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3 Commercial Truck Tire Problems to Avoid
Admin • Oct 12, 2019
Whether you drive a semi-trailer or a commercial box truck, road safety is likely one of your top priorities. Tires are at particular risk on large vehicles that travel long distances. A blowout at highway speeds can lead to roll-overs, damage to your truck or nearby passenger vehicles, and injuries. You can avoid these problems if you know three common issues that affect your truck's tires.
1. Underinflation Blowouts
Tire problems result in approximately
six percent of crashes involving a large truck. Of those, many could likely be avoided if the tire pressure is regularly checked. Blowouts typically occur because a tire suffers immediate damage on the road, such as by hitting an object or from air leakage over time that eventually leads to the tire failing. Although you may not be able to control the former, air leakage can be avoided.
Cause
Air loss occurs naturally. External air pressure changes, and driving down the road will cause slow leakages over time. Although tires that are slightly underinflated may not blow out, they will begin to reduce your fuel efficiency.
Blowouts on the road become more likely as even more air is lost, especially if the tires are all at different pressures, because then the stresses of the road can affect the tires unequally. Trailers are even more likely to have pressure problems, since these may not be taken back to their home base for major fleet maintenance for long periods of time.
Prevention
The only way to prevent underinflation is to check the air pressure in your tires regularly. Don't depend on "tire thumping," a commonly utilized method to try and gauge the pressure quickly by ear. Instead, always use a calibrated tire gauge to get an accurate reading of the pressure in all the tires.
2. Uneven Tread Wear
Irregular wear on the tire treads can indicate other mechanical issues with the truck that need to be addressed, but the most immediate concern is that uneven wear can increase the chances of a flat or blowout.
Cause
Common causes of uneven wear include problems with the alignment, underinflated or overinflated tires, mismatched tires, and failure to balance and rotate the tires. Caught early, many problems can be rectified before the wear patterns become irreversible.
Prevention
Pre-trip inspections are your best guard against uneven tire wear. Before you hit the road, visually inspect each tire to verify that the tread is wearing evenly on all tires. It only takes a few minutes to circle your rig and measure the tread with a tread gauge tool. Doing so allows you to catch any troubling wear patterns before they become a problem.
3. Mismatched Tires
The phrase mismatched can mean several different things. Tires from different manufacturers, different tire sizes, or tires at different stages of wear are all considered mismatched. Weight distribution tends to be uneven across all tires when mismatching is a problem, which increases the danger of a flat or blowout.
Cause
Failure to verify that the tires are of the same model and manufacturer is a common cause of mismatching. Tire replacements on the road due to flats and damage can also lead to mismatching, as can combining new tires with older tires that are beginning to show wear.
Prevention
Prevention is as simple as checking all tires prior to your trip to make sure they are of the same size and show similar levels of wear. At the minimum, tires need to match across the axle. If you have only a few tires replaced, make sure the new tires are on the same axle and that the tires on each duel assembly are also of the same size and relative wear.
Your safety and the safety of your equipment is of paramount importance, but even with diligence, tire issues can land you on the side of the road. Contact us
at Rusko's Service Center to learn more about how the right roadside service can keep you and your truck on the road.
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