Tire Replacement Inquiry

What trailer are you pulling? Spread axle and tandem axle have different requirements.

For me I have found BF Goodrich ST230 tires best for my spread axle trailer. They have given me the best long term even wear and reliability for a moderate price. I can get them for $370 a tire in Tampa and I have a place in Chicagoland that sells them for the same price. My second choice would be the Yokohama (I forget the number).

For drive tires I have a set of Hankook DL07 with over 400k miles on them and still have 30% tread left. I bought them thinking they were just a cheap tire to get me over a hump. They have surprised me lasting this long. I bought 4 Yokohoma 417's on my front drive axle (The place I was at did not sell Hankooks and I had a chunk of tread missing on a tire and the other 3 were ready for replacement). They have been on almost a year,.. roughly 120k miles. They are wearing evenly,.. but I can already see that they will not last as long as the DL07's. The Yoko were $2100 for 4 mounted. IIRC,.. I only paid $1900 for the Hankooks.

For steers only the best will do for me. Michelin XZA3+. I have tried Hankook and Kelly steer tires,.. neither lasted more than 80k before cupping and uneven wear forced replacement. The Michelins will go 180k - 220k miles with even predictable wear until they are replaced. I have a place in Chicago that will mount and balance 2 XZA3+ Michelin steers for $1100. Here in Tampa I can buy them whole sale for $520 a tire,.. but have to strong arm them on the wheels myself.

My truck is an 05 Columbia. I do a 3 axle alignment once a year and steer alignment every 6 months. Freightliner alignments are pretty straight forward,.. the rears dont have too much in the way of going out. Pretty tough and reliable suspensions.

How long tires last will be determined how often your driver maintains air pressure and checkes them. Once a tire starts feathering or cupping,.. its almost impossible to stop it. 90% of the time its from uneven air pressure.

Hurst

 

best steers I ever had were Generals. BF Goodrich and generals do well on drives too
go to www.tireauditor.com, if you don't see the tires you want on the webpage send them an email about the tire brand you want,,bought a lot of tires from them at good prices too.

I recommend 16ply on the drives,, a little more money but they last longer.

 

A lot of people will take a bad steer tire that wore prematurely due to mis-alignment or other issue and move them to a trailer position. This is fine but you need to be aware that the cupping that was started while in the steer position will continue to worsen even after it is moved to the trailer position. In fact it may even wear at a faster rate depending on it's dual mate, suspension type, and other factors.

So, only consider this a short-term stop-gap measure and do not "budget" this protocol into your system, and expect them to extend your tire budget.

 

If you are a company driver, why would it matter, you won't be calling the tire guy, the shop will and they will either specify brand or go by cost of brand new.