Fleet Maintenance - 28

ADVERTO R IAL

Sponsored by Cooper Tire

Cooper Tire Completes
Tire Lineup for Long-Haul
With the introduction of Cooper
Tire's PRO Series LHT (long haul trailer)
tire, Cooper is now positioned with a
complete lineup of high performance
drive, steer and trailer tires for fleet
customers.
"This completes our Cooper
Commercial Series as we now have
fitments for all positions," said Gary
Schroeder, Executive Director of
Cooper's Global Truck and Bus Tire
Business. "We are gaining momentum
with our Cooper signature brand.
Our tires are highly engineered, fleet
tested, and are well received by those
who run our Cooper Commercial
Series. The tires deliver as promised
and that's why we offer the industryleading warranty program that we do."
The PRO Series joins the Cooper
WORK Series (regional haul) and
Cooper SEVERE Series (mixed service)
tires.
The Cooper Commercial Series,
launched in 2018, is Cooper's premium
line of truck and bus radial (TBR) tires.
The line was designed to compete
against top tier tires that offer long
miles to removal, coupled with
uniform wear for retreadability. "But
the Cooper difference is we're bringing very high quality tires to market at
a lower price point," said Schroeder.
"This gives us a low cost of ownership
advantage, and that's what fleets are
looking for."
According to Schroeder, the Cooper
brand philosophy of high performance
at a competitive price is evident in
all the company's tires. "Our Cooper
passenger and SUV/ light truck tires,
for example, have been recognized for

innovation and quality," he said.
"While the trucking industry doesn't
have agencies that recognize commercial tires as do passenger tires, we're
confident that if it did, our Cooper PRO
Series would make the grade," said
Schroeder.
Schroeder said there are three
factors in developing a high quality
commercial truck tire: the casing, tire
design and engineering, and manufacturing precision. "They all have to work
together in order to produce a quality
tire," he said.
That quality, according to Schroeder,
begins with a strong tire casing. "That's
the foundation -- the backbone of the
tire," he said. "One of the keys to low
cost of ownership in a tire is the ability for multiple retreads. The more
retreads, the lower your overall cost,
and it's why we spend so much time
in the design and construction of our
casings. Our PRO Series, for example,
utilizes a four-belt steel design. If
we didn't have such a robust casing,
we wouldn't be able to offer such a
comprehensive warranty. It's a sevenyear, two-retread warranty. And, we
warrant for full replacement value for
the first 50 percent of treadwear. It
showcases the confidence we have in
these tires.
"Next comes tread design and
compounding, which provides traction, the ability to ward off stone
drilling through our patent-pending
stone ejector technology, while giving
tires fuel efficiency and chunk and
tire resistance," Schroeder continued.
"There is so much that goes into tire
design - balancing performance with

the ability to provide long miles to
removal. It's really an art, and we feel
we have skilled designers at Cooper
who really meet the challenge. We
also have a compounding team that
constantly looks for new 'ingredients'
to help reduce rolling resistance. And
we're excelling. In our steer and trailer
tires for example, we not only exceed
SmartWay standard requirements by 15
percent, but meet the EPA's GHG (greenhouse gas) requirements set for 2021."
For any tire to live out its design
life, uniform wear must happen. "And
that's a function of tire design, the
manufacturing quality, and ultimately
the maintenance practices of the
fleet," said Schroeder. "If a fleet keeps
proper alignments, our tires will run
out to their prescribed pull point - be
it 4/32nds for drive or 2/32nds for
steers. If your tire can't run uniform,
then you're pulling early and those are
lost miles."
To help ensure uniform wear, tires
leaving the manufacturing plant must
be a virtual clone of each other. "By
that we mean we have exact specs
and exact processes for each tire
during the build process," Schroeder
explained. "We have stringent tire
quality measures in place to ensure
our tires meet the exact specs. Part
of what we use at Cooper is x-ray and
uniformity machines to inspect every
tire coming off the line."

Cooper National
Account Fleet Service
Program Going Strong
Launched in October 2015, Cooper
Tire's National Account Fleet Service
Program continues to grow by offering competitive and uniform coast-tocoast tire pricing and service coupled
with centralized direct billing. "It
streamlines the tire buying process
for our fleet customers, while also
giving them peace of mind with our
National Emergency Road Service,"
said Schroeder.
"Now that we have our signature
Cooper brand fully launched - for longhaul, regional and mixed service - we're
accelerating our work with fleets in
National Accounts. They're realizing the
benefits of working with us, and our
commitment to providing high quality
tires at price points that give them a
low cost of ownership proposition."

Fleet Maintenance

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