Wheels and Tires 22.5" Vs. 24.5"

Tazz the tire companies themselves have sold 24.5's on the virtues of them turning less revolutions per mile. Since you say that claim is absurd I guess you can throw all of their claims out such as rolling resistance. One thing I never understood in their calaims is that they say low profile tires have lower rolling resistance. Is this per revolution or per mile? If its' per revolution than taller tires would have less per mile as they do rotate fewer times per mile. Thats where the claim of less wear comes from Tazz. It's also wear the lower heat claims comes from because the tire flexes fewer times per mile. Flex=heat and wear. This arguement will go on forever. Have fun with it.

 

22.5's are lighter and cheaper... that's the advantage.

Low grade? Plenty of them... they are called "B" grades... just about any tire that's not a Michelin/Bridgestone/Goodyear/Firestone. Or tires that have had a section repair done before retreading. I actually bought a pair of "Co-op" brand tires from another O/O several years ago. One had a 1/4" hole in it... they Michelin shop did a section repair on that tire and I had both retreaded... they actually worked very well for me and were on one of my trailers when i sold it... never a problem.

I only buy new Michelins... I have Michelin, Bridgestone and a few Goodyears in stock and on my truck.

I just sent 4 tires to my Michelin retreader... two virgin Michelins and two Goodyears for their second retread. So far those Goodyears (surprisingly!) have 840,000 miles on them and will surely make 1,000,000 before the next retread. They were on my drives when i bought my truck in Jan 2003.

Next week four more tires go for retreading... I'm now switching all my tractor and trailer tires to the Michelin XZE tread design (except the steers)... my FLD had all-position tires on it when I bought it and, after I switched to drive tires, I lost .25 MPG... I hope to gain some of that back with the XZE's.

 

The XZE is a good tire, especially for spreads, but they have a soft sidewall and the rolling resistance probably isn't that good. My trailer cam new with them on it. I probably could've got 300k out of them.

 

I just acquired four XTE virgin casings today... they will go to the retreader on Wednesday and will find their way onto my drives in a few weeks.

 

Let me know how they work out, I have 8 of them waiting for me to go pick up.

 

Have you guy's tried the ring tread retreads yet?

 

I have not. I also haven't heard anything all that good about them. I know the thought on them was to stop caps from blowing off/separating.

 

We have some on our trailers. Maybe 200(?) or so but it's only been six months. Sales man showed us one with 387,000 (?) supposedly. No idea if it was real or documented but with problems getting our Bridgestone drives they are talking about trying some of the drive tread since so far we haven't had a problem. Of course it's been nice and cool and we've been busy with our lighter customers.

I just got the last set of 4 Bridgestones and 4 Wanli (oh yeah great friggin tire by the way. Stopped to have it trued because shocks couldn't compensate) but my buddy may be getting ring treads.

 

Ring treads?

 

No seem like the older caps.