The area where the rubber on your commercial tire meets the road is the main
patch to be concerned about when it comes to maximizing tire tread life.
Heavy friction between the tire and the abrasive road surface will cause tread to wear away at a faster pace than usual. Tires made of poor quality are also the first ones to wear out visibly after each drive.
This is why it’s crucial to purchase fine-quality heavy-duty TBR tires and to take pre-emptive measures to maximize tread life. The following are 3 ways owners can effectively prolong TBR tire tread life.
Maintaining Inflation Pressure
Depending on the tire size and load weight, heavy-duty commercial tires operate optimally at a specific inflation pressure. One of the leading robbers of tread life is unregulated pressure resulting in compromised tread integrity.
Owners who overinflate truck tires may do it in the hopes of improving fuel efficiency by hardening the tire before decreasing rolling resistance. This practice only harms the tire tread quality. Instead using an automatic tire inflation device can maintain the tire pressure at a preset level and decrease tire wear.
Consider Tread Depth
Contrary to what many inexperienced people believe, tires with shallow treads generally last
longer than those with deep treads. By measuring tread loss by miles per 32 nd of rubber inch, it’s easy to see that deeper treads wear quicker than their shallow counter-parts.
Proper Mounting and Installation
You can prevent premature wear and avoid the following two types of issues by properly
mounting and installing your commercial truck tires.
- Radial-runout: An egg-shaped rotation pattern called radial-runout is a commonly
occurring problem when tires aren’t mounted concentrically on the wheel. To see whether your tires are properly seated, check the distance at different points between the wheel’s rim flange and the tire’s aligning ring. If the distance is uniform around the entire circumference of the tire, there’s no cause to worry.
- Lateral-runout: This is another major installation-related problem which creates a by
causing the tires to shake/wobble as they function leading to safety concern for drivers.
According to the American Trucking Association’s Technology & Maintenance Council,
lateral-runout is categorized as a side-to-side movement of the vehicle’s rotating structure. To check if your tires are running true, use a run-out gauge to assess the wheel assembly.