Start 11/19

Lease ops can, but why would you want to? First there is the expense of buying 8 rims AND tires, although you would get some credit for the rims and tires you turn in. But, the downside is the increased fuel consumption to run the duals... a 0.5 mpg decrease in fuel economy will cost you something around $4500 or so a year. The name of the game is making money. Company guys drive what they get.

That was true 5 years ago, not today in the lower 48.

We're professional drivers, not hot rodding jerks. If you're driving beyond the limits of safety for prevailing conditions then you're going to have problems.

I've run them for 3 winters now without problems. The only time I chained up in that period was to get over a pass that had the chain law in effect, and everyone chained. I ran all the way up to St. Albans VT one March in a one-day, 3' snow event. No problems, the guys on duals mostly got stuck or jackknifed. On a slight incline into a loading dock the guys with duals were chaining up to get in it... I just backed right up. What problems?

 

This is what i always thought, less surface area cause you can cut thru the snow easier. Look at wrc rally cars, all run skinny tires on snowy surfaces and wide tires on on gravel and other surfaces like that. Ive always swapped onto skinnier tires in the winter on my car for traction and handling.
You can hydroplane at state speed limits, even if being careful. Yes name of the game is making money. So buying super singles will save more money and not cause as many headaches as they use to years ago? Thats all I drivers complained about when I worked for a small company on the dock. I guess I figured wrong, I figured it would have kinda applied to trucks to, but as my status states wannabe. Doing hard work im not afriad of.

 

What's your point? You scared to get out and throw iron?

 

There's only one variable that counts. $$$$ We're out here to make lots of it, and the fuel bill is the 800 pound gorilla in the room. The kind of cost savings that wide singles bring to the table pretty much means were going to run them.

 

If the aggressive tread on an X-One XDA wide single isn't enough, there's chains. Anyone who doesn't get the point of the cost savings that running wide singles brings, doesn't understand the economics of trucking these days.