This year, Kenda's sales team took more than 100 dealers from Phoenix to Prescott, Arizona on an off-road trail called, "Backway to Crown King." Take a look at photo from the ride-and-drive.
Madeleine Winer is Editor of Tire Review magazine. She joined the Tire Review staff as a senior editor in 2017. Before joining the tire industry, she worked as a producer and reporter at the Louisville Courier Journal. She is a graduate of Kent State University with a bachelor's degree in journalism and speaks Spanish fluently.
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During a four-day trip to Arizona, Kenda Tire dealers and distributors experienced Kenda products in a rugged off-road environment as part of Kenda’s Light Truck Boot Camp. This year, Kenda’s sales team took more than 100 dealers from Phoenix to Prescott, Arizona on an off-road trail called, “Backway to Crown King.” Originally used as a mining trail in the early 1900s, the 27-mile trail is rated “moderate” to “difficult” among various off-road forums.
As part of the Boot Camp, now in its seventh year, dealers and distributors also participated in a classroom session at Rawhide Western Town & Event Center where they learned about the engineering and testing that goes into Kenda’s products as well as what the brand thinks are its market differentiators and value proposition for dealers. Finally, the group trucked across the street to Wild Horse Motorsports Park to see traction demonstrations that showed on Kenda’s product fared in different terrains compared to its competitors.
Check out all the action from the trip below.
Kenda sales staff shows the performance characteristics of its Klever R/T KR601 during traction demonstrations of Kenda’s tires in mud, sand, rock and silt compared to their competitors the first day of the trip at Wild Horse Motorsports Park. Kenda Tires’ Mike Higgs, regional sales manager, in his lifted Chevrolet K5 Blazer, led 10 Jeeps filled with Kenda dealers and distributors driving north to Crown King, a former mining town, on the off-road trail, Backway to Crown King.Participants traversed through various terrains including mud, sand and rocks.Kenda staff cooked and served participants a lunch of bulgogi, a Korean beef dish served with steamed rice, on the trail.Stops on the trail allowed participants to switch Jeeps to compare Kenda tires to its competitors.Mike Higgs, Kenda’s central U.S./Canadian regional sales manager, instructs a driver part of Kenda’s Light Truck Boot Camp to maneuver through a rock-crawling obstacle on the Backway to Crown King.Three groups of dealers and distributors attended Kenda’s Light Truck Boot Camp, and this was the last group to take to the trail, Kenda staff reminded them that the tires they were relying on to make it through were the same ones from the start of the boot camp. “These are really educated tires,” Higgs explained, adding that the tires had traveled more than 100 miles on and off-road. “You’ll really get an idea for what happens when the consumer gets them and runs them.”A Jeep equipped with the Kenda Klever R/T KR601 maneuvers over rocks and loose dirt after participants helped build a bridge to give the vehicle more leverage to climb the obstacle. A GoPro image shows the Jeeps in formation on the trail with mud splattered on the passenger side door and caked into the wheels.Jeeps arrive in the Prescott National Forest sprinkled with evergreens, a contrast from the dry, desert lands the trip started out on in Phoenix.The group of dealers and distributors at Kenda’s Light Truck Boot Camp posed outside The Mill restaurant flanked by antique mining equipment.
Sumitomo Rubber North America (SRNA), a subsidiary of Sumitomo Rubber Industries, has promoted Eduardo Chariarse to field engineer manager. According to SRNA, Chariarse has extensive experience in his field, working as a commercial truck field engineer in the tire industry for the past 21 years. Joining SRNA in 2021 as a field engineer, he has been responsible for the coordination, implementation, and reporting of tire evaluations, troubleshooting, and providing technical support to fleets, dealers and the sales team.
Miller previously spent four years with Snap-on as an equipment specialist, and most recently with GPC/NAPA at the St. Louis company-owned auto parts stores.
