i no when looking for tyres its get the best but on the shall we say the economy range would you go for a budget tyre a good make part worn or remould looking at drive axle and trailer tyres not front steer can any of you recomend any makes
Lee, budget tyres are false economy
a couple of years ago, i bought some budget tyres for the drive axle for one of my trucks, they lasted three months, wasn’t even worth trying to cut them.
i now fit a decent mid range tyre, such as Semperit or Bridgestone if i can, both good quality, but not too expensive as Michelin
it might be worth having a chat with your local tyre dealer to see if they get any good part worn tyres, i have just been offered some Michelin drive tyres, part worn (not much use) for £120 (i think) each
trailer tyres, well, that depends on the type of work you are doing and where you are going, if you are going into lots of scrap yards, then get cheapo tyres because the chances are that you will get them punctured well before they wear out
i used to use nothing but michelin or bridgestone on the drives but for the last 3 years i,ve had kumho with no problems at all, thats doing a bit of everything, off road sites, in the steelworks, motorway miles on containers, as for trailer tyres {super singles} a lad who i know who started his own tyre company put me onto tauraus {sp?} and i,ve used nothing else since , they use an old michelin design and i cant fault them
my boss will only put firestones on the drive axles as they wear very well (my last set lasted 20 months and we dont recut them), on the trailers we use either double coin or toyo super singles and they wear pretty well too.
my boss once purchased retreads but wont do agian, yes they were cheaper but cost him in the end when the tread departed from the casing and took out rear wing and light cluster resulting in two call outs 1 for the tyre fitter with a new tyre and 2 for a garage too come out with a new light cluster and repair wing.
converted to Hankook all round 18 montha ago…excellent both steer and drives.
18 months and still 8mm on the drives, £200 each can’t go wrong… 
Lee,
Totally agree with previous comments regarding false enconomy.
I fitted drive axle with Dunlop’s from Tyretracs by my local tyre fitter did me a deal on Hankook’s for both steer axles. My unit has still been returning the same fuel figures as when it had Michelin’s on.
Spend £100 and get steertrack out to align the sttering if you spending on steer axle tyres, or you may be forking out again when the edges are scrubbed and you have wheel wobble.
I use Bridgestone 297’s on my steer, bloody brilliant tyres, great feel throught the steering wheel, last very well indeed
budget tyres are fitted to the midlift
drive tyres are toyo’s cant remember the model, but they are a moderate road/offroad pattern
Only one type of tyre on my trailer, toyo 149’s, try these, and you will never, ever use another tyre again. 
jimmy2loads:
I use Bridgestone 297’s on my steer, bloody brilliant tyres, great feel throught the steering wheel, last very well indeedbudget tyres are fitted to the midlift
drive tyres are toyo’s cant remember the model, but they are a moderate road/offroad pattern
Only one type of tyre on my trailer, toyo 149’s, try these, and you will never, ever use another tyre again.
another vote for bridgestones had one fitted on font of my daf six wheeler 18 month ago same time as a goodyear which cost a arm and leg bridgestone just been swapped over to new truck and a new one the other side and goodyear left on old truck just about knackered found hankooks to be quite good in past but bridgestone better steer tyre
In My opinion Michies are the best, it you can buy them at the right price. Always buy the ‘E’ though as the alternatives are to soft. I’ve run Michie remixs on the back 2 axles on the units, and the front 2 on the trailers (never on the front or back) and found the XDE2 drive tyre on the rear axle, the hardest wearing tyre on a drive axle, of any I tried. Although they are a bit slippy in the wet .
My advice would be… Buy the best tyres you can afford, and remember ‘you normally get what you pay for’
bridgestone 297’s on the front and mid lift and 729’s on the drives …but i did buy a truck over 2 years ago with nearly new next treads on… and they lasted 2 years on the drive runing on containers… as for the price now a new bridgestone is nearly £300 a piece… and ya hankooks and falkens and firestone will be the best part of £230 to £260… on on the trailers a prefare bridgestone 164’s…not realy in to 168’s and there are more that 164’s…
I run Hankooks on my semi low loader they seem to wear OK & are cheap enough, they usually get ruined due to site work before they wear out, in fact if I ever manage to replace a trailer tyre due to it wearing out I throw a party! I’ve just bought 4 Continental drive tyres for £210 each which i thought was cheap. I run Bridgestone trailer pattern tyres on the steer axle which behave well but are noisy. When I used to pull for John Mann he only ran Toyo tyres on both his units & his stepframe trailers & I can honestly say I never had a problem once with them even well freighted in the Spanish/Maroccon heat they never gave a bit of bother, so they get my vote. I would’nt touch anything part worn/recut for what its worth its 1 real false economy which I learned the hard way 
Fly sheet
i have run hankooks on the drive and found once i cut them they spin off in about 2 months. my other unit has bridgestones on and i recut them in august 09. i looked today and 1 trye will last another couple of weeks and the other 3 will probably last a few months more. i paid £220 for the hankooks and have been quoted £290 (i think it was) for bridgestone. so £70 for about 10 months on recut as against the 2 month max on hankooks. my next tyres will be bridgestones.
I’m driving a 08 Merc Axor at present. Came with Bridgestone’s fitted all round. They’ve just been replaced on the drive and steer axles with new Bridgestones after 174,000kms.
Stan
Our fleet use ATS, and we now run an all-Michelin group product policy which (in theory) means we get continuity of product, regardless of which depot we use in the country. We operate mainly hiab-type lorries & trailers and don’t do big mileages. We suffer more from tyre scrub and damage, so we don’t fit ‘energy’ or long-distance type tyres. After different trials, we’ve now settled on:
Tractor units and drawbar rigids:
Steer axle - new Michelin XZE2+, or new Taurus 2000F as a ‘budget’ fitment for older vehicles.
Steer axle ‘super single’ - new Michelin XZY3, which are then regrooved and fitted to the trailers.
Pusher/2nd steer axle - regrooved (ex steer axle) tyres
Drive axle - remix Michelin XDE2+, or Michelin encore as a budget option. The XDE2 ‘block’ pattern is tough and not prone to wheelspinning.
Tag axle - new Taurus 2000U (this has been a real ‘find’ for us, it has an old style zig-zag on/off road pattern and takes plenty of shoulder abuse)
Hiab-equipped trailers (17.5" rims): remix Michelin XTE2+
Step-frame/ramp trailers (17.5" rims): new Taurus 2000T
flats/curtainsiders (super singles): new Taurus 2000T, or remix Michelin XTE2
drawbar trailers (17.5" rims): regrooved tyres from our stocks, or Taurus 2000T
lee mat:
i no when looking for tyres its get the best but on the shall we say the economy range would you go for a budget tyre a good make part worn or remould looking at drive axle and trailer tyres not front steer can any of you recomend any makes
I find Continental HSR on the Steer of my Volvos as good as anything else.Bridgestone a hard wearing tyre but I always found once they started to shoulder they would go off very quickly.Now at the risk of being ridiculed Michelin Encores on the drive axle and for trailer use as well.Have one or two
Double Coin Well the Chinese make everything else!!! too early to pass judgement on wear and durability. In the perfect world I would probably have all Michelin,but cost does play a part these days .Conti over £100 cheaper and do as well.
Td tyres want £264 for bridgestone 295 drives, thats them delivered on a pallet, invest in a set of levers and fit them your self…
Double coin are ok for drive axle or lift axle ( although I usually cut the sidewall before I wear the tyres out spending a lot of time on farms)
used to run the Daf on them or Michelin Encores
Bridgestone R297’s on front or Hankook AH22’s.
Double Coins or Encore Michelin ones of the rear at the moment, although Hankooks are ok for them. I tend to ■■■■■ em before I recut them running into crap quarries.
The number one important thing with tyres is the rolling resistance, a tyre with a low rolling resistance can save you a fortune in fuel (the best and worst could have as much as .5mpg difference in them) and if you get a tyre with a poor rolling resistance that lasts forever then it makes matters worse for longer.
At current fuel prices (or anything over 3 quid a gallon) a low rolling resistance tyre will cost you less overall than a longer lasting tyre with higher rolling resistance, even if the low rolling resistance tyre is twice the price to begin with.
This is not propaganda or statistics, but plain old physics, the easiest way to prove it is to imagine, or remember, riding a pushbike with soggy tyres, it was a lot harder to ride and slower than when you had pumped them right up, that’s rolling resistance in a nutshell, you used far more muscle power to get along on soggy tyres, swap muscle for diesel when it relates to lorries.
The company that is really up on rolling resistance is Michelin, their energy tyres have really low rolling resistance.