application, rolling resistance, and maybe warranty,” says Bridgestone/Firestone engineer Greg McDonald.
