New tires or Recaps?

I think I've only ever had three blowouts, two of them steer tires, all of them virgins.

 

That's some bad luck!!! Remind me never to take you to the casino...LOL

I've been running the shop at my current job for 12 years. We've run 15 million miles in that time, and I've only had one steer tire fail. There was absolutely nothing left of it, and it was impossible to figure out what happened. However, we only run Michelin XZE's (until about 3 years ago) Michelin XZE2's (the XZE replacement) and Michelin XZA3's on the steers. I pull them off at around 80k miles (or when the tread starts to decouple at the edges) and stick them on a trailer. Most of the XZE2's still have at least 16/32 of rubber left at that point. I consider it cheap insurance, and it has proven to be pretty cost effective. The XZE2 is a great local/regional steer tire, but isn't worth a rip for a linehaul tire. It's got way too much meat on it, and will typically start decoupling at the edges around 70k in a linehaul application. However, even with some decoupling, used XZE2's will last 120k on the back axle of a spread axle flatbed and the scrub will flatten that puppy right out and it will last a long time. I've got some tandem axle flats, and I stick the non-decoupled XZE2's on those, and can usually expect 140k miles of service from them when they have around 16/32 of meat on them, and that's in local LA delivery use. You have to keep a close eye on the XZE2.....when it starts to decouple, you'd better get it off the steer axle. They can go from great to garbage in about 12k miles, so we don't get greedy with them. I'll pull them off with even a slight amount of irregular wear on them, and put them on a trailer. It may sound like a jacked up program, but it works for us. The chief bean counter at the company rarely tells me what to do, and what to run, but he stands firm on his order to only run Michelins on steer axles, and considering how well they have done, I stick with them. On a side note, The XZA3 steer tires were an experiment for our trucks that run our LA to AZ and Northern CA routes. They don't decouple near as much as the XZE2's but they don't like regional/high scrub applications at all. Every one of them got pulled off before 100k, and replaced with XZE2's. They cost the same, and didn't leave us much to work with when they were removed. IMHO I don't think the XZA3 is all that great of a steer tire in any application.

 

I have had different brands on steer and the only thing I can assume all of them wear the same: bridgestone, firestone, michelin, roadmaster, ohtsu - all of them became garbage in 60-80k on steer. Centramatic is spreading BS with photo of "328000 miles" steer tire evenly worn. I don't believe a word. I put on centramatic, I did alignment every 30000 miles, I did care about front suspension - always result is the same - worn steer tires at 60-80k. Now I see I'm not alone.

 

I'm just an O/O, and have nothing to gain by telling you this....You can get the Counteract beads at any Loves, you don't have to take the steers off the truck to install them, and you can get them for $15 a bag, one bag per side....just have them raise the front end, break the bead, throw the bag inside the tire, re-inflate and install the special valve core, and you're done, they're inside the tire.... I've put them inside my tires and have gotten amazing results.... zero front end vibration, and perfect tread wear.... I put mine in when the tires were new, it is the smartest money I've ever spent towards maintenance, without question.

 

The Equal powder works just as well, you can get Equal at any Southern Tire Mart.

 

I found out about the equal powder through an old employer/friend on the east coast. He sells truck tires, and one of his biggest customers runs dump trucks... he told me that prior to the Equal powder they had nothing but problems with steer tires and premature tire wear on these dump trucks, started running the powder, and the lifespan of the tires doubled.... for what its worth.

 

I run caps on my drives (24.5) and pusher (22.5 ) virgin on the steer (425 22.5) just because I cant get the tread design on the steers in a cap. I was using Oliver for my caps and when you blow 2 new caps in 3 days ( 1 sidewall repair 1 never glued the tread to the casing) I changed to Bandag and have yet to have a problem with the caps on a Tri Axle dump truck running 75,900lbs
in Maine. I do a lot of on and off road driving I have noticed no one has mentioned the difference in open shoulder or closed, open shoulder will create more heat and wear faster than a closed. Age on a casing is a big factor plus some company's will only cap a tire so many times before they wont use the casings even if it is still good I know I'm going to have to either breakdown and buy a set of virgins or take my chances with their casings.

What I'm running on my truck
Trying out a set of virgin Continental HTR2 425 22.5 on the steers
Pusher Axle is just a strait rib trailer tread 22.5 on mixed casings
Drives are Mega Trax on mixed casings

 

Saw a couple of FedEx Ground units on a fuel island last night and took a closer look at the tires FedEx is running on their doubles pup trailers. Lo and behold the recaps were all Goodyear uni circles.

 

Roadmaster steer blown up. Thank to Lord I didnt hit anyone on turnpike. Bosselman from Tulsa brought to me the new rim, tire and brake pipe. Overal $1000 immediate loss and also I need to fix hood. No more Roadmaster cr#p for me.

 

Yikes, I have Roadmaster steers!! Not at all happy with them. They wear very strangely despite all my attempts to correct it.

Edit: I didn't buy them, they came on the truck. I'm a Michelin snob usually.