Super singles..... OTR

[GWBourne]

ok, so on my road trip from SoCal to PA i stoped in... i dont remember where cus i stoped a lot with my lil 35 gallon tank. .



anyway, i was at a tire shop for big rigs pricing out Dyna Beads. i saw a micheline super single sitting there.



i had never see such a tire for the drive axles of a truck. i do a bit of research and find they have been around for a while. after i saw that tire sitting there i saw a few on the way to PA and have seen a BUNCH here in PA...



in a sense it makes sense to me a bit... till you get a flat i can see it as a cool thing to have. more traction, less weight. i would see more drag from the tires though because you have one that is say... 25% (just for a number, no mather ar anything involved) larger than the dualls.



anywho... the guy behind the counter says to me "thats the future of truck tires that is going to change the industry" i asked why, his answer was "because its that good. "



im here asking you guys... whats the deal? the state DOT departments fight against them as they stress the road more... makes sense a bit... the OTR guys clam to have better traction for drive and brake situations and better mileage that reduces poloutants when starting from a stop... kinda makes sense...



what do you guys think and anyone using them?

Grant

 

[dpuckett]

I have seen them on several more fleets in the last few years- mainly seem to be on tankers and such. Neighbor has them on his Freightliner. Think it is a company truck, so he may just get in and drive it.



Daniel

 

[nickleinonen]

super singles have been common place in europe for the last 10 or so years. . in the latest diesel progress mag [sept 06 pg54], there is a 2 page spread about the super singles

 

[rbattelle]

They actually reduce drag, IIRC. Personally, I think they look cool too.



Ryan

 

[bmoeller]

My uncle has a hopper bottom grain trailer with them. He says it pulls easier than the other trailers he has, that don't have them. Couldn't tell you whether he got a mileage gain or not. He never checks it, since he only hauls his own grain, and doesn't go very far.



I wouldn't run them with what I do. Hauling livestock, don't need that problem with a flat. At least with duals, you can limp to a service shop.

 

[Shelby Griggs]

I am not a OTR driver, but I have talked to some drivers about them, they don't like them in the snow, so as a flotation (wide) tire on our smaller rigs, no traction when it gets slick. I am starting to see quite a few on the road.



SHG

 

[JUeckert]

these have always been very common on concrete trucks in my parts. have a couple of friends who have them on dumps. they like them a lot on the front,but not so much on the back. i would like to run them on the front of my dump trucks,simply for the floatation advantage. doubt i ever will though,too pricey. .

 

[MMiller]

Thread technology must have came a long ways. When I first saw them 10-15 years ago, lots of guys tried them, cause they were lighter. They quickly went away from them on drivers because like said above, poor winter traction, and they hydroplaned bad in the rain. They must have a heck of a sidewall on them, because going from a set of duals to single, you loose two sidewalls for stability.



I have seen more lately, the offset of the new rims is better too, getting the tire out where the duals used to be. Maybe I can get my boss to put them on the back of my service truck, and some for the front too. Ya know for less ground compaction in customer's fields.



Michael

 

[DBoggs]

We run them out here in the crude patch on our tankers. We do it to save weight since the trucks get paid by the barrel. We don't have to much trouble with hydroplaning, though I imagine weighing 129,000lbs when loaded helps. It does suck when empty, might as well have a big ski on each axle.



What really sucks about them is when they blow out. Sounds just like a bomb going off, about the same amount of damage too.



Duane

 

[RyanB]

Our fleet up here in Ontario was running duals up untill the last major truck purchass this past May. We have 60 highway trucks and now over half of them have Super Singles! we like them alot better for a few different reasons. The difference in weight is almost 1000lbs so thats that much more weight we can put in the wagon!!! The other major thing is blow-outs... in the last 6 months we have only had one Super Single tire blow and that was a instalation problem and in the same time we have had at least 8 single drive tires blow (they were all new... not re-caps). I was also told by Michilen that wear on roads such as concreate or aggresive ashphalt wear is less because there is more tread contact... doesn't make to much sense but thats what they say!



One thing I really like about them is the cool factor!!!! if I could get a set for my Dually I would do it in a second!



Ryan

 

[GWBourne]

Our fleet up here in Ontario was running duals up untill the last major truck purchass this past May. We have 60 highway trucks and now over half of them have Super Singles! we like them alot better for a few different reasons. The difference in weight is almost 1000lbs so thats that much more weight we can put in the wagon!!! The other major thing is blow-outs... in the last 6 months we have only had one Super Single tire blow and that was a instalation problem and in the same time we have had at least 8 single drive tires blow (they were all new... not re-caps). I was also told by Michilen that wear on roads such as concreate or aggresive ashphalt wear is less because there is more tread contact... doesn't make to much sense but thats what they say!



One thing I really like about them is the cool factor!!!! if I could get a set for my Dually I would do it in a second!



Ryan

im sure you could get a set for the dually...



while i was in the store the guy told me a customer had purchased a set to go all the way around on his mini monster 4x4 ford. a couple companies make wheel adaptors for the large 10 lug to our 8 lug.



something tells me if one were to have enough money one could have a set of rear rims milled to run super singles in the back and make the tire fit correctly with backspace and what not... my pockets are almost inside out, so it aint me, nor do i have a dually... lol

Grant

 

[MoparBob]

I assume what you saw was one of the newer generation "wide base" super singles. Super singles have been around for quite a while, but the fuss of late has been about the wide base super singles which were put out on the market around 4 to 5 years ago. I have run both types and I do have to say that there are differences. The wide base singles (like the Michelin X-one that I ran) seemed to be a pretty good tire. It seemed to handle a little better and they performed fine for me in the snow and ice (I was loaded, don't know how'd they do empty). Didn't see any mileage differences, but didn't put enough miles on them to have a good base line to judge from anyway. I think that under the right conditions and for the right operations, these can't be beat.



Also, they do look cool!

 

[GWBourne]

they were michelines... thats all i know...

 

[KCJackson]

There's a debate about using Super Singles on motorcoaches. Prevost offers them, but MCI had an interesting point. They noted the SS tires would exceed the federal per-tire load limits, so they had made a statement that they would not offer them unless the USDOT revised the load limit regs for motorcoaches to make them legal.

 

[RyanB]

That was one point that I forgot to make... . British Columbia and a few other States do not reconize a super single for what it is!!!! they say its only 4 tires instead of 8 so you can only carry XXX LBS instead of XXXX LBS... makes a big difference!

 

[CumminsPower98]

I see them all the time as I'm running OTR right now. I know Flying J runs them on most of their tankers.



These look like they could be SS.

 

[therabbittree]

Those are supersingles but not the new wide base low profile supersingle we are talking about. . the ones in that picture are like the supersingles that are on cement mixers and front floats on a dump. The supersingles wide base or older off road narrow ones are good if you are grossing 80 k or less . . they don't have a reinforced side wall version yet to carry the same load a reinforced set of 24. 5 duals can yet. If they did you'd see em every where. In NY you need higher load range duals to run a overweight permit ie 107 k 112k 119k and 120 k grosses.

I like em because they save weight, allow more pay load, and they save fuel with less rolling resistance. You do have to make sure your trailer hubs are heavy duty and designed for super singles though, as they put a lot of strain on the hub etc. TMC had a few issues with hub bearings going away fast on their flat beds. The hub manufactorers have since redesigned the hubs and bearings deal with the wide track.

Thanks

Deo

 

[bmoeller]

The other major thing is blow-outs... in the last 6 months we have only had one Super Single tire blow and that was a instalation problem and in the same time we have had at least 8 single drive tires blow (they were all new... not re-caps).

What were the reasons the other tires blew? I have only had one blow-out and one tread seperation in 8 yrs with running duals. And my boss likes to buy used tires for the old trailers. We have 2 near new grain wagons, and have only had one flat. And that was due to a bolt in the tire. Sounds like someone wasn't checking their tire PSI very well to me, assuming they didn't pick spomething up, of course.

 

[GWBourne]

speaking of tires seperating... on my trip out here to PA i had a world van lines truck pass me doing about 75-80. i could hear one of his tires begging for mercey... a few miles down the road i had to play "miss the tires shreds" and saw him just pulling back onto the road.



it was a tripple axle low boy trailer with what looked like 17. 5's for rims...



wonder if they make super singles for the small tires like that? lol

 

[bmoeller]

it was a tripple axle low boy trailer with what looked like 17. 5's for rims...

Could be 16" rims as well. That is what our old triaxle dozer trailer has on it.