So how can choosing an application specific tyre help your business?
The days of heading to your local tyre dealer and grabbing any old skid steer tyre they have “on special” are long gone. Camso have 11 different skidsteer tyres in their locally stocked range plus the newly merged group have a connection with Michelin to offer two radial and soon to be released two tweel versions taking the lineup to over 15 unique solutions. So how can choosing an application specific tyre help your business?
EEM spoke to Daniel Santalucia, Yard Manager for DC Waste Management about the tyre selection on his New Holland LS220 skidsteer. DC Waste use their skid steer eight to ten hours a day, six days a week to sort through waste delivered to their recycling facility in Campbellfield, Victoria.
The materials DC Waste Management are working in ranges from clean fill to builder’s waste, demolition waste, rocks, bricks and rubble. The vast majority of the time the materials are on a concrete surface inside a sorting shed. This provides very little “forgiveness” when running over hard or sharp materials.
Daniel outlined his experience first hand after choosing to solid fill the tyres in their business. “First of all, solid fill tyres are a no brainer for our industry. We have been running TyrFil® in the tyres on all our skid steers for over 10 years now. Previous to this, we had to keep two spares available at all times and have a tyre fitter call past each morning to repair tyres. We were averaging minimum two punctures a day. Down time was becoming too much of an issue. The initial cost of solid filling the tyres may be expensive but it pays for itself 10 times over easily over the life of the tyre. After one week of use it is not surprising to find over 100 nails or pieces of reinforcement bar sticking out of the tread or sidewall but with TyrFil we just keep rolling.”
You’d be forgiven for assuming that the trade-off for durability would be ride comfort. Well, think again. That’s the main benefit of TyrFil as it can be installed in any pneumatic tyre. DC Waste were able to take advantage of the new release CAMSO SKS 775 L5 deep tread heavy duty tyre. Daniel told EEM, “the SKS775 tyres by Camso have much lower vibration levels at higher speeds, the tread pattern is much better suited to concrete surfaces than what we have used previously. These tyres are showing much higher durability levels than previous tyres. It’s a much harder wearing tyre compound and tyre marks, even though a non-issue in our environment, are considerably less on the concrete compared to previous used patterns. Even when machines are used on off road surfaces, traction levels are great and the pattern clears out mud quickly.”
The CAMSO SKS tyres were recommended to DC Waste by S & J Mobile Tyres who supplies all their tyres across the fleet of trucks and machinery. Daniel told us, “Billy and Steve from S&J recommended trying the new tread pattern on our recently updated 2019 new Holland LS220 as they knew the machine would be worked hard. They explained the new pattern was better suited to the concrete surfaces we drive on all day. S & J tyres supply and fit all our bobcat tyres. They always have one set filled, ready to go when sets are near end of life. We’ve been using S&J Mobile Tyres for over 15 years with zero issues and they are a great company to deal with along with honest service, advice and always available.”
Daniel said the tyres have reached 2,200 hours, and will easily add another 500 hours, with it possible they could be pushed even further, closing in on the 3,000 hour mark.
Compare that to the Solideal Lifemaster SKZ rock grip tyres on their previous five skid steers. They too were a good tyre, but according to Daniel they generally lasted around 1,500 hours. The Lifemaster tyres with their block tread design reportedly had very good durability till about the 1,000 hour mark where they would find they’d start to wear down more quickly. However the Lifemaster tyres were still the best rock grip style tyres we ran.
Maximum life is measured differently by different people, in different applications. Daniel told EEM they like to run their tyres all the way till the solid fill is exposed to make removal easier for the tyre fitters. Once fitted, rotations are scheduled every 6 months to maintain uniformity in remaining tread depth and maximise tyre life.
As DC Waste have shown, you will definitely benefit from talking with your local tyre dealer to identify the best Camso or Michelin tyre to suit your unique skid steer application. It shows that the right tyre can save you thousands of dollars in punctures, repairs and replacements plus also reduce the risk of production downtime with equipment out of service.
If your application requires puncture resistance take a look at the possibility of solid filling your tyres with Carlisle TyrFil® through your local tyre dealer or find an approved installer TyrFil SOLIDEALER via the Bearcat Tyres website www.bearcat.com.au