Tire Maintenance Tips for the Commercial Truck Driver in South Carolina

Want to prevent accidents, improve fuel mileage, reduce downtime, reduce tire blowout risk, and maximize tire life? Create a tire inspection and maintenance program and stick to it. Cutting corners by doing bare bones maintenance is an expensive practice and is dangerous to the commercial truck driver.

The tire debris that you see on the highway is the result of this bare bones approach. Behind the various chunks of debris is a story such as an accident or a commercial truck driver missing an important delivery deadline that you don’t want to happen to you.

Here are five tire maintenance tips for the commercial truck driver in South Carolina:

  • Check and Maintain the Correct Tire Pressure – Get a good pressure gauge and check your tires every day. Never drive on under-inflated tires. It reduces your fuel mileage as well as the life of your tires. In fact, driving constantly on tires that are 20% under-inflated will reduce their life by 30% or 40%. Under inflation causes excessive flexing which builds up heat. This heat weakens the materials that make up the tire.
  • Avoid Excessive Speeds – High speed reduces tire life because of fatigue due to heat buildup from the higher rate of flexing. It also increases rolling resistance when riding faster than 55 mph which reduces fuel mileage.
  • Rotate Tires – Failure to rotate tires causes uneven wear which in turn causes a rough ride.
  • Visually Inspect Your Tires – Check for uneven wear, low tread depth, tire damage, embedded objects from the road, cracks, and bubbles.
  • Hire Professionals to Do Your Tire Maintenance – If you own a fleet of trucks, outsourcing your tire maintenance ensures that the job gets done. The technicians are specialists with a great deal of expertise who can provide services beyond the tips mentioned here. Outsourced maintenance also protects your drivers from the potential injury of lifting heavy tires.

Get the proper coverage with the right insurance carrier. If you are looking for commercial truck insurance in South Carolina, contact us today.