Why I hate wide singles on a truck.

i hate super singels once theres a blowout it destroys everthing along with it. i'll take doubles all day long

 

Thanks again for the "European" perspective. Easy to think us Yanks are full of it, and we are. Europe has an unprecedented record with singles, too much American pride here to accept that. Let's be clear, as for miles traveled, blowouts are rare, and if you blow one of a dual loaded, you won't make it anyway, and will be buying 2 tires. Personally, I never drove a vehicle with singles, we were just happy with tubeless radials, but never saw a need for any other type of semi tire.

 

Well, that "gator carcass" may have been there for a week, and 4,000 trucks went by. You make it seem like they peel one every second. And never had a set of duals go? I pulled rail cans for almost 5 years, and if one of the crappy duals go, the other one, usually underinflated, goes too. Okay, maybe American pride was too much, but American stubbornness isn't. Besides, not many companies recap singles. Considering per miles driven, blowouts are rare.

 

#1 thing that kills the wide base tires is our road speeds here. 70-75 kills tires.
Over the years We have been in warranty claim inspection training with Michelin and BFS and have learned that the North American market is still considered to be in early testing stages with them. Wide base tires are not the same as supers. Supers are the heavy ply tires used for heavy haul. They are built different and more robust and can take a great amount of abuse. They can be used on/offroad and have sidewall and tread patterns accordingly. Wide base are lightweight comparatively.
They have been doing well in Europe because of the use of more axles and much lower road speeds. Those two things take a tremendous amount of stress and heat away from the tires.

 

Yes, but they were what were called 'rag' tyres. At the start of each 'dry' season, all the worn but still legal (not that there was any law in the NT) tyres were put on one train and the rest were obviously told to look out for him(me). That way they got at least one more run out of them. The other blokes hardly had any flats between them.

The first 75 miles of the outbound leg was bitumen, the rest was dirt, and the return trip the same in reverse. No such thing as singles to my knowledge in those days (1967) but each of us had a total of 46 tyres on the road, not a bad average to my mind. The worst part of it for me was before the first run I was required to collect a small Dodge truck from the far corners of the yard in order to load it with useless tyres to take to the meatworks as fuel for the furnaces I suppose. When I got to the cab it was full of cobwebs and little redback spiders. Only later was I told they were dangerous so I gingerly reached in and turned the key to start the engine, then, standing on the running board I extended my left leg to the clutch, reached to the lever to get 1st, and then drove it slowly on tickover to the garage from the running board where an airline could be used to repel all the boarders.

Like you, I am not a fan of singles, mainly for the reason that you expressed, a simple puncture is not the end of the world and you still have one leg left to stand on to avoid a costly call out. Also, if you do have to change one, they are bloody heavy.

 

Yes, all trailers are tri-axle but, except in the UK, all normal tractors are 2 axle, not 3 as in the US. In Britain tractors have 3 axles but, unless double drive, the extra one is a normal single and can be lifted when empty. Thus a normal configuration in Europe is 6 super singles + 6 singles on 2 axles.
The maximum speed in the European Union and UK is 90 km/hr (56 mph), although strangely the original 60 max is still the law there even though it cannot be achieved due to the speed limiter.

While we are talking tyres and speeds here, did you ever have the horrors of 4-in-line trailers in the USA? These had 4 wheels at the rear, but in 2 groups of 2 with a little axle in between each pair. This axle was suspended from above, the official name for them was oscillating bogies and they were popular because the powers that be thought that they were the same as having 2 axles in tandem with a total of 8 wheels. What were those people on? Nevertheless I remember doing 75 with one fully loaded with my Kew Dodge. Young and foolish, even a puncture would tip that little axle on its side and the bed of the trailer would drop down with it.

 

How about this then? No blowouts here. Plenty of fresh air on a hot day and no need for wipers. I think the little arrangement at the rear is not what heavy hauliers use in the States to spread the weight (can't remember the name of it) but a 5th wheel dolly in order to pull a 2nd trailer.