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Rolling Forward: Tiremakers Improve Fleets' Fuel Efficiency Through Technology
February 09, 2010
Modern trucking fleets face difficult challenges on a day-to-day basis. Fuel efficiency is one of the most important concerns to the contemporary fleet owner. Volatile oil prices dramatically affect the cost of fleet operations and maintenance. Growing environmental concerns push the development of green technologies and shape consumer perceptions of businesses. New government regulations to decrease... read more
 
Cooling Down: Reducing Heat is Key to Improving OTR Tire Performance
January 18, 2010
While the tire market has been soft the last two years, tire development hasn’t slowed, especially in the giant radial OTR sector. We’ll look at the latest tire technologies and how they improve tire performance in the field. The OTR tire market may have experienced some slowing over the last couple of years but the push by giant OTR radial tire users for faster and more efficient... read more
 
Interpreting Angles: The Important Relationship Between Caster, Camber and Toe
December 15, 2009
When talking about the big three in a vehicle’s suspension, caster is probably the hardest to visualize and the least mentioned. Camber and toe are much easier to wrap your head around, but it’s important that we understand caster because if we don’t, the customer may notice a diminished lack of handling. Perhaps caster can best be defined as the steering pivot angle of the... read more
 
Dodging Disaster: Follow These Simple Steps to Avoid Costly Wheel-Offs
October 14, 2009
There are always problems in a tire dealership that can be very difficult to solve. A disagreement over vacation time that leaves you short handed. An angry customer who is back for the third time with brake problems. Fortunately, these are generally dealt with through some good negotiations resulting in an amicable agreement – and, hopefully, a satisfied customer. Then there are problems... read more
 
Angled Approach: A Refresher Course on Slip Angles and Cornering Force
August 15, 2009
This time I’m going to present some basics about slip angles and how they affect you and your tire customer. Let’s begin by considering a car going through a corner. As the car progresses through the corner, there is centrifugal force acting on the car (and its passengers), which tends to pull the car toward the outside of the turn. No matter, the car does not slide off the road... read more
 
Keeping Quiet: How to Solve Noise, Vibration and Harshness Complaints
July 15, 2009
If there is anything that frustrates a tire tech, it’s the matter of resolving noise, vibration and harshness issues. The first hurdle is figuring out what the customer is hearing or feeling compared to what the tech hears or feels on a test drive. No two people are the same, so “persistent” NVH problems are common. And, more often than we care to think, tires are the first... read more
 
Micro Management: Today’s Smaller Cars Require Some Extra Attention
June 15, 2009
Long gone are the lengthy wheel-base land cruisers of the past. Their highway space has been taken by mid-size cars, compact cars and now mini- and micro-cars. All of these are smaller than the 1960 Cadillac that could have hauled five NBA starters. After all, it was nearly 19 feet long with a curb weight of 4,722 pounds. My late model 4x4 Blazer only has a curb weight of 3,536 pounds, and my... read more
 
Sand Man: We See it Everywhere, But What Does Silica Do?
May 14, 2009
Silica is sand and sand is silica. Sound simple? It is anything but. The good news is that we will probably never run out of silica anywhere in the world. The bad news is that a tire made of silica filler, as opposed to carbon black filler, will not deliver as much tread life – at least not yet – according to the experts. But tire compounders are working overtime to change that. Aside... read more
 
Weighing Options: Mechanical Balancing or Balancing Compounds?
April 14, 2009
There is no easy answer to this age-old question, because each choice has merit. Fleets on both sides of the argument are sold on their choice and most are not about to change their minds anytime soon. Think of it in the same way people think about cars. Some will only “buy American,” while others will only choose an import brand. Both sides are convinced their preference is superior... read more
 
Letter of the Law: Are Euro Sizes Pushing P-Metrics Out of the Market?
March 13, 2009
We have been through a lot when it comes to tire sizing regulations and how to keep our staffs and customers informed. From numeric, to alpha-numeric, to all of the metric options, it hasn’t always been easy to explain what all of this means to the consumer, often leaving them somewhat confused. All of these changes to tire sizing nomenclature – and size changes themselves – took... read more
 
Small but Mighty: Tire Valves Important for Safety, Profits
January 13, 2009
The lowly tire valve operates just the way it did when it first found its way onto an automobile tire back in 1898. It’s not that complicated to understand a standard (non-TPMS) tire valve, but if a mistake occurs in mounting or demounting, or a hard hit on a curb is not inspected closely, you might want to find your lawyer’s card in the Rolodex. While it’s most important... read more
 
Changing Ideals: Why There May Never Be a Perfect Tire
December 15, 2008
When I was working in public relations for a major tire company back in the early 1970s, an older scientist with an impeccable track record told me it was sad that he now had to spend his days working on the radial ply tire. When I asked why, he said, “Because we were just beginning to understand the bias-ply tire – what makes it work well and how we could improve it.” Although... read more
 
Ounces of Prevention: Taking a Few Extra Steps Can Prevent Dangerous Wheel-Offs
October 09, 2008
Wheel offs – they happen on 18-wheelers, they happen on passenger cars, and the news is always bad. The primary reason for this type of mistake almost always has something to do with lug nuts and/or studs. As lug nuts are taken off, note immediately if they are difficult to remove. This is the first step in preventing a wheel-off later on. If you encounter a resistant lug nut, remove the stud... read more
 
Ultimate Re-Learn: Today’s New Fuel-Efficient Cars Require New Knowledge
August 08, 2008
We’ve been talking about alternative fuels since the great oil embargo of 1973, but no dice. A friend of mine from Holland says all Americans are the same. “You put your hands over your eyes and plugs in your ears,” he often tells me. “You know what’s coming, but you don’t seem to worry about it.” He’s dealing with gasoline prices of $7-$8 (and... read more
 
TPMS Troubles: ‘Simple’ Tire Rotations With TPMS Can Prove Tricky
July 14, 2008
Bias. Everyone, whether it is politics, labor, religion, food, whatever, has a bias. Mine is government overregulation in the name of safety. It is with that built-in opinion that I will attempt to explain what tiremakers, TPMS tool manufacturers and sensor makers want you to know about tire rotation and TPMS. The other day my left rear tire went down in an instant thanks to a catastrophic... read more
 
Mystifying Math: Addition to Tire Sidewalls Leaves Consumers Confused
June 17, 2008
When we bend over to read a tire sidewall, we practically need a magnifying glass to read all the information, especially on super low aspect ratio tires. Why is this? It seems we’ve added – and will continue to add – more and more tire nomenclature, all of it designed to save us from ourselves. Despite every raised black sidewall letter or number put there to save our souls, most... read more
 
Bottoming Out: With Aspect Ratios, How Low is Really Too Low?
May 22, 2008
With Aspect Ratios, How Low is Really Too Low? In my lifetime tire aspect ratios have ranged from an 85-series to a 25-series. Did you ever clean the whitewalls on a 1952 Chrysler Imperial? Be thankful you didn’t. That’s why I like the new lower aspect blackwall radials. Not only are they easier to clean, they are radials, they handle astoundingly well, they give me a lot more... read more
 
Warranty Blues: Tire Warranties, Frustrated Consumers and Baffled Dealers
April 28, 2008
Tire Warranties, Frustrated Consumers and Baffled Dealers A major tire company executive once insisted that there was no place for a radial ply tire in the U.S. Months later he was replaced. Those were the days when a radial was expected to return nearly 40,000 miles – astounding for that time. The driving public, Detroit and tire dealers started clamoring for American-made radials... read more
 
Stagger Savvy: Front to Rear Size Differences Require Special Knowledge
March 26, 2008
Front to Rear Size Differences Require Special KnowledgeSome of the top tire dealers I’ve encountered are those who elect to understand virtually everything they can about a tire, its performance level, its construction features, its overall diameter and its OE assigned position. This includes corner-by-corner knowledge, as well as being front-to-rear axle savvy. When we drive past a... read more
 
Form vs. Function: Performance Still Most Important in Today’s Tires
January 25, 2008
During a long career in the tire biz, I’ve seen a few tires that simply didn’t look right. Once upon a time, a tire company rolled out a cantilevered sidewall that looked as strange to me as it must have appeared to would-be tire buyers. It didn’t sell. Neither did a one-ply bias tire billed as being better than a two-ply bias tire. That was back in the pre-radial 1960s and consumers... read more
 
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