Heavy Duty Truck Tire Issues

The importance of a heavy trucks tires and exactly where the wheels they mount on are pointed to a trucks operation and operating costs can't be overstated .  All  the net horsepower a truck uses, all the net energy a truck consumes and all the net work the highway truck performs is transferred through the trucks air filled rubber tires. 

Tires tell an ongoing and often a costly story  of what they have done (from the tires perspective) and if they don't like what they are doing and adjustments aren't immediately made,  a tires next step might just be to  ruin itself and in that process do what it can to ruin the heavy trucks fuel mileage and operating costs. 

A modern truck tire requires; 

•  the correct air pressure, 

• the right rubber tire casing and tire model for the job,

•  wheels spinning on an axle aligned at perfect right angles to the frame, tires rotating perfectly parallel to the frame of the load  and connected to the frame by a suspension that holds the axle at the perfectly correct  alignment angles, the suspension softening road shock  and maintaining stability in the process.  Less than perfect alignment causes rubber to be scuffed off the face of the tire and sustained perfection is not possible..

Tire pressure and the right tires are easy... perfect alignments are an impossible goal.  After all the suspension designed to float  a heavy load over a rough road surface, a suspensions function is to allow independent movement of the components it connects.   The rear drive axle suspension is responsible for alignment, keeping the rear drive wheels pulling parallel to the frame.   Different suspensions offer differing ride and alignment  tradeoffs and tire wear differences that are in the suspension specification tradeoff mix.  

Shocks absorbers  assist the suspension  and tires in efficiently softening road and movement shock. 

The front suspension softens road shock but has nothing to do with axle alignments as the principal of casters naturally align the center the spinning front tires equally distant from the center of the direction of force (vector) that the rear drive tires provide.  The tie rod length controls the front axle toe in setting, not axle alignment.

A telltale, uneven pattern of wear on a trucks tires are a trucks bell weather sign, often indicating the general maintenance of the heavy duty truck and how the truck is being driven.  It takes thoughtful maintenance and care to have even truck tire tread wear. 

The tire management and maintenance keys are; 

that all the tires run parallel with the frame; that they carry the optimum weight for the application; and the tire pressures are kept inside specifications. 

Even slightly mis-aligned tires or tires with inconsistent or incorrect air pressures produce drag which wears off excess rubber and takes excess fuel to do it.

Tire Selection means fuel mileage 

The use of fuel efficient tread designs can drop road surface drag by 10% and much more.  10 % drag reduction means about 5% less fuel.  Also, it takes energy to make noise.  Those trucks you can hear coming a mile away because of the way a specific tire design is slapping the road... wasted fuel.

Tire  selection, yearly shock absorbers, twice yearly alignment, daily air pressure and palm & fingers  across the tread checks are the secrets.