maximizing the life of your truck tires

Maintaining & Maximizing The Life Of Your Heavy Duty Truck Tires

If you operate a heavy duty truck, you know just how effective it is as you complete your daily tasks. The introduction of these types of trucks has transformed many different difficult tasks into being much more simpler projects due to their capabilities.

Because of their durable chassis, powerful engines, heavy duty brakes and specific outfitting for a given job, this type of truck can do more work for a longer amount of time than standard trucks or other vehicles. Whether you operate a garbage truck, semi truck, dump truck or any other kind of heavy duty truck, you understand just how powerful these vehicles are and their importance to everyday life along with local economies.

 

Heavy Duty Truck Tires

While these trucks are extremely powerful and capable of completing difficult tasks, they cannot do half of the work they do without having a reliable set of tires. Without a set of strong and well-maintained tires, heavy duty trucks will either not be able to perform the task, or worse yet, struggle to perform their duty and cause danger to surrounding cars and personnel.

In order to keep your truck running effectively and maintaining the safety of those around you, it’s important to properly maintain your tires. Here are 6 different ways that you can maintain and maximize the life of your high quality heavy-duty truck tires.

 

1. Purchase The Correct Tire Tread Style

high quality truck tire maintenance servicesWhen you’re looking for new tires for your heavy duty truck, one very important item to note is the tire tread style. The tread of your tire has the capacity of not just determining how your truck operates in various weather environments and road conditions, but it can also determine how long your tire will last for.

Whether you’re regularly at higher speeds on highways or driving to and from gravel pits, the tire tread on your truck will determine how effective you are at getting each job done. Having an aggressive tire tread on a semi truck may not be the best option because of its consistent travel on flat roadways. This can end up causing unnecessary road noise along with reducing your fuel efficiency. With standard tires on a dump truck traveling to and from a construction site, the tire may wear out sooner than a typical heavy duty set of tires because of its extreme demands.

 

2. Ensure Proper Tire Mounting

One main issue that occurs with heavy duty trucks is the mounting of the tires to the truck wheel. If tires are incorrectly mounted, this can have a number of consequences. Before mounting your tire, make sure to inspect the rim of the tire first. This inspection will expose if the rim is rusted, damaged, in general poor condition, or if it’s perfectly fine. Just before mounting the tire, brush the face of the rim and clean off all the dirt and grime on it as this will ensure a perfect fit between the rim and the tire.

If this process isn’t performed correctly, you could experience different consequences such as a tire blow out, tire deflation, imbalance tire wear and more effects. Ensuring a proper tire mounting will extend the life of your tires and give you peace of mind knowing that you can continue driving without worrying about your truck’s tires.

 

3. Be Proactive With Tire Inspections & Maintenance

You should always be proactive instead of reactive when it comes to maintaining your truck tires. This means that you should take care of your heavy-duty truck tires long before they show any signs of distress. A reactive approach to tire management could lead to a tire blow out on the roadway or inefficient fuel consumption while driving on highways; both of these situations being less than ideal.

Proactively taking care of your tires means that you should inspect the tires regularly as it will protect against many preventable road mishaps and will extend the life of the tire. While doing this, make sure to check for any signs of tire deflation, weakening, cracks, bulges, tread wear, etc. 

If you are driving on a deflated tire, you will decrease your truck’s mileage efficiency which will end up causing more downtime because of more frequent refueling stops. It could also cause reduced steering and braking capabilities.

On the other hand, driving on an over inflated tire will increase the risk of losing the shape of the tire, wear more quickly and experience damage more easily when driving over bumps in the road.

 

4. Check Your Wheel Alignment Regularly

Another way to extend the life of your heavy duty truck’s tires is to perform routine wheel alignment. Making sure this item is addressed regularly is important to making sure your tires remain in good condition. 

Regularly checking on your wheel alignment can eliminate preventable wear and tear which will then extend the life and durability of your tire. While having your wheels routinely aligned will extend the life of your tire, it will also allow for the ride to be smoother and your fuel efficiency to remain at peak performance.

 

5. Drive At Appropriate Speeds

perform regular tire maintenance on your truck tires

While it may seem rudimentary, driving at an appropriate speed is very important to maximizing your truck tire’s life. If you end up driving faster than suggested, your tire will likely wear out sooner than expected. Though you may have timelines you need to meet, it’s always better to stay safe and avoid a tire blowout than risk your life along with others you share the roadway with.

 

High Quality Truck Maintenance Services

Next time you’re headed out on the roads with your heavy duty truck, remember to inspect your tires before leaving the parking lot. This short inspection can end up saving you loads of time and money if you end up finding something wrong with your tire.

If you’re needing service completed on your truck in the greater Minnesota area, contact the truck maintenance professionals at Blaine Brothers right away. Our truck service technicians will make sure your truck and whole fleet is ready for the roadways!

Blaine, MN

763.780.5130

10011 Xylite Street NE
Minneapolis, MN 55449

Cloquet, MN

218.879.6681

1325 Hwy 45
Cloquet, MN 55720

Clearwater, MN

320.558.9966

750 Heaton BLVD
Clearwater, MN 55320

Baldwin, WI

715.688.2404

2500 Alreich Ave
Baldwin, WI 54002

Truckaline

763.786.8863

9515 150th Avenue NE
Columbus, MN 55025