Best Practices for Maintaining Solid Tires in Waste and Recycling Applications 

Solid tires play an important role in keeping equipment like wheel loaders and skid steers productive and efficient in waste management applications. Learning how to identify the common culprits of sub-par solid tire performance and adopting some simple best practices can pay off significantly, both for your tires and your operation.

Signs That It’s Time for New Tires

Farmers depend heavily on tractors, and how well those tractors perform depends largely on their tires. Tires past their prime no longer efficiently transfer a tractor’s power to the ground and fail to provide adequate traction, which can reduce productivity and add fuel costs. Operating a tractor with tires in need of replacement is also a recipe for costly and frustrating downtime. 

There’s no standard rule for when it’s time to replace the tires on your tractor, but there are some tell-tale signs that it’s time for new tires.

Managing Construction Tires for Better ROI 

After labor and fuel, tires are the third-highest operating cost on a wheeled piece of heavy equipment. Having a proactive approach to the management and maintenance of your construction equipment’s tires can equal big gains over the course of its lifetime. Making tires last longer is easy and just taking a few simple steps can save you a substantial amount on your tire spend.  

Tire Damage Detective Work 

Tires keep valuable construction machinery moving, contribute significantly to their productivity, and represent one of the most costly consumables in relation to both compact and heavy equipment alike. One way you can make the most of this investment is to routinely check your equipment’s tires, understand what signs of wear or damage are saying about their use, and use that knowledge to extend tire life (maximizing performance and minimizing cost) or find the best replacement tire possible (forestalling future problems).

Prepare Your Combines Tire for Harvest

With so many things in farming that you can’t control—for example, weather, input costs, and commodity prices—it’s important to take charge of what you can. This is particularly true during make-or-break periods such as harvest. With today’s combines capable of carrying upwards of 25,000 pounds of weight, you’re asking a lot of their tires. Consequently, you’ll want to take steps to ensure they’re in top working condition before the big event to maximize productivity and avoid unplanned downtime.