Super Singles

wide tires ride on top of snow,not biting down into it.

kind of like a snowmobile.

 

One was on a flatbed hauling steel...

 

You got that right, they don't bite down and grab. You learn to adapt to them but I will never prefer them to duals. On the trailer only wouldn't be so bad, but having them for drives is challenging on wet, snowy, muddy roads.

 

My company is ordering all new trucks with single drives. No singles on the trailers just yet. With that in mind our trucks with the singles have a 295/75R22.5 spare tire mounted to a rim on the catwalk. The reasoning is that it can be put on the tractor by a road road rescue truck and we'd be able to limp to a tire shop where we could get a wide base tire mounted, and rim if the rim is toast. Plus the spare works on our trailers. As far as I know, only one or two of the wide base tires have ever failed.

 

I've never had a failure on a wide single, either tractor or trailer. I think that keeping a close eye on tire pressures and tire condition is key to them...and those fancy tire-inflation systems on newer trailers with singles are nice too.

 

If you recall, DieselBear addressed this some time ago. If you aren't half-way into the repair bay at the truckstop/garage, a cop has no idea where you're going. In your imaginary world, you can pretend what you want. In the real world where we all truck, you're getting a ticket for operating on a flat tire. And 30 CSA points.

 

Patty , super singles actually ride pretty nice, you have 4 less tires to check on your tractor and nothing to worry about , my " opinion " is they are a little squishier in cornering on the highway but its not bad , they glide over a lot of rut's and bumps pretty nicely , the flat thing isn't a huge issue anymore since your working for a company and you just make a phone call til its fixed. their are a few drawbacks in comparisons but they go from a-b all day long same as duals do .

 

That all depends upon the cop and how well you know what the regulations allow you to do. I have never received a ticket for limping to a repair shop. Even when I was fully loaded & pulled a blown outer tire off the rim to continue on up the road to get it replaced, yes I was stopped & harassed, but after the state trooper talk it over with his DOT guy, I was let go with nothing more than a verbal warning. The law says that if the equipment failure happens during operation of the vehicle, you are allowed to continue operating the vehicle to reach a safe location to have repairs made. You can ONLY do that if it is safer to the public to continue driving the vehicle than it would be to park it where the defect was noticed. In other words, if you are chucking rubber, you are creating additional hazards by driving the vehicle...so you would not be allowed to continue driving. However, once that blown tire has been removed, it is now more dangerous to have the truck sitting on the side of the road than it is to move it to a safe location for repairs to be made.

If you want to play the game, it helps to know the rules. They are all right there in that little green book. You either know them, and use them to your advantage as you try to get the job done, or else you bend over and grab your ankles as you allow others to use the regulations against you. Yes, there is a regulation that says you cannot operate on a bad tire. However, there is another regulation that exempts you from that under specific situations. If you do not know where to find the exemption that works in your favor, or the extents of that exemption, then you will receive a ticket because the cop sure as heck isn't going to mention it.

 

...and if you are sitting on the shoulder of a busy interstate, or on a busy 2-lane road with no shoulder, you are a serious road hazard to other motorists, and your life and the life of whoever comes out to fix that tire is at serious risk of ending as the work is being done. That in and of itself is reason enough to avoid them. Is the life of the tire guy worth the extra few tenths of a mile per gallon? Is your life worth that extra 1/2 ton you might be able to haul?

...interesting: http://www.arc.unr.edu/Workshops/Wide-Base_Tires/NCHRP_1-36-Single_Tires.pdf

 

Good point Bull Dog , I did the Chicago rail yard gig to stay busy. The co. recapped the china trl tires 12 times, so ya have alot of blow outs. On my 1st flat , I asked for the locations of the tire shops and would get on a off ramp, service plaza, truck stop in the area of the tire shop. In the suburbs on the north side, people are flying trying to make up time, it,s too dangerous to have a tire man out there. There always very thankfull for getting the equiptment to a safe location, the dot won,t bother ya . As long as the tire isn,t chucking rubber. Super singles are the dumbest thing to ever go on a truck, bad in snow they don,t break threw they float on top, not good in curves, with new trucks a slight loss of grip the truck automatically brakes. When your in a curve that,s game over. The same in the rain, if you cross PA. all the time your gonna have alot of fun. There have been know to do alot of damage when they blow.