I am sure you all know that tires are generally the second largest expense after fuel and yet, we know that we have every interest in performing preventive mechanical maintenance on our equipment to reduce costs. Could we do the same with tires?

To some extent, the answer is YES, especially in the winter season. Equipment is often parked in winter and it is the perfect time to inspect your equipment tires by following these steps:

1. Visually inspect each tire for broken tires. A damaged tyre surface, affecting only the rubber, is usually unimportant. On the other hand, a broken tire that shows the internal steel or nylon structure of the tire will degrade quickly, and it should be repaired as soon as possible to maximize its useful life. Similarly, if a deformation is visible, it indicates that the internal structure is already damaged. Therefore, operating equipment in these conditions can be unsafe and the tire should be repaired immediately. Please refer to our charts to know what can be repaired: https://lanotr.com/get-a-quote/

2. Take the hour meter readings for each piece of equipment and, if it has not been done, search for the dates (hours) when the tires were last changed.

3. Record the remaining tread depths for each tire. The information on the original depth of the tire should allow you to know when and which tires should be changed in the near future and help plan your expenses accordingly. For example, a tire that has lost 15/32nd of an inch in 1000 hours, or 67 hours per 1/32nd of an inch, to an original total depth of 80/32nd should last approximately 5360 hours. This information will allow you to compare certain models and tire brands against one another in order to choose the tires best suited to your operational needs.

4. The visual appearance of the tire treads will inform you on several mechanical aspects of your equipment and related operations. This topic being very broad, I will discuss it in more detail in a future blog. Remember this, any unusual wear tells you something!

Don’t forget to plan your next preventive maintenance!

The LanOTR team.