Why I hate wide singles on a truck.

Europeans haul way more weight per tire but drive way slower . I suspect they have a better quality of tire geared more for heavy weights .. personally I like my duals because I’ve had small shops single it out when a tire wasn’t available nearby and I was loaded light.

 

/sigh the whole "europe is better, americans are just backwards/stupid/stuborn" argument has always peeved me. Europe is in general a whole diffrent animal to the U.S. temperate climate, much lower speeds, diffrent truck designs, diffrent road designs, diffrent load rateings, diffrent trailer configurations and more.

Trying to compare euro trucks and lanes to american trucks and lanes is like trying to compare a pineapple to an apple. They are both fruit with apple in the name and there is where the conparison ends. Same for europe and the U.S trucking industry and hell most of the country in general. Trying to mock us for doing it "diffrent" literally makes the one mocking us look like a moron because guess what. We NEED to do it diffrently.

Super singles as have been mentioned dont work as well here as most of our rigs are usually in the 68MPH/110KPH range. We also have a heavily varying climate. You can literally start a trip and go through in order, a tropical cilmate, a winter climate, a desert, and everything inbetween in a single trip. The u.s has some pretty extreme climates and elevation changes compared to a lot of EU places. And keep in mind many of our states are bigger then entire european COUNTRIES. This means you ontop of huge climate varations can also have huge varations in road quality ontop of diffrent chemicals to treat and maintain them which has all kinds of long term effects on tires.

And sure tire blowouts can be prevented in most cases. However, i have had literally brand new less then 10 mile high end michlin Xlines blow because it got to 110F or around 43C and the temp diff between the shop and road was just that huge. Keep in mind we have had temps so hot here tires and bodywork has MELTED in the sun here. Alternitivly we had temps as low as -50F/-45C this year which also has one hell of an effect on tires. I had one week where i started in ND and ended in FL and went from -50F all the way to 85F in 3 days this year several times.

Also i personally blow a tire maybe once every 5 years but i am also parinoid about my tire condition and i thump in the PM and stick in the AM every day. Though i do average a flat or damaged tire every month (offroad truck that does a lot of scrap, figure it out) and have never once lost both duals. And usually even if i blow the inner dual i can stop break out my tire changeing kit and slap one of my spares on the rim and be rolling again in under an hour.

If its an outer dual i throw a pair of 2x4s down, drive up on them with the inner and can swap the tire in about 30 mins and most of THAT is airing it up. And yes i did do it as a company driver because i dont get paid unless them #### wheels are moving and usually ive near always been able to weedle the boss into giving ME 50% of a service call fee for doing it my #### self faster then they could get a tire truck out.

Super single? Not happening, im sitting till its done if it hasnt ripped half my #### axle off. And sure as i even showed in my last post, it CAN make sense to use supers. But there is a reason a LOT of companys are switching back. Not all of course and like anything there is a niche they work better in. But for many applications they are junk.

 

Just had an update theory on that contraption I posted. If something heavy has to be recovered from a field where the prime mover can't go, the tracked machine is unloaded and replaces the prime mover by using the 5th wheel dolly to connect to the trailer and go into the mud to do the business.

Not convinced myself .