Educate Your Fleet Customers About Tire Air Pressure Maintenance

Want to help your fleet and owner operator customers get the most value out of one of their biggest operating expenses? It's simple -- help them establish a consistent tire air pressure monitoring program.

The reason that tire air pressure maintenance is talked about so much in the tire and trucking business is because it’s so important to tire longevity. Fuel and tires are two of the biggest expenses for fleets and owner operators. If they're not maintaining their tires at the proper air pressures, they are leaving serious dollars on the table.

What determines the correct amount of air pressure is the load and the traveling speed -- bottom line! 

We recommend always using a high-quality, accurate tire gauge and checking tires at a minimum of once a week.  And always when they are cold. The days of using a tire club or stick are long gone and were really never an accurate way to tell how much air is in a tire. Also, inform your customers to inspect the valve stems, cores and caps when checking the tires. 

Tires such as the Double Coin RR706  (pictured to the right) are highly-advanced products featuring the latest technologies in compounding, tread design and construction. With the correct air inflation, they perform as they were designed with the tread contact patch or footprint (part of tread that touches the pavement) being where the designers intended.  The correct footprint provides optimum traction, and durability is dramatically increased.

In fact, industry research reveals that underinflated tires will reduce tread life up to 25 percent. Underinflated tires build up heat. Heat is the number #1 enemy of tires, affecting the tire's rolling resistance which leads to reduced fuel economy. And, of course, too much heat can lead to tire failure and downtime, which takes more money out of your pocket.

Overinflated tires are also detrimental to tire performance and your bottom line. They are more susceptible to road hazards such as impact breaks. The contact patch/footprint is also distorted with an overinflated tire, leading to irregular wear characterized by center rib wear or rib punch wear.

Yes, it takes a little time each week to properly check your tires. But the payoff is substantial in terms of increasing the life of your tires, improving fuel economy, ensuring optimum tire performance, and reducing downtime due to tire failures. As the old saying goes, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.

By the way, the RR706 is an outstanding new mixed service tire in the Double Coin line-up for construction, waste and refuse applications.