Do the commercial/public service vehicles (i.e. buses, taxis, lorries, police, fire brigade etc.) use winter tyres?
Last edited by: movilogo on Sat 27 Nov 10 at 16:18
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We don't, but we do have snow chains for extreme conditions, when getting in and out of farms.
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Generally they have weight within the vehicle which helps it a long.
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Artics are as much use as a chocolat teapot in the cold damp let alone ice and snow, drive axle tyres have about half the empty axle weight as the steering axle, let alone three trailer axles to drag around.
They really could do with a softer compound for winter but it'll never happen...surprisingly enough the very best traction drive axle tyres i ever had were a set of Kenprest remoulds, these could not be made to break away either by wheelspin of cornering, their modern equivalents may last well but oh boy wet traction, nah.
Every year that goes by more and more manual geared trucks get taken off the road and replaced by automated manuals with in many cases clutches that engage suddenly, any decent fall and these things won't be going anywhere.
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You'd think that commercial demands would have pushed technological development on truck tyres....
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>> You'd think that commercial demands would have pushed technological development on truck tyres....
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They have changed over the years PU, there are now specific tread patterns for where the tyre will run, either steering, drive axles, or free running (trailer).
Like car tyre sizing (few) we only really had 3 sizes on trucks, well 6 if you count cross plies, and a new tractor unit would be delivered 15/20 years ago on one tread pattern on it's cart springs (still are on the front), and like car tyres you didn't want to find Mich's on it when they got below half worn in the wet.
Now there's all sorts of peculiar sizes and aspect ratio's, trouble is it's still a hard rubber compound specified for long life which is understandable, doesn't help when you're still getting wheelspin in the wet in 9th gear.
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Now, y'see, I've always found it a good trick when it's snowing hard to tuck in a couple of hundred yards behind an HGV. He flattens the snow and creates a track you can follow. Rarely seen one stuck but that may be to do with driver skills of course.
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Wheel spin in 9th sounds a bit grim - even without the snow..
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>> Wheel spin in 9th sounds a bit grim - even without the snow..
theres another 9 to go in the box.
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Rarely seen one stuck but that may be to do
>> with driver skills of course.
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May well be, but what you don't see is the driver bellowing through gritted teeth at the twerp in the car in front who wants to stop and look at the forthcoming iced hill before attempting to get stuck on it.
DON'T STOP YOU xxxxxx.
:-)
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Glad you said a couple of hundred yards and not just a couple as many do. Car drivers seem to forget that a loaded HGV will stop much quicker than they can in snowy or icy conditions, as a rule.
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I was taught/learnt a lot about trucks behaviour (and how to take advantage or precautions) when learning to ride on a small bike....learnt a lot of good stuff...
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>> Now, y'see, I've always found it a good trick when it's snowing hard to tuck
>> in a couple of hundred yards behind an HGV. He flattens the snow and creates
>> a track you can follow.
I tell you what he creates, he flattens the snow, forces water to the top which promptly freezes, leaving two long thin ice rinks.
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>> I tell you what he creates, he flattens the snow, forces water to the top
>> which promptly freezes, leaving two long thin ice rinks.
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Only if he's stuck behind a car driver mimsing along at 15mph. Once you get up to about 25-30 mph on fresh snow, the lorry tyres will clear almost all of it.
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Nah, at best he leaves water behind in two canals, which if cold, freeze pretty damn fast.
I'll drive on fresh powder snow whenever possible thanks, not that compressed stuff.
Last edited by: Zero on Sat 27 Nov 10 at 19:59
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That applies to soft southern snow Zero...:-)
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Aye, you'll be right PU...but don't tell him. He'll only get a bit "English" about it.
:-)
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go play with your dirty black northern snow.
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It doesn't help that on many modern 6x2 artics, load sensing valves make it impossible to raise the middle axle in order to increase traction. Whilst diff locks are fitted, they only help to a cetain extent.
Our bulk blowers are mainly 8x4 rigids, much better in icy conditions but even then they can become stuck.
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Tyres on commercial vehicles - Harleyman
