Drive Tires, What say you?

TruckingSurv · Mar 29, 2014

At the Petro in Ontario, CA and looking for advice on drive tires, Volvo 10 wheeler, long wheelbase (300"), 11R22.5 currently and have 28,000 pounds on the drives and 14000 pounds on the steers, all the time, fixed load. All OTR, except lots of tight parking almost everyday at customer locations. Brand, type, etc. Recommendations? I knew tires would be soon, just didn't expect to do it today, so in a forced situation at the moment. TIA

TS

TruckingSurv · Mar 29, 2014

Samson tires anyone? Way less money than name brand, but I am skeptical that would be a wise choice long term!

zorry · Mar 29, 2014

I usually buy Michelin. Bridgestone,with Carrier discount.
Then I work hard to take very good care of them.
Sorry, no experience with lower cost tires.
Some are rumored to be very good.
I was taught never buy cheap tires or cheap shoes.

JoeS · Mar 29, 2014

TruckingSurv said:
Samson tires anyone? Way less money than name brand, but I am skeptical that would be a wise choice long term!

Shelby,
Aren't you still driving that medical equipment truck?
Why install second tier tires on that truck? Beckmann Coulter isn't hurting for money.
What's on there now?

Daffyduck528 · Mar 29, 2014

I use Continental. I get similar pricing on Michelin and Continental and my continentals tend to last longer. I'm not sure if Continental is considered a cheap brand or not. No experience with much cheaper tires. I had Kelly's at one point and I didn't care for them.

I also have just a single rear axle truck so not as much sliding around on the drive axle as a tandem.

TruckingSurv · Mar 29, 2014

JoeS said:
Shelby,
Aren't you still driving that medical equipment truck?

Why install second tier tires on that truck? Beckmann Coulter isn't hurting for money.
What's on there now?

Joe yes and I am sure they can afford the best, tire shop was pushing the Sampson tires which I hadn't heard of, we are going with a top tier tire, decided I can wait till Phoenix where I might have better choices at a real tire shop on Monday. I drive as a contractor for them, so try to get the best bang for the buck to keep them happy, however I am captain in charge and am NOT going to put junk tires on if I can help it. One of them is down to the next layer of rubber and I was concerned about passing a roadside, guys there said I was good to go for now, just need to watch it so emergency replacement wasn't needed. This truck has three brands on it now, trying to get that corrected, happened before my time, thus why I was looking for opnions as this is in same class as a large straight expedite truck. My leaning is a low rolling resistance all position tire in the Michelin line.

JoeS · Mar 29, 2014

TruckingSurv said:
My leaning is a low rolling resistance all position tire in the Michelin line.

I'm no tire guru, but you may want to rethink putting all position tires on both drive axles. I think you would want a bit more traction for the inclement weather.

zorry · Mar 29, 2014

I like TCI if you find one.
Owned by Michelin so the techs are usually a little better trained.
They will have other choices.
You want top quality. If you blow a tire on that truck the body damage would far surpass any possible savings.

TruckingSurv · Mar 30, 2014

JoeS said:
I'm no tire guru, but you may want to rethink putting all position tires on both drive axles. I think you would want a bit more traction for the inclement weather.

Joe, I don't know, the twin to my truck has Toyo drive tires that look about like steer tires, other driver who has been driving a lot longer than me says they do just fine, he used to drive log truck and said they even ran them there getting over 100k with quite a bit of off pavement usage. We usually don't drive in snow, and in my opinion a tire with heavy lugs usually wears faster and is noisy and on ice I don't know if the deeper tread helps or not? I guess since we seem to have some success with a smoother tire on our other truck, it might be a way to go, but certainly keeping an open mind to all advice at this point, thanks for comments.

Dynamite 1 · Mar 30, 2014

Michelin XDA Energy, lowest rolling resistance drive tire on the market !!!!!

mugurpe · Mar 30, 2014

I've got samson steer tires on a truck that runs locally. They're better than some other cheap tires I've bought in the past. The previous set of steers on that truck kept loosing significant chunks of thread from random spots, tireshop put the samsons on and they haven't lost any. Verdict: cheap and not the worst.

TruckingSurv · Mar 30, 2014

mugurpe said:
I've got samson steer tires on a truck that runs locally. They're better than some other cheap tires I've bought in the past. The previous set of steers on that truck kept loosing significant chunks of thread from random spots, tireshop put the samsons on and they haven't lost any. Verdict: cheap and not the worst.

Thanks for the report!