Help! How do you choose tires?

Speaking of tires, what is everyone's favorites. I run lo-pro 24.5. For the money, I have had great luck with firestone 591 steers and yoke's 517 drives. Over 300,000 on drives and still
6-8/32nds left. The 591's do really well on wet pavement. Good wear too. Downside is they have the tendency to find every groove in the road. I know a lot of guys love Michelin tires, but I haven't been able to justify the ROI with them. I wasn't a fan of Goodyear drives that I had before the 517's. Didn't get near the life out of them.

 

I run the Michelin streets but i also get a very deep discount on them. If i was paying retail price is probably run bridgestones.

On drives i have found the bridgestone m710 to be the sweet spot for life, rr, and price giving them the literary cost per mile.

On my spread axle trailer continental hsr2+. They have an extremely good rr and are wearing like steel.

 

The good tires Ive always loved thanks to Mack is the cross rib construction tires where maximum traction for moving forward or reverse against terrain that is absolutely off road. She will slide in a heartbeat on pavement.

But for big trucks OTR, I seek out the biggest tread, the hardest traction compound and the most standard all position tire possible. Then I fall back onto brands that never failed ever Yokos, Bridges, Mich are the top three for steers and Bridge, Mich for drives. Trailer tires are less important to me, except that they require the best in tread pattern for forward rolling and wet traction plus additional strength in side wall where possible. And very high weight capacity, like 6000 pounds and beyond. A set of 8 will carry 48,000 on what is supposed to be a 34000 tandem. So, there is that.

I don't mind spending a little money for tires that demonstrate endurance for distance. But what I will never do is buy a recap or any off brand that has no history in trucking.

Another idea is to consider nitrogen for the truck tires. You can run them cooler when going into places like Death Valley Nevada during summer.

 

Which tire is best Kinda depends on what type of work your going to do with them....

Local, regional or line haul....and weight matters too.

 

Any commercial tire shop usually has a salesman or 2 who are knowledgeable in truck tires and what works well in different applications. But you can also look at what others are running in a similar application and ask their opinion. I like Goodyear for steers and drives and I like the Bridgestones that came on my trailer. They all wear good.

 

Yup. What you are doing matters more than anything else. If all you're doing is bumping docks on good pavement, then a harder tires with a low rolling resistance and a ribbed tread pattern will suffice. If "turn off the paved road" is something that happens frequently, then you'll want a softer, open shoulder tire with good, deep lugs. If you're MOSTLY on pavement, but occasionally venture off, then you might be able to get by with a closed shoulder tire with good deep lugs.

Me? I prefer the open shoulder even though these days I'm not off the beaten path as much as I used to be. The possibility always exists that I can hook to another trailer tomorrow and be back in the dirt...and I'd rather have the ability to do the job without getting stuck rather than save 1/10 mpg but need to be pulled in & out of places.

 

The bigger names will cost the most quality always always comes at a price so be prepared to pay more for good quality rubber you can get cheaper tires however you'll find they won't last as long, however if you can find a cheap brand that does last the distance then stick with it.

 

In reality quality cost more up front and in the short term but is always much cheaper long term. A tire should cost a cent a mile or less over its useful life.

 

On 5 axles at 78 to 80k mostly I am one of these Michelin snobs whatever... I don't get much of a discount so ya they are expensive but over the life of them the cost works out to 1 cent per mile per axle... and no headaches.. I also don't recap anything. Old and thin? New only. Burn the old ones for all I care. Pretty sure they are all made in either Canada or usa as well.

 

I used to run Michelins...XDE M/S* on the drives and XZE2 on the steer. Great tires, but they got stupid on price. Ran a set of BFG DR444's (and I forget...maybe ST233?) and absolutely hated them. With the closed shoulder, I was getting stuck with brand new tires in stuff the worn out Michelins would have walked right through. So, now I run Kumho KRD03 and KRS02...less than half the cost of the Michelins, and I get more miles out of them. In order for the Michelins to make economic sense, I'd cap them twice before trading in the cases for credit. That brought my cost-per-tire down to where it is now running the Kumho tires, but I get brand new tires every time and trade in the virgin cases for credit.

Unfortunately, my tire shop moved an hour away...so I may try a set of Dunlops with a similar tread pattern that I saw at another local shop when I was in there for an alignment. Similar price to what I've been paying, too.

Every operation is different, and every truck owner is going to place a premium on a different set of values. Me? I like to get the most bang for my buck...both in quality and durability. While they were good tires, for me, Michelins just aren't worth the price...especially when I can cut my tire cost-per-mile in half or better going with an equally good tire (or better) for half the price.