Run flat madness

[BenzBoy]

A fiend of mine is down south near Bega in his Continental GT (V12) and has a puncture. The result? Tow truck and order a tyre from Sydney in the hope it arrives in less than 48 hours.
Progress? Sheer madness.
When I am Supreme Dictator all cars will have real spare wheels and tyres mandated.
Regards,
Brian

 

[SEL_69L]

Beyond me as to why Bentley would want to fit NON tires and wheels.
Perhaps Citroen had a better idea. Godesses could run on three wheels.
Why can't Bentleys?

 

[Patrick_R]

Madness is correct Brian.

Can I be a technical advisor in your Dictatorship ministry?

 

[c107]

Beyond me as to why Bentley would want to fit NON tires and wheels.
Perhaps Citroen had a better idea. Godesses could run on three wheels.
Why can't Bentleys?

They still fitted a full size spare!

 

[BenzBoy]

Madness is correct Brian.

Can I be a technical advisor in your Dictatorship ministry?

Patrick you can be in charge of heavy vehicles if you like; tanks, road trains, land based rocket launchers etc.
What about trucks? Do they still have spare wheels? I could see a Mack on the horizon - just right for the parking centre in Newtown.
Regards,
Brian

 

[Patrick_R]

Absolutely perfect my leader.

I have some great ideas about rocket launchers already.

Trucks still carry spare tyres Brian, and they are usually mounted on the trailer if a prime mover set up, or under the side of the truck body if a rigid.



Or some carry them on the back of prime movers like this.



The biggest problem is handling them, they can weigh up to 130kg, so getting one off the back of a prime mover can be a challenge without damaging things, or yourself.

If you get to the stage of actually changing the wheel, the wheel nuts are tensioned on some vehicles up to 380 lb ft torque (a normal car may be around 25-40 lb ft) so there is another huge challenge. Some drivers Cary up to 10 feet of bars and extension bars to undo these nuts, which on bigger trucks there are 10 of them for each wheel.

Most fleets these days do not allow the drivers to change flats anymore, as they usually have a contract with a major tyre company that covers all tyres and any breakdowns due to tyre faults, but not flats due to something damaging a tyre resulting in a blow out. The customer pays for the tyre, but the breakdown fee is covered by their contract with the tyre company.

The tyre companies have all the tools to handle these tyres, air bag jacks that can lift over 50 tons, and air tools that will have the 10 studs undone in under a minute.
Then tension wrenches rated up to 400 lb ft that are over 8 ft long.

I know of a very large fleet that pays $1 per day for each tyre on their trucks that covers the tyre warranty for the life of the tyre, any breakdowns by the side of the road, and weekly inspections at the depot where all tyres are inspected on every truck every week.
But when the truck looks like this.



That is $34 per day which is $238 per week or $12,376 per year.
This fleet has over 450 B Double rigs like the one above, so that’s over $5.5 million a year, big business.

As per your ride during your 50 year tenure as Dictator
We did this one off Mack for the Sultan of Johor.



https://paultan.org/2015/10/15/sult...iled-in-brisbane-its-the-most-expensive-ever/

I am sure we could come up with something better for a Supreme Dictator

 

[sean sherry]

And we take for granted that Trucks "just keep rolling along" Old man River.

 

[c107]

Interesting stuff Patrick.
What happens if the truck has a tire problem in a very remote area - say WA or NT. Do they have to sit and wait for the service man to come out from Perth or are they stationed in a way that the wait is always short?

 

[BenzBoy]

Interesting stuff Patrick.
What happens if the truck has a tire problem in a very remote area - say WA or NT. Do they have to sit and wait for the service man to come out from Perth or are they stationed in a way that the wait is always short?

In the Bush men are men and change their own wheels …..

 

[Patrick_R]

Great question Bryce.



These roadtrain guys in the outback only carry spare steer tyres as if a steer tyre blows, truck is grounded.
But if a rear tyre bows, the other tyre will take the load.
Saying that, if something bad does happen, some remote locations are over 6 hours wait for tyre service.

Funny enough, on these road train routes in the outback, the roads don’t really have anything on them to puncture a tyre.
These are very interesting roads as some of them are powder smooth as the years of trucks just pulverise everything in their way.

Truck tyres on these are of the highest rating you can buy and are almost impervious to anything, but steer tyres can’t be of this construction as they have to steer the truck, not just follow in a straight line.

Most of these trucks will have a big screen in the cabin with tyre pressure monitoring for all wheels, so they can keep an eye on the pressures & temperatures of each tyre.
Generally only under inflated tyres blow out as the extreme wall flexing creates excessive heat. Then a wall can blow out, or de lamination happens, which can be catastrophic on a fuel tanker, just a pain on non dangerous goods trucks.

Fuel tankers will also have a type of armoured mud guard to stop tyres when a failure happens from piercing the fuel vessel as they fly apart at a very high rpm.

A typical TPMS (Tyre Pressure Monitoring System) fitted to many trucks with multiple trailers.



Also a lot of big fleets now only run nitrogen in their tyres as it runs cooler, and have their own nitrogen trailers a staff member will use to check every single truck and trailer that enters the yard every day.

One big fleet here in Sydney has been doing this for over 10:years now, and have reduced their tyre failures by 75%, they also only run exclusively Michelin tyres on their trucks, and they get over $150 for every Michelin case they trade back to Michelin when they are worn out.
Michelin have their own recapping service and are the best re caps money can buy.
All done using genuine Michelin rubber and tread patterns.
https://michelintransport.in/why-recamic

Some smaller fleets run these as they are cheaper than new tyres for struggling fleet owners.

 

[Patrick_R]

Gents,
I photographed this today at our dealer in Tamworth.

The sole job of this truck is to simply remove and replace wheels for the big Caterpillar or Komatsu mine trucks.
It can also carry one wheel.
However not on a public road as the wheels are to big.

Another truck will bring additional wheels and the technician



Note the brand of tyre.

 

[Michel]

Gents,
I photographed this today at our dealer in Tamworth.

The sole job of this truck is to simply remove and replace wheels for the big Caterpillar or Komatsu mine trucks.
It can also carry one wheel.
However not on a public road as the wheels are to big.

Another truck will bring additional wheels and the technician

Nice pics.
Who's the miniature man with the toy tyre?

 

[BenzBoy]

Yep. I do call THAT a tyre!
Regards,
Brian

 

[c107]

Heh!
So how much does that Michelin run per tyre?

 

[Patrick_R]

Sorry Brian,
I neglected to reply to your post about bush drivers.

You are absolutely right, those guys are owner drivers and do change all there own tyres, and they don’t have any “arrangements” with fancy tyre companies

Yes mate, that IS a tyre!
And me at my height on some I’ve seen the Wallis teller than me.

Not sure who the bloke is Michel, just a pic off the net.

C107, I understand that some of these tyres depending on size can range between $8k to $30k
Some can last only a matter of a few months.