Wheel Analysis
Any wear analysis program is better than none – if for no other reason than at least you’re looking at your tires.
Evan Lockridge
ContributingEditor
In a perfect world, freight would never be late, shippers would always be happy and truck tires would roll over the roads with no problems. Never would you perform maintenance on your tires. You would just put them on and forget ’em.
In reality, tires can be like an ex-spouse – they can be costly and drive you up the wall. But unlike a former spouse, you do have some control over tire expenses.
One way to do this is with a tire wear analysis program. Setting up such a program requires keeping track of some basic information, according to Guy Walenga, engineering manager with Bridgestone/Firestone. This includes tracking a tire from the day it’s first mounted, factoring in if it’s new or a retread, the date, brand, size, wheel position, vehicle it’s on and mileage, plus air pressure.
From there, at each preventive maintenance intervals, you keep track of air pressure and tread depth, noting any rotation and general comments on the physical appearance of the tread or sidewall of the tire. You also want to note when tires are retreaded.
The benefit of doing all of this is tracking, and eventually cutting, costs.
"The one thing you want to do with a tire wear analysis program is use it to gauge the miles per 32nd rate of wear of your tires and to keep track of the total removal miles of your tires,” Walenga says. “You need these figures to figure out your cost per mile.”
The last time you enter information on a specific tire is when it’s removed for good, noting the date, tread depth and mileage on the vehicle. At this time, you also might want to give the tire a good once-over, says Darry Stuart of DWS Fleet Services, a former maintenance executive who now works with fleets to improve their maintenance programs.
At too many fleets, he says, “when tires come off the truck and they’re in the off pile, nobody looks at them. Then the guy from the tire company comes by and the fleet tells him to take these 10 tires and bring 10 back, but the fleet never has any idea what’s wrong with the tires.”
In addition to logging the cold, hard facts of a tire, a wear analysis program means using your senses to see and feel what’s going on with a tire.
"It’s almost like you have to read Braille to understand tires,” Stuart said. “You can look and tell if it’s scalloping, you can tell by touch if the alignment is correct, you can tell by feeling with your hand if you’ve got heel and toe wear.”
To help analyze what your tires are telling you, you can turn to the Radial Tire Conditions Analysis Guide, published by the Technology & Maintenance Council of the American Trucking Assns. The book is a comprehensive review of tread wear and tire conditions, including possible causes. Extensive photos help identify problems. A third edition has recently been put out on CD-ROM. (You can find out how to order it by logging on to www.trucking.org.)
In order for a tire analysis program to work for your fleet, you need to make sure it’s easy to keep up with. Stuart warns that smaller fleets can try to get too sophisticated in a tire analysis program, and end up with a program that’s too complex and doesn’t actually get used. For many operations, he says, tracking data such as the positions on the truck, the number of retreads, etc., is not as important as actual hands-on inspections of tires.
For simplicity’s sake, you may not want to keep extensive records on each and every tire in your fleet.
“For a small or mid-size fleet, work a representative sample of your vehicles,” Walenga suggests. “Representative meaning these are the types of vehicles that are the main body of your fleet and they are the main portion of your business.” In a fleet that has only 25 to 30 tractors, you may only have to watch a third to half of them.
Depending on how extensive you want your fleet’s tire wear analysis program to be, it can be done by keeping paper records or with computer software. Should you decide to go with the computer, make sure the program’s right for you.
"If you get one, make sure it has the ability to deal with tires in a substantial manner, including brand, size, pressure, original or retread, tread depth, mileage, etc., where you can keep all of the data you are trying to collect,” Walenga says.
If all of this sounds a little daunting to set up, both Stuart and Walenga recommend working with tire suppliers.
"I think the majority of people who sell tires have a huge knowledge about tires,” Stuart says. The key to taking advantage of this resource, he believes, is making sure you understand the difference between being taught and being sold.
Information you collect from a wear analysis program can also be shared with a tire supplier, especially if you find you’re having problems, Walenga says. Also, another set of eyes may spot problems you haven’t found. Sharing this information also can help you make the proper tire purchasing decisions in the future.
"This helps get your point across as a fleet to your supplier that you are not satisfied with something, or have them check to see if you’re getting the kind of numbers from your tires that you’re supposed to be getting,” Walenga says.
No matter how you put together and use a tire wear analysis program, you will get some degree of improved tire performance. That’s because even the most basic program requires looking at tires and checking air pressure, and those two things alone will give you better results from your tires.
