Best choice for tires

[tugboater-SKO]

Tugboater, I'd be absolutely interested in what you find out. The tires are standard 11r22.5.

I'll reach out and get back to you soon.

 

[Biscuitsjam]

I'll reach out and get back to you soon.

Awesome. I'm looking forward to it. I'm still in Iraq and will need to move fairly fast to get ready for the trip when I get back to Alaska.

 

[cadillackid]

seems climate has something to do with when I see dedicated drives vs all positions on busses.. around here in ohio i see a lot more dedicated drive tires than I do all positions on drive axles.. when i travel to warmer climates where schools close at the very hint of asnowflake I see more buess running all positions.



I dont know if there's any longer life miles-wise on gnarly-tread dedicated drives vs all position.. then again I doubt most school bus tires are actually worn-out on the tread... im guessing all the turning and maneuvering causes they to deteriorate in the sidewall long before the tread is gone.. .. esp the way i see a lot of busses kissing the curbs on tight turns with their drive tires.. namely the right-hand side..



for the true Road-trip warriors in our group.. the ones that live on the road travelling to various terrains .. the chances are high of actually wearing out a set of tires before they dry rot.. I tend to try and stay away from much deep-snow travel so i run all positions on my red bus so i can rotate then around if needbe..



and



just like in your car its important to keep your steer axle aligned on your bus... and if you have Dayton wheels.. to make sure the wedges are installed such the rim spins true.. and doesnt look "Wobbly" like a dump truck.. that will wear your tires much quicker..


-Christopher

 

[randydupree]

I have been up and down the Alcan about 6 times,in a heavy wanderlodge.
But not in the snow.
The alcan is a nice road,its not a tire eater at all.
I would put new tires on to make the drive,if you have a blowout with old tires you could die waiting for a service truck.

 

[shortbus4x4]

Get your tires siped. It will do wonders for icy/snowy roads. Any good commercial tire place should be able to so it.

 

[rjheaton@aol.com]

If you have a spare check into AAA and happy motoring

 

[Hank's P-O-S]

Day lay dollar short as usual....

Around here (Manitoba) most of the “off-road” truckers run LongMarch 528 or similar tread. Most of the import brands have this style of tread.
They are cheap as well, $250 for a 16ply virgin tire. That’s in CDN money too.

The import tires are just as good as any “real” brand. Let me tell you that these guys in the bush aren’t going to run junk tires. At 50 below zero garbage tires will have the sidewalls let go. (That is another story)

If you want retreads the bandag “Gripper” tread is really good. Half the busses/5 tons/grain trucks have them and I’ve never heard anything bad. These can be had on new wheels 4 for $1200 or just $750 for 4 so they are probably not too expensive in Alaska.

 

[Dirtdoctor]

I run a fleet of different trucks, 10 wheeler off road dump trucks and school bus and fire trucks. Imagine how expensive a call out to repair tires on the ALCAN will cost. For my off road delivery trucks I run recaps I’m never no more than 1 hr away from my tire dealer. But fire trucks I run the heaviest load range and I buy an expensive steer tires (best tire for my dollar) and a good lugged drivers. Heavy sidewalks are super important. Don’t skimp. I had a blow out on my steers when I bought my pierce firetruck 4wd - $1700 for roadside repairs of two new tires. Plus down time.
So account for getting good heavy ply sidewall tires and quality tires. Find out if les schwab tire company covers the alcan and buy from them.
Enjoy your trip.

 

[Elliot Naess]

Yes, recaps are fine on the drives. Make sure they are the modern circular caps (ring caps, ring thread), and not the old style with a splice.

At the trucking company, when we bought new trailers, we ordered them with 8 top-quality steer tires.

As soon as we got the trailer home, we took those new steers off and used them where they belong (steer axle, yes) -- and installed 8 recaps on the trailer (or half-worn steers, see below). Cheapest way we knew of to buy high-quality steer tires.

Also, when steers were half worn, we put them on trailers, "bypassing" the drive position -- which must have block tread for traction.

Most of the 18-wheelers I drove over 27 years had three locking diffs. One on each drive axle (on one switch), and the third in the diff between the two axles (located inside the forward axle) (on a separate switch). I would love to have a locking diff on Millicent.

By the way, I have 65,000 miles on Millicent's recaps, and they are barely worn.
The casings are failing though (two so far), because they are around 15 years old.

 

[kidharris]

Only thing I can think of is if the new buses came with 6 new all position tires from the factory it could possibly make good economic sense to rotate out the 4 rears to be used as steer tires on other buses in the fleet and swap in retreads on the rears of the new bus.


Sounds like a lot of work for marginal gain, but if you had a big fleet of buses it might be worth it.

Changing out a tire might be a lot of work for us, but from what I have witnessed pro shops do it quickly as a normal everyday activity, 5 - 10 minutes per tire.

 

[tugboater-SKO]

Tugboater, I'd be absolutely interested in what you find out. The tires are standard 11r22.5.

Biscuits-here's what I have so far...not much better than what you have. Both of these guys talked a lot of garbage about the chinese tires that are apparently flooding the market. I think we could get those in the 300 range..I'm not interested in them. I asked for good tires to run all season in AK and up and down the ALCan.

Diversified Tire in Wasilla:
Drives - Cooper RM230 siped $476.89 ea. mounted
Steers - Cooper RM 185 siped $466.89 ea mounted & balanced
less $30 per tire not mounted

Big Black Tire in Wasilla:
Drives - Uniroyal HD 60 16ply $419 ea. mounted
Steers - Uniroyal RS20 16ply $414 ea. mounted & balanced
less $37 per tire not mounted $20 less balanced on steers

Waiting on one more shop in ANC that will probably come in less than the previous two, likely not too much less. At a minimum, hopefully this gives you good reference.

 

[Bon Voyage]

My dad has been in the truck tire industry for decades. His advice is basically you could get by with the Chinese junk but only on your drive (rear) tires. Don’t risk it on your steer tires.

Best tires=Michelin
2nd=bfgoodrich
3rd=Goodyear, Bridgestone, Japanese like Yokohama.

My take is keep good steer tires and leave the recaps on the back; if one blows out you can still make it to the next service stop. I bet the Chinese one (like Sailin) would be terrible in the snow. Of course the meatier the tread the better in snow but they’ll eat up the fuel more too.

 

[WIbluebird]

Retreads on a new bus, who's foolish idea is that? What's the reasoning behind it?

My company orders 75-150 new Bluebirds every year. The company owner orders them with steer tires mounted on every axle from the factory.

When we take delivery of the buses, he takes the drive tires off and replaces them with recaps. That way he gets a ton of virgin steers that can be re-used elsewhere in the fleet. He also has a dedicated shop that makes retreads for him at a big discount.

I personally have only heard of 1-2 blowouts at my terminal of 35 buses in 5 years of driving. That's pretty decent in my opinion.

 

[EastCoastCB]

Sounds like a decent plan. Lots of nice steer tires!

 

[banman]

Anyone have any experience with the Longmarch brand of tires?

I'd never heard of them till the earlier post here.

 

[EastCoastCB]

I know they're chinese.
A very "historic" name for tires!
https://www.britannica.com/event/Long-March

 

[banman]

I know they're chinese.
A very "historic" name for tires!

That's good marketing -- they're tough!

 

[EastCoastCB]

Its also the name they use for their rockets in their space program.

 

[Biscuitsjam]

Biscuits-here's what I have so far...not much better than what you have. Both of these guys talked a lot of garbage about the chinese tires that are apparently flooding the market. I think we could get those in the 300 range..I'm not interested in them. I asked for good tires to run all season in AK and up and down the ALCan.

Diversified Tire in Wasilla:
Drives - Cooper RM230 siped $476.89 ea. mounted
Steers - Cooper RM 185 siped $466.89 ea mounted & balanced
less $30 per tire not mounted

Big Black Tire in Wasilla:
Drives - Uniroyal HD 60 16ply $419 ea. mounted
Steers - Uniroyal RS20 16ply $414 ea. mounted & balanced
less $37 per tire not mounted $20 less balanced on steers

Waiting on one more shop in ANC that will probably come in less than the previous two, likely not too much less. At a minimum, hopefully this gives you good reference.

Thanks! Hopefully, I can get out of Iraq in time to make the trip. I keep getting delayed.

 

[Biscuitsjam]

Best price from Alyeska Tire in Fairbanks was $3748 Toyo tires

M154 Steers $443.95 tire + $29.39 FET + $2.50 new tire tax + 40.95 mount

M320 drives $545.95 tire + $29.39 FET + $2.50 new tire tax + 40.95 mount

+$160 freight on two tires