Selecting the Perfect Tire for Your Fleet
Every freight company’s tire needs are contingent upon the various applications of its respective fleet. While short-haul fleets do more city driving with constant stops and starts, long-haul fleets can spend up to 90% of their time on interstates. Every freight company’s tire needs are contingent upon the various applications of its respective fleet. While short-haul fleets do more city driving with constant stops and starts, long-haul fleets can spend up to 90% of their time on interstates.
With more than sixty seventy years in the tire business, Bauer Built Tire understands the many diverse freight types and elements that have the greatest impact on tires. And to maximize their fleet’s investment, Bauer Built suggests that fleet managers ask themselves the following questions prior to purchasing tires:
- What is the intended use of the vehicle?
- What key success factors, i.e. weight sensitivity, on-time deliveries, route flexibility, and/or fuel costs, are most important to your fleet’s bottom line?
- How will the tire contribute to your fleet’s success factors?
To achieve the lowest overall driving costs, it is important to consider all the factors impacting tire wear. Identifying a fleet’s dominant application and determining a vehicle’s projected annual mileage will not only result in improved tire wear with reduced rolling resistance and better fuel economy, but also, in a smarter purchasing decision.
- Short-Haul – Spending most of the time in the city where sharp turns and stoplights are frequent, tires for these types of freights are being tested continually, enduring high abrasion.
- Highway/Long-Haul – Trucks that are routinely on highways tend to be driven at faster speeds, and can see up to 100,000 miles annually. These tires typically experience low abrasion with a long tread life.
- Medium-Haul – With annual mileage between 30,000 and 80,000 miles, these tires are subjected to a mixture of both highways and secondary roads. Tire wear tends to be of medium abrasion but with increased lateral scrub.
- Coaches and Large Buses – Conditional to their specific route, these vehicles travel any number of miles, and carry passengers rather than cargo. Tire wear varies from high scrub to irregular wear depending on annual mileage.
- On/Off Road – Due to more aggressive surface exposure, these vehicles, i.e. dump trucks, bulk haulers and service vehicles, are more likely to experience high abrasion. Puncture resistant tires can ensure longer tire life.
- Off–Road – With annual mileage tending to be less than 30,000 miles, these fleets, consisting mainly of heavy work and military vehicles transporting hefty loads, are dominantly driven over rough surfaces, such as gravel or dirt, resulting in significant chipping and cutting. Puncture resistant tires are a necessity.
While choosing the appropriate tires for your fleet’s application can extend the lifespan of your tires now, tracking a tire’s performance yields data that can influence and improve a fleet manager’s future tire purchasing decisions.
Tires should be considered as depreciating equipment whose value will no doubt decrease. But by matching a tire’s performance to the fleet’s applications, managers can control the rate of that drop. And while selecting the exact tire for a specific application can prove to be challenging, Bauer Built’s many years of expertise can accurately gauge a fleet’s function vs. tire wear to knowledgeably provide the perfect tire selection recommendation.
For more information related to Bauer Built’s selection of tires, stop by one of our locations and talk with our sales team.
Categories: Bauer Built Blog, Commercial Tire Tips
