The summer season typically sees more people travelling on our roads for personal and commercial reasons, including bumper activity prior to and during the holiday season. For the transporter managing a trucking fleet, higher road and ambient temperatures can present heightened risks to truck tyres during the warmer months. Thankfully, there are vital checks that can ensure truck tyres remain in peak condition despite sweltering temperatures.
“Heat is a tyre’s biggest enemy, because the hotter a tyre runs, the quicker the wear rate on the tyres,” says Lubin Ozoux, CEO of Sumitomo Rubber South Africa (Pty) Ltd, manufacturer of the Dunlop, Falken and Sumitomo tyre ranges for the African continent.
“It is the air inside the tyre that carries the load, and not the tyre. No tyre can perform correctly if it is not inflated to the correct recommended cold inflation pressure. If the cold inflation pressures are not correct or are underinflated when the truck and trailer leave the depot, this will result in the tyres flexing excessively because of the load that the vehicle is carrying, resulting in excessive heat build-up in the tyres and leading to premature tyre wear and tyre failure.”
To mitigate these risks, fleet owners must have a good vehicle and tyre pressure maintenance programme in place to ensure all vehicles and tyre pressures are checked each time the truck leaves the depot. This will save the fleet owner on mileage loss, as well as breakdown costs and operational downtime, while also better protecting the lives of drivers.
Transporters can improve cost per kilometre (CPK) and safety in the warmer months and beyond, by following these tips from Dunlop:
- Buy the right tyre for your application and wheel position. Tyres are made to provide optimal performance for a specific wheel position, for example, Steer and Drive position tyres don’t have the same tread patterns, rubber compounds and casing construction.
- Always use the right tyre to match your truck and trailer’s usage. There are many different tyre tread patterns and casing constructions for different applications, taking into account where the vehicle will travel, whether it will be a long-, regional- or short-haul and how much on-road or off-road travel is anticipated on the route. Placing an ill-suited tyre into an application will result in loss of mileage and a higher CPK.
- For warmer periods, you especially want a tyre that offers good heat dissipation, such as the Dunlop SP835A premium Drive tyre with enhanced re-treadability and improved uniformity of tread wear as a result of enhanced ground contact pressure distribution. In-house field application tests on the tyre in 315/80R22.5 SP835A showed an up to 18% improvement on mileage.
- Truck drivers must check truck tyre inflation pressure at each wheel position before each trip. They should not only check for underinflated or low pressure, but should also ensure that the air pressure is similar in each tyre. This will provide better CPK as well as increased fuel economy.
- Drivers should do regular tyre inspections before and during each trip, including checking tread depth and the inside and outside sidewalls of the tyres for any cuts and penetrations.
- Transport companies must perform scheduled maintenance services like tyre balancing, alignment and rotation on time.
- Never overload your truck past its recommended weight. When a truck and its tyres are overloaded, the tyres can no longer grip the road effectively, which can impact truck handling and fuel economy.
- Ask a reputable dealer for their professional advice when setting out to select tyres for your fleet, but always give them as much information as possible, to put them in a position to give the best possible guidance.
- Like maintenance, training both technicians and drivers remains critical when implementing a tyre management programme.
To support the transport industry and truck owners in getting the most out of their tyres, Sumitomo Rubber SA and Dunlop’s after-sales support and value-adds include a dedicated infield technical service team (ITS).
The ITS team assists transporters with selecting the correct tyre for the transporter’s application. They also provide recommendations to minimise tyre failures, and if these ever do occur, conduct a tyre post-mortem analysis to determine the main causes of tyre failures in the fleet. Customers are provided with added value services like load studies, route studies and fleet tyre surveys.
SRSA also offers a CPK guarantee that pays out the transporter should an SRSA truck tyre not outperform current tyres in his fleet. This is combined with a two-cap guarantee to give customers peace of mind when it comes to casing quality and re-treadability.
Ozoux says, “SRSA’s new premium long-haul steer and drive tyres are very popular and showing great market share growth in the past 12 to 18 months. The new premium Steer tyre, the SP320A gives exceptional mileage performance, reduction in uneven wear and the low rolling resistant compound offers better fuel economy. The new premium Drive tyre, the SP835A, also offers exceptional mileage to improve customer cost per kilometre. Its cut resistant compound improves re-treadability and the square contact technology in the tyre improves distribution of ground contact pressure resulting in even tread wear. The unique carbon properties in the rubber compound also reduce rolling resistance and fuel consumption.”
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