How to select the right OTR tyre for your operation

Trucks at construction and mining sites often travel across challenging surfaces while carrying heavy loads. The tyres on these vehicles can be exposed to tremendous forces. That's why it's critical that you select the right tyres for these profit-generating machines.

There are numerous factors that should be considered when selecting tyres for haul trucks and assessing your site's footprint tops the list. Before selecting a specific tyre, you should have a thorough understanding of your vehicles' on-site activities.

At mine sites, this can be accomplished by mounting a location tracking unit on a truck and letting the vehicle run for a designated period. This will help you develop a "site map." At the same time, you should track the distance the truck travels, its speed and the load that it's carrying.

Then take the average load and multiply that number by the vehicle's average speed. This will give you the site's ton-miles-per-hour (TMPH) or ton-kilometers-per-hour (TKPH) rating.

Every OTR tyre, regardless of application, also has a specific TMPH or TKPH rating, which represents the maximum recommended load the tyre can carry at a certain speed. In each case, you want to pick a tyre whose TMPH or TKMP is higher than the site's TMPH or TKPH rating. This will help ensure you've selected the right tyre for the site.