Centramatic Wheel Balancers?????

i know i guy who has them all the way around, they work great

saves tire life by a noticeable amount

 

they do work but just a point to consider. The rear ones, at least the ones I had mount between the tires and I found out the hard way that road debris can get thrown up and puncture them. I'm sure the odds are they won't but mine did. then again this was many moons ago

 

That makes sense that it could happen, but I've been running them on the entire fleet for about 5 years in all positions(including trailers), and I've never seen it happen. Maybe just bad luck following you???lol

To answer the original posters question...In our 11 truck fleet, we average 425,000 miles on drive tires(changed at 4/32 tread remaining) and 185,000 on steers(changed at 5-6/32). We only run Michelin tires(have a couple trucks running X-1's that I am testing), and we also inflate all tires to 110 psi.

The first cycle of tires after installing the centramatics showed a tread life improvement of 26% better than we were getting without the centramatics.

Hope these figures help.

 

If it wern't for bad luck I'd have none.

How are the x-1's coming along? You have any data for them yet?

 

I haven't wore out a set yet to know what tread life is going to be,but best I can tell it won't be as good as I'd hoped. Looks like it might be 325-350,000. The good thing is; with singles on the drives and trailer, I am getting about .3-.4 mpg increase. The three drivers that have been driving them don't seem to care for them(They claim that they aren't as stable), so I am leaning towards NOT using them in the future. Between the loss in tread life and driver reluctance, I don't think the fuel savings are enough to make it worthwhile to use them. My operation is not weight-sensitive so fuel savings was the only potential plus.

 

let me know if you want to unload a set of the 14" wheels. oh wait, my truck has stud piloted wheels, can those be converted?

 

I'm not exactly sure what you are reffering to("stud piloted wheels") but I'm sure you could. would probably involve changing the hubs and such though. That is if I am understanding what you are talking about.

I'll be honest; My mechanical knowledge is very limited. My forte is the business aspects of trucking. Management(all aspects), sales, and "bean-counting" are the things I excel at.

 

stud piloted vs hub piloted. The old trucks the wheels are alligned by the studs and not the hub. Stud piloted have a dual lug nut. You put one rim on and tighten the inner lug which is actually threaded then you put the other wheel over that and the outer lug nut screws to the inner lug nut. one has right had threads the other has left hand. Basically they suck.... and don't even get me started with the in board brake drums vs. outboard drums!!

If I keep this truck any length of time I may look for a set of newer axles out of a wreck or something. Chances are I'll just run it a year or a few months and start upgrading slowly.