Wider tires could leave mark on trucking sector

updated 6:24 p.m. ET Dec. 21, 2005

GREENVILLE, S.C. - Take a closer look at some of the 18-wheelers rolling down the nation’s roads lately and you might notice something missing: eight wheels.

Some truckers are converting to wider tires that let them replace dual tires with single tires, turning their rigs into 10-wheelers to reap fuel and weight savings.

The new tires are wide enough to make a hot-rodder happy. They’re about 17 inches wide, twice the width of traditional dual tires. And they’re drawing stares on and off the highway.

People ask Jim Smith questions about the expensive, Hulk-sized tires all the time at his showroom at Exit 11 Truck Tire Service Inc. near Interstates 80 and 77 in Richfield, Ohio.

“I tell them it’s the future,” Smith says. “It seems to be where truck tires are heading.”

Each tire alone weighs close to 200 pounds. That future isn’t cheap. Mounted on an aluminum rim, the tires can run $1,250 or more, Smith said. That’s twice a traditional tire’s cost.

It’s worth the expense, said Luc Minguet, chief operating officer of Michelin America’s truck tire unit. The tires, made at a plant not far from Michelin North America’s headquarters here, can save 4 percent to 10 percent on fuel. That’s a big consideration for transportation companies weathering diesel prices that soared from a U.S. average of just under $2 a gallon a year ago to a post-Hurricane Katrina peak of $3.16 a gallon in October.

“That 10 percent fuel savings — that’s huge,” Smith said.

While Michelin may push fuel savings as a sales point, that can be elusive, said Robert Braswell, technical director of Maintenance Council of the American Trucking Associations. Fuel consumption can vary as much as 35 percent depending on whether a leadfoot or lightfoot is behind the wheel, he said.

Minguet also notes the tires are lighter than the dual tires they replace. A 10-wheeler saves 730 pounds and lets trucking companies haul more cargo, he says.

The weight savings, however, is a big factor, particularly for tanker-truck companies, Braswell said.

Carl Smith, owner of 3J Fuels Inc. in Champlain, N.Y., has been using Michelin’s tires on his tanker trucks for about a year. His trucks don’t haul fuel long distances, so he said he hasn’t seen much in the way of fuel savings. But the wider tires are helping him stay within legal weight limits and “seem to ride better,” he said.

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