[Jeff Teuton]

We use a bunch of tires each year on our lease fleet. The company that services our vehicles is very knowledgeable. Last year I had a very small bump on one of my 22.5's on my motor home. They all looked new, but were manufactured in 2003, which would be right for my 2005 chassis produced in 2004. I found out commercial tires cannot be capped after 3 years, so write off the 80 to 100 bucks for the carcus each. I put ten new tires on the thing. I sold the new looking old tires to Hebert Bros Farms (Tim Hebert SS/AH) for sugar cane trailers. They usually get knocked off before they ever wear out. In the first season, 8 of the 9 usuable blew. Age is the factor more than anything else according to my servicing company. On another note, the Goodyear 235/16 G rated always have trouble especially on the triple axle. We changed to 17.5 and went to heaven. Alcoa makes a direct replacement wheel for the 8 hole 16 in wheel. No lug change or anything. On all my two axle stuff, I have 225/16 E tires with no trouble. The 17.5's on the 3 axle. Trailer Special stuff is bad. Chinese tires were good value, but the last 2 or 3 years they have faded badly. The good quality Chinese cost as much as American tires. On the larger stuff, the Bridgestone wears better, the Michelin rides better. We normally run all the fleet 10 lbs below max cold. Seems to give the wall a little better flex. I think there are about 1400 trucks in service now. We use a lotta tires.