What brand tires do you like ?
 

I'm getting close to needing new steer tires 24.5. The truck has Bridgestones R250's now and they have worn well for my high scrub application (dump truck) But they are pricy.

What do you like ?

I like Bridgestone, but have been experimenting with different brands for the last several years. I have had good service out of Dunlop, Yokohoma and Double Coin. If you are mostly off road, there are a number of off brands which do a good job for much less money. You can find them for around $250-300. Yokohoma is difficult to beat for the money. There are other brands which I have tried, but these are three brands that have given me good service.

I have had good luck with both Continentals and Michelin's. I always select a steer tire based off of the tread pattern on the side. I prefer the shoulder of the tread be a solid as opposed to a broken. I tend to get better wear.

I had Bridgestones in the past and they seemed to have a number of belt separations occur from pot holes wear as the michelins and continentals seem to resist belt separation better.

I run michelins exclusivey, and get almost 250,000 miles out of a set of steers.

Its not the brand so much as the thickness of the sidewalls
Many OTR tires do not have thick sidewalls
XZA1 has very thick sidewalls which I like because I do a lot of ltl
you need to talk to a dealer who really knows tires

Thanks guys,
I've been looking up some of the Mfg's web sites to see what they have available. I think I'll try an on/off road style tire this time around and see how they do.
50k is all I'll get out of the R250 Bridgestones. Their wearing real nice and even too, but too many turns just kill them.

Bobby I too am in a dump truck and if I get less then 125,000 miles from a set of steers I am very upset. The michilens I get at least 150k in high scrub applications in the steer position. I trust you are rotating your tires on a regular interval? Once I started rotating mine, my service life more than doubled.

Like Sonny said, you need to talk to a tire dealer who really knows his stuff, and then go find another one to talk too. 50k is deplorable.

The left front wears faster so I move it to ther right side at about 20K.
I was on a job for the last couple of weeks where I was hauling 23 loads a day and only putting on 70 miles, mostly on pavement but off road at the dump end. I try to avoid that kind of haul..round and round...but was glad to be working.

I'd be stoked if I got anywere close to 150K. I'm guessing on the miles a little on the R250's as they were on this truck when I bought it, but had lot's of rubber...I'm in the ballpark on miles I think.

If I can get more life out of a better quality tire at a higher price I'm all for it. I was thinking the R250's were a higher grade tire that should give you the miles ?

The one thing that scares me about running a higher priced tire is that all it takes is one grade stake on the sidewall or one misplaced nail from some lazy carpenter and you are out alot of money.

I personally have never had good luck with Bridgestone. They always seem to wear really fast and once again be prone to belt separations(I have had 3)

I stopped running a M/S rated tire many years ago as they seem to chop up very very fast. I simply don't go onto any surface I don't think I can't make it off of without pulling.

Left tire wearing faster could indicate you are due for a front end alignment. I get one done every time I replace my steer tires and it usually sets me back about $135.

Did you ever run HDL Eco+ Continental(drive)?

Not yet...you had good results? I do run HSL's on my steer

I am Calling BULLCHIT on this one
 

250k On steers Yeah Right. Maybe on the trailer mounted to the spare tire rack which never has seen the road.

Aint no way in hell unless you rotated them every ten miles. and drove like a pornstar going to churh Real slow.

YMMV

hey bobby i just talk to my old man he buys Michelin's for steer tires and he buys them for drives but will only get then capped one time. HE will only run recaps if he supplys the casing. So he knows they only been caped one time. He also said he gets around 40-50k out of the steers :shock: BTW this is on a tri axle that gross 73,000 every load. Runs anywhere from 2loads to 15 a day.

NO! I'm just considering it, for my next change. :)

Do you have the balancer hoops?

And you probably do drive as described, right? Cuz you're running for mileage.

I run them at 105 psi, I find better pressure really helps contribute to long life.

Too many guys I know run them at 90 or 95. They always get funny wear really quick.

I don't have any balancers, I might put some on.

My experience has shown proper tire inflation to be the number 1 solution for extending tire life. I check mine every single day in the morning. I also have a hose reel with enough hose to fill every tire on the truck, just open up the compartment, pull the hose and fill them up.

Yup, as soon as you let the tire pressure drop, immediately funny wear starts showing.

I think a lot of people do not run enough pressure, and don't check often enough.

Hey Allan I don't know if you saw No_worries answer to my question on tire pressure but I know you read papers on this stuff and are up in the cold up there so I'll ask your opinion too.

When in the early morning the tire pressure is low cause of the cold, do you use that as the accurate temp reading? As I mentioned I saw them to be real low but when I got the the next truck stop and let it sit and cool for a couple of hours they never dropped to that early morning pressure as it was now warmer outside. I am nervous of filling them up in the morning like that when it is real cold out and then when it warms up having too much air in the tire. What's your thoughts on that?

Thanks.

Tire pressures are based on "cold" readings, not hot.

As long as the temperature is reasonable(anything above say 45 degrees), you'll be fine.

You're right the temperature will go up, probably a good 10-15 psi or more. Don't worry about it, the tire is designed to handle this.

Too low pressure is far more damaging then too high pressure.

Like I said, I run 105 psi COLD in all my tires, and I get fantastic tire wear.

Thanks Allan. Pretty much what No_Worries said. I wish these truck stop air hoses were better. Actually I'm now on the border of Idaho and WA and this Flying J has a whole seperate air station and this worked great. I wish they all were like this. I'm going to get those cat's eye things.

By the way I saw that you use all Michelin, I had heard they don't make that great of a truck tire though just what I heard as I am clueless myself. I saw an add for the super single Michelin One last night that said you can increase fuel mileage by 4% but the cost to switch to those must be mighty.

Thanks again for your help.

I've never heard anyone badmouth Michelin's quality. In fact, on of the more prevalent opinions is that Michelin makes the best truck tire. However, they are also about the most expensive. So lots of guys say the quality doesn't justify the price and you can get better value with another brand. I've only run Michelins and have seen no reason to do otherwise. The price difference isn't that much between their top-of-the-line and other brands' top tire and I've been extremely happy with the performance.

I see guys running Yoko's or Goodyear saying their getting 150,000 out of a set of steers and are happy with it. That's fine. I changed my last set at 200,000 and 8/32nds still left on them. If it ain't broke... :lol: