help with my drive tire choice

I once talked to an O/O at the company yard with the same attitude...that a cheap chinacrap virgin was better than any cap. He had just bought 8 new drive tires...still had the nipples on them....except I noticed 2 were already different from the other 6. He had ALREADY blown them out...hadn't even been on the truck for a half a day. But boy were they ever cheap! He couldn't quit talking about the "deal" he got on them....except he had already had to buy 10 instead of just 8...and it was still the day he had them put on. How many more would he blow later that day and over the course of the next year or so? How much more stuff would get torn up on his truck (he was missing a 1/4 fender....collateral damage from one of the first 2 tires blowing out).

I haven't seen him since that day to find out if his luck got any better with those tires...but a cheap virgin is probably MORE likely to come apart on you than a quality cap.

 

I've got this put together on tires.

And I have yet to talk to anyone that can conclusively prove any tire gets "X" amount better fuel mileage over a RR of 104 vs a 99. Most of the guys I talk to say they can't tell the difference in their mileages from one set of tires to another.


View attachment tires.pdf

 

lol....

I just recently, (back in Oct), bought a set of yoko drives, smartway certified TY577's I think....

they seem ok so far...

 

When measuring tenths of a MPG it's gonna be pretty hard to discern any real difference as there are so many other factors involved and these are all occurring simultaneously. You'd almost have to run out a set of tires, compiling all of the info, (detailed trip reports listing wind speeds and directions encountered during each trip, all roads traveled each trip, all weights each trip, etc..), and then develop some kind of software program that analyzes the data and charts it on a graph, and shows all of the trends over time....

And repeat that with another set of different manufacturer.

And then compare.

That would be the only way to really know for sure, and the difference should be discernible, but as a single truck owner I don't see it being all that worthwhile.

I guess if my hobby were statistical analysis, then sure...lol...

The driver in my decision making process is price of the tire...lol....

I got my set of Yoko's for $3377.00, (that was the price including taxes, installation, new valve stems, and the credit for the old casings ($50 per casing), we'll have to see how long they last

The Bridgestone's lasted 350k, but when I priced them I could never get a negotiated price below, I think it was, $4800...that price is not including taxes and mounting and yada, yada, yada...

I ALMOST bought a set of those Toyo's you're looking at for $3800

Tires are expensive.

 

I've had enough abnormal wear out of Yoko steers and drives that I will never buy them again. Not even a new and supposedly improved version. The indifference of the Yoko salespeople at the MATS show last year sealed the deal for me.

That said, the Yoko trailer tires performed adequately. In fact, almost as good as the Michelin XT-1 retreads that cost less than half as much (RR=102). I've bought two sets of virgin Yoko tires and the casings that survived are now making their way to a trailer position with XT-1 caps on them.

 

Iv'e got yoko's on the steers, put the counteract beads in them, so far no problems, fingers crossed.... I've got about 50k on them and they seem to be wearing ok...

 

That's about when I started having strange cupping wear on two different trucks (50-60k). I had all steers balanced and ran with Centramatics. Up to that point they wore as expected. Then one day I or the driver do a pre-trip and spot deep cups in odd places in the tread. Once seeing that, they go down to the cords fast in those spots. So if I were you I'd pay close attention to those. Especially feeling the tread for dips and low spots developing.

The truck I traded off in January was aligned and checked out, both steers were replaced and adjusted for warranty. The other one wore exactly the same, but limited time and not near a good dealer at the time problems got discovered dictated not bothering with the warranty. Unfortunately I did not keep the truck with the warranty tires long enough to see if it would happen again. It had other issues and I dumped it to stop the bleeding LOL.

Incidentally, the two trucks were equipped with different sizes (one I still have 22.5 lo-pro, the one traded was 11r-22.5) at different times. So unless they make all sizes on the same line at the same time, it wasn't just a bad day at the plant. I even refused to recap some of the drive casings that wore funny, they were so bad.

 

I've got a Dunlop steer doing the same thing. I have rotated side to side and it followed the tire. I've got about 50K on it now.

 

The last steer tire I put on the Century was a cheap Sailun for $300 OTD and is coming up on 30k and doing good. My T600 got the exact same ones put on as a condition of sale. I wasn't able to be picky since they were supplied by the dealer. Although their road service tire guy mounted tall rubber by mistake and I was able to pay their shop a little extra to balance the correct size ones when they exchanged them. They seem to be doing ok, but only up to about 20k on those. A little rougher ride than the higher dollar names, but nothing too obnoxious. If those Chinese tires make it to 100k with no issues, I'll consider them a good value.

 

Interesting. I just had a suspension repair done, (replaced spring hangar on rear axle), and had the alignment done, (it was off on that rear axle, not sure how many thousandths, but there are new shims in place), the guy who did the work is the guy who does all my suspension and brake work and he is very experienced and top notch... I also replaced all of the shocks... We'll just have to drive around and see how it goes I guess.... The truck rides smooth as glass, especially since the recent work... Western Star 4900ex with the Hendrickson air ride front axle.... I hope these tires don't go all to hell, (fingers crossed)