Fleet Maintenance - 40

T I R E TA C T I C S

Factors to help determine
the lifecycle of tires
Upfront cost, fuel efficiency, tread life,
and casing value should be considered
to assess the true cost of a tire.
When buying a truck, astute fleets will make
the "which truck to buy" decision based in part
on lifecycle costs. They know the upfront cost of
the truck and can factor in service and PM costs,
expected fuel economy, and residual value. It's
a blueprint for success.
With tires, the thought process should be
the same. After all, tires are the second largest
operating expense after fuel.
Considerations for assessing tire lifecycle
include the initial cost, their effect on fuel
consumption, the wear life of the tires, and
the residual value. For instance, residual

By Phillip Mosier

The U.S. EPA SmartWay website suggests that
these tires should give a 3 percent improvement on fuel efficiency over non-verified tires.
Depending on a fleet's starting point and which
SmartWay tires are selected, it
could be significantly more.
To put fuel economy and tires
into perspective, annual fuel costs
for a truck running 100,000 miles
per year, averaging 7 mpg with
value includes the retreadability of
fuel prices at $3 per gallon, would
a tire if the fleet is using retreads or
be about $43,000 annually. In this
the market value of casings if a fleet
example, every percentage point
chooses not to use retreads.
reduction in fuel consumption
would translate to a $430 savings.
Lower rolling resistance, which
is designed to decrease the drag
» Considerations
of a tire, can help improve fuel
Tire price will be a clear-cut factor
for assessing tire
efficiency. SmartWay-verified
when considering different tire
lifecycle include:
tires are designed to have a lower
models. It's the first factor when
initial cost,
determining the cost of ownership effect on fuel
rolling resistance. As a SmartWayover time, or miles.
verified tire, about 30 to 40 percent
consumption, wear
Miles to removal is a straightfor- life of the tires,
of the fuel in the calculation above
would be needed just to overcome
ward measure of tire performance and residual value.
that has typically been used to calcu- Photo courtesy of
the loaded tire rolling resistance.
Presumably, fleets are already
late tire operating cost over time, or Cooper Tire & Rubber
running tires that are at or below
miles. Simply divide tire cost (minus
casing value if a fleet plans to sell it) by the miles
the SmartWay limit for rolling resistance. Now
to removal to determine a tire cost per mile.
if a fleet selects tires for all positions - tires that
actually have rolling resistance 5 percent below
their existing fleet tires, for example - then fuel
consumption for the new set of tires would drop
The effect of tires on fuel economy is far less
by up to 2 percent, providing a total savings of
$860 in this example.
apparent because there are so many factors that
can impact fuel economy. But, it is very importIf the consideration were only for the drive
ant to the total cost of ownership, especially in
tires, then the 5 percent improvement in rolllong haul or regional haul operations where the
ing resistance for those drive tires would transtrucks are constantly rolling. A starting point
late to a little less than 1 percent of total fuel
to assessing good fuel economy is to run only
consumption, or about $400 per year.
SmartWay-verified tires on all positions.
It is important to note that fleets will not see an
immediate improvement in fuel efficiency
the day they replace worn tires with new,
more efficient, tires. The new tires will be
at full tread depth while the tires they
replaced were worn down. The comparison
has to be new-to-new.

Tire price

Impact on fuel economy

MANAGER OF COMMERCIAL TIRE DEVELOPMENT,
COOPER TIRE & RUBBER
Cooper Tire & Rubber Company specializes in the design,
manufacture, marketing, and sales of replacement automobile and truck tires. Mosier is a 20-year tire professional,
responsible for the design and development of commercial truck and bus tires for the North and South America
regions. Mosier and his team have brought to market
many successful commercial truck tires in the Cooper
Commercial Series and Roadmaster brand tire lines.

Maximizing tread wear

When it comes to fuel efficiency, it's a hard
balance for tire manufacturers to maximize
tread wear while reducing rolling resistance. Some SmartWay tires have less tread
depth than non-SmartWay tires because
the shallower the tread depth, the more
fuel-efficient the tire. This is especially
the case with drive tires. The big difference
between SmartWay and non-SmartWay
tires is often in the tread compounding
which impacts both rolling resistance and
tread wear. The key is to find a SmartWay
tire that gives fleets adequate tread depth
and miles to removal.
Testing one model of tire against another for either tread wear or fuel efficiency
requires careful planning and execution
in order to generate data that is valid
for decision-making. The Technology &
Maintenance Council (TMC) provides
recommended practices for both.
VehicleServicePros.com/10122353

40 Fleet Maintenance | July 2019

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Fleet Maintenance

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