Equipment World Digital Magazine
Issue link: http://read.dmtmag.com/i/353300
C ontractors hate leaving money on the table at a bid letting. But how much money are you wasting by neglecting your tires or by neglecting to estab- lish a tire management program? The amount will vary, but more importantly your tire costs are one of the few variables you can control. "Tires are probably your largest manageable cost." says Guy Walenga, director of engineering, commercial products and technologies at Bridge- stone. "A tire is not a commodity. It is a unique piece of equipment that has a long original life and can be refurbished and have an extended life through retreading." We asked some experts to point out where contractors and equipment managers fall short on their tire man- agement programs and what they can do to improve their ROI on this significant chunk of their operating costs. Here's what they had to say. 1. Low air pressure. If you've heard it once, you've heard it a thousand times. Maintaining the cor- rect air pressure is the single best thing you can do to increase the longevity of your tires. "Air carries the load," Walenga says. "The tire is just a sophisticated balloon to keep the air in there." Under-inflation causes the tire to flex more, which causes heat, which causes the tire to break down soon- er. A 22.5-inch tire will revolve about 500 times per mile, Walenga says. By design, the sidewalls deflect as the tire goes into and comes out of the footprint and that movement is what creates the heat. The lower the air pressure, the greater the flex and the more the tire heats up, he says. Tires should be at their target pres- sures, cold, at the start of the day. Tires mounted in duals need to be at the same pressure and additionally not have a variance of more than 5 psi, cold, between them. EquipmentWorld.com | August 2014 31 maintenance | by Tom Jackson | TJackson@randallreilly.com 8 reasons why you pay too much for tires... Maintaining the correct air pressure is the single most important thing you can do. and what you can do about it