Bus Tires

[RUskoolietailgater]

Just to update I was talked into changing the 2nd tire. I found out that it's DOB was 6th week of 1997! So needless to say, I had it removed. The mechanic told me it had excessive dry rot, but what was interesting to me is when he took it off I inspected the inside of the tube and there was no signs of any wear and tear and the tire felt pretty thick, but better safe than sorry. Feels good to have two new tires on the front now. Peace of mind is what you really pay for.

[Jarlaxle]

Originally Posted by Iceni John

Double Coin tires are from the Socialist Workers' Paradise, and by some reports I've read they're not bad. However, is that "not bad" by Chinese standards, or "not bad" by standards acceptable to most of us? Definitely Caveat Emptor here.

When I was at ABC Bus a few months ago I saw a newish Van Hool owned by some Chinese charter outfit come into the yard. I was not only amused to see the driver chain-smoking, even though there was a sign on the door saying "No Smoking, No Spitting, No Eating or Drinking on board", but what also tickled me was that it had some POS Chinese tires on the back, but Michelins on the front. It seems even the Chinese don't trust their own tires on the front! The rear tires were called Long Dong, or Hu Flung Dung, or something like that.

John

Steers may have been OEM, or an oddball size (295/80 or 12R22.5) that Double Coin doesn't make...I see many coaches with DC, Dynatrac, Aurora, Long March, Roadmaster, and other Chinese tires. Note: International is shipping NEW skoolies with Double Coin tires! I talked to an owner-op recently who had DC's on the front of his tractor...he reported his first set lasted over 100,000 miles--longer than the Michelins they replaced! He had them capped, they have wound up another 100,000+ as drive tires. He replaced them with another pair of DC's, which will, in turn, be capped as drive tires & replaced with more DC's. The Michelins were thrown away...they were checked enough (less than three years old!) that Bandag refused to cap them!

[Jarlaxle]

Originally Posted by RUskoolietailgater

Just to update I was talked into changing the 2nd tire. I found out that it's DOB was 6th week of 1997! So needless to say, I had it removed. The mechanic told me it had excessive dry rot, but what was interesting to me is when he took it off I inspected the inside of the tube and there was no signs of any wear and tear and the tire felt pretty thick, but better safe than sorry. Feels good to have two new tires on the front now. Peace of mind is what you really pay for.

If you're in farm country, a local might want it as an implement tire...dry rot is no big deal when you never top 15MPH.

[gbstewart]

what brand of tire is recommend? not sure if I would want recaps on the drives, if you blew one lots of damage could happen,holding tanks plumming etc, my bus has 10r x 22.5 still like new, when I get down south I might replace drives with summer tires, right now I got deep lug winters you can hear them alot at hwy speed. wonder if it would be worth it to go to 11r x 22.5 they seem more common (sorry dont mean to jack thread)

gbstewart

[bapos]

No disrespect but Jarlaxel and I have very different points of view on Medium truck tires. I feel he is also well educated and knows what he is talking about but we seem to have different flavors of what we like and dislike. By no means am I saying his choices are bad, wrong, or untrue. I am sure that his owner op statement was dead on but I dont think those results happen to everyone who will purchase those tires.

As I said on another thread I worked for Tire Centers which is owned by Michelin North America. So do I have a bias as to what I prefer sure. Are they expensive yes. But again thats my flavor.


I managed the accounts for soem very large shipping fleets (Fedex, OD, Swift) and saw a LOT of tires to be retreaded. So with in that time I have seen 2 identical trucks with the same tires and they got different total mileage results from them. So making a blanket statement that X brand will get X mileage is not realistic. Those companies travel thousands of miles every day and have people in place who make VERY educated decisions as to what tires they use and how to get the most mileage and fuel saving in the process. Never in my time dealing with those fleets did I see any of their tractors equipped with double coin tires from the factory or other wise. Only time I saw them on was when the truck or trailer had a blow out and they put on somethign cheap to get them to the closest facility to get it changed out. Once off they usually put them on trailer they were selling off. So needless to say DC (double coin or any other chinese junk tire) are not very well valued. Yes the large fleets can buy at much better prices than the public can but test and talk is all one can ask when it comes to tires.

As for Michelin being junk or throw aways... its possible. I can tell you for a fact that each retreader operates differently. So saying Bandag rejected a 3 year old Grade A casing is odd. There has to be more to it than that. Those casing are worth about 50-75 dollars each so if they want to throw good money away. By all means. I know at our retread plant all chinese casings were classified as 222c casing. Which if you dont know is one of the lowest on the scale. The are usually 10 years or less in age.


As for 11r22.5 being more common. It is not. The LP 22.5 is FAR more common than the 11R. I think if you need a taller tire for clearence reasons or to lower rpms is the only reason to go. The 11r is usually more expensive.

[Jarlaxle]

Nothing at all odd: the tires were too cracked to cap. Lately, Michelins seem to have this problem a lot...my company has had to eat several casing depostis for the same reason. When I replaced two tires on my Genesis, the 10-year-old Kelly looked better than the 5-year-old Michelin! Two people I work with are fighting Michelin over tires that literally rotted off the rims. (Three were so bad they actually wouldn't hold air!) Seeing the way they treat customers, I would rather use six different brands of 10-year-old Chinese tires than Michelins.

The rental (Ryder) truck I picked up last Thursday has Bandag caps on the rear: three are Bridgestone (common, Ryder uses Bridgestone tires), the fourth is a Roadmaster RM185A. They are becoming more and more common. We have a drive tire on a tractor that is a capped Freestar FS380.

An 11R22.5 is still a common OTR size, on tractors, trucks, and trailers. It is dirt-common...offhand, Penske's entire fleet of trucks uses them!

[kro_760@yahoo.com]

How often do you change the tires on a bus? Every 10k miles?

[cadillackid]

Originally Posted by kro_760@yahoo.com

How often do you change the tires on a bus? Every 10k miles?

are you talking about get new tires or rotate tires?

typically on a commercial vehicle you dont rotate your tires... the fronts and rears may be different tread..

as far as replacement.. your "drives" (rear tires) may last 100,000 miles.. Steers (front tires) usually last 50-60k miles depending on alignment..

often on our busses, because we dont run them nearly as much as a school does, have weather-cracking and aging problems on tires long before the treads wear out..

-Christopher

[Tango]

Also...if tires that came with the bus...check the date stamp on them. They can have lots of tread but be a hazard if too old.

[Elliot Naess]

I have 60,000 miles on Millicent's tires I bought 11 years ago.
Two new Double Coin (cheap Chinese) up front.
Four recaps (circular -- no seam) on Michelin and Toyo casings.

Lost one Double Coin to delamination two years ago. Noticed a bubble and replaced it in time. Combination of low quality and high age, I reckon. Watching the other Double Coin like a hawk now.

All five survivors have about 70 or 80 percent tread left (rough estimate).

Friend of mine is in the tire importing business. Told me tires can become dangerous in as little as six years.

About 15 years ago I bought five new tires for a pickup. Used them a year and put them in storage 8 or 10 years. Mounted them on a different pickup. Three of them delaminated explosively in short order. (Discarded the last two.)

I probably ought to discard the second Double Coin now.

I have a theory that tires from wrecked late model trucks might be a good deal. Half worn but only a year or two old. Over-the-road 18-wheelers often go 100,000 to 150,000 in a year. I once drove over 14,000 in one month. Solo. Teams can go more. Just a theory, though.

[cadillackid]

I made the choice to make a 10 year investment and bought 6 new namebrand (uniroyal) tires for my bus..

one of the things that kills tires is UV.. putting UV protectant on helps.. for steers if you drive your bus alot you will likely wear those out quick enough.. or you can buy a chinese tire like a samson or such (higher load ratings like H give you more Ply typically).. and then plan on replacing those every 5-7 years and make out OK..

on drives you can rotate to inners and outers to keep the UV off of the original outers.

when i got new tires on my bus we all know it was no joke that I had some weather cracking on my outer drives.. all 4 were re-caps and everyone put the fear of god in me about re-caps.. although thats a political thing here im not convinced about...

nevertheless when we took off my outer drives my inner drives were still in great looking condition.. they had never seen UV therefore no weather-cracking...

I went ahead and replaced them all anyway, just because I figured I would habve good years out of service.. and I knew I planedd to DRIVE my bus.. (ive run 8500 miles on it in 5 months or so)..

my new bus has 6 matching chionese (samson) tires on it that have no signs of cracking and the tread is good.. i havent looked at the age on them, however I plan to run them until I notice signs that something could go wrong..

Yes whenever I drive a bus I do a full walk around just like a commercial driver would do.. looking the whole bus over while it idles to warm up, that includes looking at the tires.. while I dont test the pressures every single day, i do it on a regular basis.

-Christopher

[kro_760@yahoo.com]

Originally Posted by cadillackid

are you talking about get new tires or rotate tires?

typically on a commercial vehicle you dont rotate your tires... the fronts and rears may be different tread..

as far as replacement.. your "drives" (rear tires) may last 100,000 miles.. Steers (front tires) usually last 50-60k miles depending on alignment..

often on our busses, because we dont run them nearly as much as a school does, have weather-cracking and aging problems on tires long before the treads wear out..

-Christopher

Thanks for the info.

[Elliot Naess]

[cadillackid]

Originally Posted by Elliot Naess

great idea for UV protection!! what is it? I need to look into doing that for when my busses are parked in their storage units
-Christopher

[Elliot Naess]

What is it? It's a tire cover. RV-related stores sell them. Many sizes. I put these on Millicent whenever she will be parked for a while. And smaller ones for the trailer.
But you can use anything -- plywood, for example. (Just try to make them look like it's not junk that the wind blew up against the bus.)

[karrlot]

Originally Posted by crazycal

Are your sure it wasn't creeem of sumyoung guy.

Seriously? Totally inappropriate.

[cadillackid]

Originally Posted by karrlot

Seriously? Totally inappropriate.

4 years ago inappropriate... i actually Laughed at it...

-Christopher

[jazty]

Well, the time has finally come to replace my steer tires and maybe drives! I have a wide trailer to move down the highway and I don't dare to do the job with my current steer tires. I'll be getting a permit for the wide load and everything looks legal, but if the MTO pulls me over (which I expect) they'll likely have something to say about my front-right tire.
That being said, I live in Northern Ontario in a sparsely populated region. We have a handful of tire shops, but no wholesalers like in the big cities. The best I can seem to do for a chinese cheapy steer tire around here is $347.99 CAD ($257.80 USD). That's without mounting and balancing. I can do that stuff myself. Down near Toronto a similar tire can be purchased for $210 CAD ($155 USD).

How far off is that price from what others can get locally? I don't mind going for a drive to pick up some tires if the savings are worth my time. The next big town (Sudbury) is a 3 hour drive away. Lansing, MI is about 4.5 hours and we have family down there. Could tie in a family trip.

[EastCoastCB]

Originally Posted by jazty

Well, the time has finally come to replace my steer tires and maybe drives! I have a wide trailer to move down the highway and I don't dare to do the job with my current steer tires. I'll be getting a permit for the wide load and everything looks legal, but if the MTO pulls me over (which I expect) they'll likely have something to say about my front-right tire.
That being said, I live in Northern Ontario in a sparsely populated region. We have a handful of tire shops, but no wholesalers like in the big cities. The best I can seem to do for a chinese cheapy steer tire around here is $347.99 CAD ($257.80 USD). That's without mounting and balancing. I can do that stuff myself. Down near Toronto a similar tire can be purchased for $210 CAD ($155 USD).

How far off is that price from what others can get locally? I don't mind going for a drive to pick up some tires if the savings are worth my time. The next big town (Sudbury) is a 3 hour drive away. Lansing, MI is about 4.5 hours and we have family down there. Could tie in a family trip.

Best I can find on 11R's here is $250 for chinese. That's installed.
Do what ya gotta do, though, yall. Spending a few extra bucks for new, safe tires is cheap insurance.
My big bus' tires are so ragged, its next trip on pavement will be straight to the tire shop. Hell- I may even have them come out with the tires in their mobile truck.

[cadillackid]

find me some taller 19.5's ive got Samson R283s on it now.. they are in decent shape but I want bigger ones
-Christopher