Wide Base Tires (Super Singles)

Wow is what I said too when I got there with a tire and saw the mess. It was a shame. The truck was 8 years old and never had a dent or a scratch on the cab or hood until that tire blew.

 

I Read a News Release that CFI was competely Changing their entire Fleet over to the Michlin X1's... i'll see if i can find the link

heres the full Article
FUEL ECONOMY: Sipping Strategies

 

One other issue that hasn't been addressed on here is if you look closely at trailers and trucks using X-1's, you will notice that the overall result is that the stance of the trailer is narrower with the X-1's on it. A set of duals on the axle sticks out further than the singles do, with the net result that the trailer is sitting on a slightly narrower tread path. Consequently, the tipping poiint of the trailer is a little bit lower in a turn, and there's a slightly higher possiblility of rollover if the driver isn't careful. I suspect that eventually the axle manufacturers are going to have to come out with different axles and wheel ends for the super single tires to get the width back out where it needs to be.

Simple physics, if you have something tall (like a trailer!) you want it to be supported by the widest base possible.

 

I'm afraind that I wouldn't buy that argument from Michelin. The amount of the contact patch has no effect there, it's the overall width that makes for the stability. The wider a base is underneath something, the more stable it is going to be. It's like a kids tricycle. Make it wide enough at the back, and no matter how hard he tries, he can't tip it over.

And if it was solely based on tire contact patch, then the wheel end and axle makers wouldn't be changing their product. That costs money, they don't just do it on a whim.

 

Yeah same truck. He got it fixed somewhere, but I don't know what it is like to operate now. I'll bet it isn't quite the same. It's a shame, it was "all that" back in 97 when we put it together. I don't think it has 50,000 miles on it yet.

 

The company I work for has super singles on about 80% of it's fleet. All these will be phased out over the next few years.
They seem to like to wonder highways with uneven pavement. They get scary poor traction on wet roads when bobtailing. Gotta be very careful. They are very easy to spin when taking off from a light. They get poor traction even on dry surfaces. I was pulling an empty out of a dock, made a sharp left going back up the hill to the exit. The super singles started to spin halfway around that tight curve. Both were spinning after I locked in the power divider.

I left black marks on the road :smt044

 

^ Never heard or seen this before. I call BS.