3 Tips for Choosing the Right Truck Tires

Getting your semi-truck safely from point A to point B involves having the right parts for it. More specifically, the commercial tires you choose can determine whether your semi-truck performs well in long-distance travel. So here are some tips for choosing the right truck tires.

Determine Your Service Application

Tread designs cater to specific service operations and provide unique performance features like steering response, high fuel economy, and wet traction. So when choosing semi-truck tires, you need to identify the service application you partake in to help narrow down the best tire options available. Some professions include regional, super-regional, vocational, and linehaul applications.

Linehaul trucks often exceed a 500-mile radius. They usually run as low as 80,000 to upwards of 200,000 miles per year and operate on highways. Vocational trucks work in off-road environments and highways in highly aggressive conditions, often driving around 10,000 to 70,000 miles yearly. Regional carriers operate in a limited multistate area, around a 250-mile radius. They run between 30,000 to roughly 80,000 miles per year. Lastly, super-regional combines regional and linehaul operations, running around 100,000 miles annually.

Choose Tread Designs

As you figure out your semi-truck service applications and needs, selecting the best tire tread is essential for your specific vehicle needs. There are two commercial tire treads to consider: closed or rib designs and traction or lug designs. Each has unique benefits and downsides that could fit your vehicle's specifications. Lug designs contain grooves and blocks that cut across the tread, providing traction and aggressiveness to each tire ideal for vocational services. They can also have spherical properties.

Closed shoulder patterns, also known as wide shoulder ribs, add side force resistance and allow longer tread life in linehaul applications. Rib design treads contain straight or zigzag grooves that circumferentially run along the tire, perfect for trailer and steer positioning. The zigzag pattern gives biting edges for slick surfaces. Therefore, it’s perfect for maneuvering and turning in delivery and pickup services. Continuous straight grooves offer high-speed, high-mileage, and fuel-friendly perks perfect for line hauling.

Consider Your Load Capacity

When driving across the country with bulky loads and heavy-duty equipment, your semi-truck tires will be under considerable strain. So one tip for choosing the right truck tires is understanding your vehicle’s load capacity. Contacting the manufacturer about the tires’ weight capacity and performance under stress can help determine whether they’re the right tires for you.

Van Horn Truck Parts gives you everything you need to safely operate and travel with your semi-trucks, trailers, and other commercial vehicles. Our semi-truck parts online consist of everything you can think of, from repair kits to chemicals and fluids. Ask us about our semi-truck and trailer parts today.