A remould/remix from Michelin, Bridgestone or Continental will be almost as good as a new premium tyre and better than some cheap brands, especially if you have your own casings done
Retreads are getting better, but you really need to look after them to get the best from them
The formula for buying tyres is as follows and if you want to get the ultimate value for your money it should be the only way you do it, Number one is ROLLING RESISTANCE, number two is ROLLING RESISTANCE, number three is ROLLING RESISTANCE etc etc etc
Unless youāre going through tyres every month due to off roading or similar hard conditions, in which case you buy tyres that are designed for those conditions
The formula for buying tyres is as follows and if you want to get the ultimate value for your money it should be the only way you do it, Number one is ROLLING RESISTANCE, number two is ROLLING RESISTANCE, number three is ROLLING RESISTANCE etc etc etc
I have seen you banging on about the rolling resistance many times on this forum before and whilst i agree fuel is important i wont be fitting steer tyre pattern all round on my truck and neither will i be fitting the most expensive tyres on the say so of some poxy salesman of a certain brand of tyre!
whilst running my own truck and doing repairs for other hauliers i can see some tyre tread patterns suit some types of work more than others but i am yet to come across the secret formula for working out rolling resistance!!
could you please explain how you work out the rolling resistance on the following 295 tyres
hankook ah22
bridgestone 297
hankook dh05
bridgestone 748
when the results come back i will know if i have been doing it wrong all these years!
thanks for your time moose
I donāt think low rolling resistance through either over-inflation or properties of the actual tyre brand is everything either if on a wet day with greasy roads you end up getting a great view of the side of your own trailer through the windscreen.
I personally think devoting time and attention to getting better paying work is always of greater benefit than spending the same time obsessing over tyre costs and/or fuel economy.
Moose:
The formula for buying tyres is as follows and if you want to get the ultimate value for your money it should be the only way you do it, Number one is ROLLING RESISTANCE, number two is ROLLING RESISTANCE, number three is ROLLING RESISTANCE etc etc etc
I have seen you banging on about the rolling resistance many times on this forum before
Own Account Driver:
I personally think devoting time and attention to getting better paying work is always of greater benefit than spending the same time obsessing over tyre costs and/or fuel economy.
That is an elementary mistake, you cannot, to a degree, control the rates you charge, but you can control every penny of what you spend your money on. An increase in rates of a few pence per mile gives a lot lower figure to your bottom line than a decrease in running costs will, every penny you save is money in your pocket
Moose, first of all rolling resistance has nothing to do with the tread pattern, it comes from the casing structure and the rubber compounds used for the tread, for example Michelin XDA Energy drive tyres have a lower RR figure than an XZA 3+ all position (steer) tyre
Iāll get back to you on the RR numbers for them tyres
Armagedon:
As a fellow Maggie owner front 120 anymore steering is all over the place,drive 100 all seems to work fine.
Iāve been up the yard this afternoon and set the steer axle tyres to 115psi. Iāve fitted these valve caps, they are supposed to start flashing if the pressure drops by 4 psi.
Iām not sure how reliable they are but Iāll monitor the pressures every week after the weekend break when they are back down to ambient temperature. Iām using a digital tyre pressure gauge but cross-checking that against an old-stylee tyre pressure gauge, the type which pushes a steel cylinder out of a barrel,and they seem to tally with each other.
Hopefully Iāll be able to replace the offside drive axle tyres and the lift axle tyres next weekend if some money materialises and flog the remoulds on ebay or somesuch.
Keep an extra eye on those valve caps Harry, they used to fit them on motorbikes and they were often fine, but occasionally the valve cap seal leaks and it lets the tyre down slowly because the cap holds down the Schrader valve. Oh and 60 quid for a five axle rig puts me off too
Armagedon:
As a fellow Maggie owner front 120 anymore steering is all over the place,drive 100 all seems to work fine.
Iāve been up the yard this afternoon and set the steer axle tyres to 115psi. Iāve fitted these valve caps, they are supposed to start flashing if the pressure drops by 4 psi.
Iām not sure how reliable they are but Iāll monitor the pressures every week after the weekend break when they are back down to ambient temperature. Iām using a digital tyre pressure gauge but cross-checking that against an old-stylee tyre pressure gauge, the type which pushes a steel cylinder out of a barrel,and they seem to tally with each othe
Hopefully Iāll be able to replace the offside drive axle tyres and the lift axle tyres next weekend if some money materialises and flog the remoulds on ebay or somesuch.
Keep an extra eye on those valve caps Harry, they used to fit them on motorbikes and they were often fine, but occasionally the valve cap seal leaks and it lets the tyre down slowly because the cap holds down the Schrader valve. Oh and 60 quid for a five axle rig puts me off too
Hi Wheel Nut,
You are right weāve had some leak so you still
end up checking the pressures [not sure what make they are].
Cheers Malc.
If you do long distance and good roads only use max pressure stamped to the tyre sidewall plus 15% over. ETRTO allows 15% over for truck tyres. It helps fuel consumption and tyre life. 385/55 and 315/70 are usually 9 bar tyres, 9 bar + 15% = 10.35 bar (150 PSI)
V8Lenny:
If you do long distance and good roads only use max pressure stamped to the tyre sidewall plus 15% over. ETRTO allows 15% over for truck tyres. It helps fuel consumption and tyre life. 385/55 and 315/70 are usually 9 bar tyres, 9 bar + 15% = 10.35 bar (150 PSI)
Would running them that high not cause the middle of the tire to wear quicker as it would take on a more rounded shape? Surely youād be looking more at the truck makers figues than the tyre makers, as the truck is the biggest factor in the equation.
I used to sell wheels and tyres for cars, Iām just trying to get my head around what bits of that info can apply to trucks as well.
V8Lenny:
If you do long distance and good roads only use max pressure stamped to the tyre sidewall plus 15% over. ETRTO allows 15% over for truck tyres. It helps fuel consumption and tyre life. 385/55 and 315/70 are usually 9 bar tyres, 9 bar + 15% = 10.35 bar (150 PSI)
Would running them that high not cause the middle of the tire to wear quicker as it would take on a more rounded shape? Surely youād be looking more at the truck makers figues than the tyre makers, as the truck is the biggest factor in the equation.
I used to sell wheels and tyres for cars, Iām just trying to get my head around what bits of that info can apply to trucks as well.
Yes, Iād happily go up to 130-135 psi on a trailer super single but much over that and they will start to wear excessively in the middle as you say.
The upside is fuel economy but the downsides to over-inflation are greatly increased maintenance costs on suspension particularly n/s if you do a lot of A-roads bumping in and out of drain covers. Also poor traction and increased chances of jack-knifing. Tyre pressures are almost always are trade off/balancing act between these factors.
V8Lenny:
If you do long distance and good roads only use max pressure stamped to the tyre sidewall plus 15% over. ETRTO allows 15% over for truck tyres. It helps fuel consumption and tyre life. 385/55 and 315/70 are usually 9 bar tyres, 9 bar + 15% = 10.35 bar (150 PSI)
Would running them that high not cause the middle of the tire to wear quicker as it would take on a more rounded shape? Surely youād be looking more at the truck makers figues than the tyre makers, as the truck is the biggest factor in the equation.
I used to sell wheels and tyres for cars, Iām just trying to get my head around what bits of that info can apply to trucks as well.
Many āexpertsā are trying to tell you that but itās old information from cross-ply times. Radial tyres donāt become round no matter how much pressure you use. Thatās why Michelin developed radials in first place.
Drive tyres wear in the middle, free rolling tyres at the shoulders, itās the tyre dynamics and thereās nothing you can do to it. If you use lower pressures they might wear more even but itās just because they wear faster and you donāt see the uneven wear before they are finished.
V8Lenny:
If you do long distance and good roads only use max pressure stamped to the tyre sidewall plus 15% over. ETRTO allows 15% over for truck tyres. It helps fuel consumption and tyre life. 385/55 and 315/70 are usually 9 bar tyres, 9 bar + 15% = 10.35 bar (150 PSI)
Would running them that high not cause the middle of the tire to wear quicker as it would take on a more rounded shape? Surely youād be looking more at the truck makers figues than the tyre makers, as the truck is the biggest factor in the equation.
I used to sell wheels and tyres for cars, Iām just trying to get my head around what bits of that info can apply to trucks as well.
Many āexpertsā are trying to tell you that but itās old information from cross-ply times. Radial tyres donāt become round no matter how much pressure you use. Thatās why Michelin developed radials in first place.
Drive tyres wear in the middle, free rolling tyres at the shoulders, itās the tyre dynamics and thereās nothing you can do to it. If you use lower pressures they might wear more even but itās just because they wear faster and you donāt see the uneven wear before they are finished.
so drive tyres wear in the middle, but only on one side of the truck as we dont drive round in diff lock all the time!
over the years i and many others have found that if you run drive tyres over pressure the middle wears out whilst you may have 8mm on the shoulders, that is why firms that run many more trucks than me or you tend to run below maximum pressure, so the tyre wears even!
if the tyre wears in the middle first what use is it as you cant wear the thing out even by re cutting the tread as the thing rips to the wire whilst still having loads of tread on the shoulders
What do you reccomend 250 psi of helium so we can float round ?
Wheel Nut:
Keep an extra eye on those valve caps Harry, they used to fit them on motorbikes and they were often fine, but occasionally the valve cap seal leaks and it lets the tyre down slowly because the cap holds down the Schrader valve. Oh and 60 quid for a five axle rig puts me off too
Thanks for that and I will keep an eye on the pressures over time, although I understand that the Air Alert caps calibrate automatically and permanently when they are first fitted and so the LED warning light will always flash if the pressure drops by 4 psi from the initial calibration, even if it leaks through the valve cap.
Moose:
so drive tyres wear in the middle, but only on one side of the truck as we dont drive round in diff lock all the time!
over the years i and many others have found that if you run drive tyres over pressure the middle wears out whilst you may have 8mm on the shoulders, that is why firms that run many more trucks than me or you tend to run below maximum pressure, so the tyre wears even!
if the tyre wears in the middle first what use is it as you cant wear the thing out even by re cutting the tread as the thing rips to the wire whilst still having loads of tread on the shoulders
What do you reccomend 250 psi of helium so we can float round ?
Just donāt run them too low or they start to hit the outer edges in the same style It is a bit of a minefield at times.
On my van I actually run the fronts at slightly higher than the stated pressure as I find it firms the handling up quite a bit (Van says 55, I tend to run at 59-62), trouble is with it being a Mk5 Transit it eats the inner edges of tyres anyway, rears are left at 60 and are wearing pretty much level.
Eating away at the inner edges indicates a tow out condition, this is far too common due to alignments on those floating pads that align things to factory specs, rather than aligning things on the floor in an as driven state
If the wear is smooth, rather than feathered, it could also indicate loose wheel bearings
newmercman:
Eating away at the inner edges indicates a tow out condition, this is far too common due to alignments on those floating pads that align things to factory specs, rather than aligning things on the floor in an as driven state
If the wear is smooth, rather than feathered, it could also indicate loose wheel bearings
Mk5 Twin wheel transits do it no matter what you do, itās to do with the massive spacer the wheel is sat on and the fact the suspension hasnāt been changed to accept the extra weight and the fact the wheel sits a good 50mm further away from the hub than a normal one does.
Also, 300k under itās belt and being all but ā ā ā ā ā ā doesnāt help.
Moose:
over the years i and many others have found that if you run drive tyres over pressure the middle wears out whilst you may have 8mm on the shoulders, that is why firms that run many more trucks than me or you tend to run below maximum pressure, so the tyre wears even!
if the tyre wears in the middle first what use is it as you cant wear the thing out even by re cutting the tread as the thing rips to the wire whilst still having loads of tread on the shoulders
What do you reccomend 250 psi of helium so we can float round ?
But it lasts much longer even if it wears a little bit more in the middle. I have never seen drive tyre wear uneven even if we use max pressure and drive very lightly loaded which is against every tyre āexpertsā recommendations.
This information is from a book written by real tyre expert working for tyre manufacturer. He probably knows more than some big fleet owner.
I have asked about a few tyre companies and some very, but i was told 125psi in the front, 100psi in the midlift and 95psi in the drives ā¦ Thoughts ?
Also worth using the metal valve caps as they prevent leaks should the valve core get sticky.
We run 295/315 steers 125
second steer 110
drives on tractors 90
drives on rigids 115
trailer twins 110
trailer singles 125
The season can make a massive difference to the pressure, autumn into winter can see the pressure dropping at least 5psi per tyre every 8 weeks, come spring rare we have to pump any up right until the end of summer
