Stop Burning Tires: Why Deeper Tread Isn’t Always Better
In this episode of Around the Bead Podcast, Joseph, Big John, and Mark take a deep dive into loader tire selection, focusing on the critical differences between L3, L4, and L5 tires. Rather than relying on tread depth alone, the discussion emphasizes how operating conditions—including haul distance, speed, terrain, payload, and commodity—should drive every tire recommendation.
The team explains why deeper tread doesn't automatically translate to longer tire life, highlighting how excessive heat buildup can dramatically shorten the lifespan of an improperly specified L5 tire. They also explore the importance of air pressure management, the effects of custom buckets on payload calculations, and why routine pressure monitoring is essential for maximizing tire performance and safety.
The conversation also covers tire indexing, wheel component inspections, heat dissipation, and real-world examples of costly failures caused by underinflation and incorrect application. Through practical case studies and decades of field experience, the hosts reinforce that successful tire management is built on accurate data, site severity analysis, and matching the right tire to the job—not simply choosing the tire with the deepest tread.
🔧 Topics Covered:
Understanding loader tire classifications: L3, L4, and L5
How application determines the right tire selection
Why tread depth doesn't always mean longer tire life
The relationship between speed, haul distance, heat buildup, and tire performance
How load, air pressure, and commodity affect loader tires
Site severity studies and application analysis
The impact of custom buckets on tire selection and inflation
Daily air pressure management and temperature monitoring
Causes and prevention of tire indexing
Wheel component inspections and go/no-go gauges
Heat management and cooling periods for loader tires
Real-world case study of premature tire failure caused by underinflation
Specialty applications for L5, solid, and forestry (LS2) tires
Show Notes:
Episode: Stop Burning Tires: Why Deeper Tread Isn’t Always Better
Host: Joseph, Big John, and Mark
Runtime: 39 minutes
Summary: This episode explores the science behind loader tire selection, explaining when to use L3, L4, and L5 tires and why application matters more than tread depth. The discussion covers heat management, air pressure, payload, tire indexing, and real-world examples that demonstrate how proper tire selection and maintenance can significantly improve safety, performance, and operating costs.
What You'll Learn:
How to determine whether an L3, L4, or L5 tire is the best fit for a loader application.
Why choosing the deepest tread isn't always the most cost-effective solution.
How haul distance, operating speed, and heat buildup directly impact tire life.
Why proper air pressure is one of the most important factors in loader tire performance.
How custom buckets and changing payloads affect tire load requirements.
What tire indexing is, how to identify it, and how to prevent costly wheel damage.
Why daily tire pressure checks outperform a "set it and forget it" maintenance approach.
How wheel inspections and go/no-go gauges improve safety and reduce catastrophic failures.
The value of conducting site severity studies before recommending a tire solution.
Why matching the tire to the application saves fleets thousands of dollars in replacement costs.
Links:
Visit our website for full transcripts and resources
Subscribe to the podcast
Sign up for the newsletter
Transcript:
00:06
Around the beat podcast, tire talk for trucking, mining, agriculture, and more. Your home for fleet solutions. Aiming to inform, pioneer, and entertain the tire world in connected industries. Sponsored by East Bay Tire, keeping essential industries moving forward.
00:34
Around the bead is back. I am Joe Pahanic. I'm here with my co-host John Holy. We got mindman Mark back in the studio. Good morning, gentlemen. Are you ready to kick the tires? >> Good morning. Absolutely. >> Let's get it. >> Don't sound too excited. Uh today we're
00:51
talking all about loaders. Uh L3s, L4s, L5s. We're going to highlight L4s and L5s. And I want to talk about pressure too. Um Mark, where do you want to start? >> Uh the basics. Uh let's get into uh mounting procedures and air pressure. So, if you were to if you were to if you
01:13
were to look at a loader application, a customer comes out and says, "Hey, I I need some uh I need some direction on what I'm going to put on this machine." Where you walk onto that facility. Where do you start? First thing I would do is look at the application. Um look at uh severity.
01:32
What What's the machine going to be doing? What's the what's the ground level look like? um and and bucket size and commodity that's uh at hand. >> So when you say ground level, walk me through that. How is that going to affect a tire decision? >> Well, if you're working on concrete
01:52
versus uh an open pit mine, >> okay, >> you're going to have different uh ground structure that you're going to be working on and maneuvering on. So you would lean with a with a harder surface, you would lean towards what? >> Well, there again, it it doesn't necessarily
02:13
coincide that easily, >> right? >> Because it can be a hard surface, but if you've got a long hall, you can't go into let's say an L5 for example. Okay. >> Which a lot of people like on a hard surface application. So for our audience, tell tell them what a L5 is.
02:33
>> Uh L5 is the tread depth basically. Um it has two and a half times the tread depth of a typical L3. >> So the deepest tread you can get. >> Yes. >> Okay. And so I I'm if I'm a mine manager, I'm looking at the spend. Maybe I want the deepest tread. I say, Mark, I
02:53
want the most tread I can get. I don't want to have to change these tires. >> It doesn't work that way. Um, >> you know, we're going to grind you all day on this, right? >> Yeah. It it doesn't work that way. You can you can get the the deeper tread.
03:08
That doesn't necessarily mean that it's going to last longer. >> Um, you've got you've got to look at the commodity that it's carrying, the load that it's carrying. Um, the the miles in an hour that that vehicle is traveling. So, you may want an L5, but an L5 may just build up too
03:26
much heat. Maybe it won't run. So you talking about load does an L5 carry more than an L3 in the same size? >> Not necessarily. >> Okay. >> Um you L5 has a has a lower has a smaller air chamber. So even in the data books, you know, you could run a little bit more air pressure
03:52
to carry a higher load. >> Um but not necessarily across the board. It's not a standard. >> So, you say a smaller air chamber, uh, the same size tire with more tread. The tread is basically taking up more of the air chamber. >> Yes. >> Right. So, L3 can technically carry more
04:10
if it really wanted to. >> No. No, not necessarily. >> Um, it's it's all relevant to load speed and air pressure. >> So, if you started at a at a L5, my my manager says, "Hey, I want the deepest tread." Where do you start saying, "Nope, you're going too fast. It's too
04:29
long of a haul. There's too much heat buildup. I need a I need you need to start looking at L4, L3." >> Typically, anything that exceeds uh three or three and a half miles in a given hour. Um I'm going to start backing down to an L4 L3 compound. >> That's that's both in speed and actual
04:51
distance covered. No, you know, it's it's it's the amount of uh ground covered in an hour. You can run 20 m an hour, but you can only do it for a very short period of time. >> Oh, interesting. >> So, it can't exceed 3 miles in an hour or three and a half miles an hour.
05:16
>> I I always under the impression you start getting to four or five miles an hour, you're going to start seeing issues with that tire. But you're just saying from a a coverage standpoint, if I'm literally moving three and a half miles in an hour or less, I'm okay. But
05:31
anything beyond that >> Yeah. >> Yeah. >> If you run 10 m an hour, 20 mph, whatever, and you get to your three miles and you stop and let the vehicle sit, you're okay. But but you can't go past that three and a half miles. You got to you got to let the tire cool.
05:50
>> How long you talking? How how long you have to have it set? >> Depends on how hot it got, you know. Um there again, you it's three and a half miles in a given hour. So if you do your three and a half miles in 15 minutes and you got to sit for 45.
06:10
>> So if I'm understanding this right, if they're going five miles an hour on average, that three and a half miles is going to take an hour and a half to do it. Say, say it takes them an hour and a half, but if they're doing 20 miles an hour at three and a half miles, that's
06:23
going to go pretty quickly. >> That'll still that L5 will still hold up for them 3 and a half miles an hour if they're consistently doing 20 m hour >> as long as they stop it after three and a half miles. >> Okay, >> that's an I never thought of it that way. >> Yeah.
06:38
>> Yeah. So, you could run if you had a load, hypothetically, if you had a loader that needed to run short spurts. Hey, I need to carry this load from here to here and I want to go 10 miles an hour. I can as long as it's a short spurt and then you got cool down. >> Yes. >> Yeah.
06:54
>> Does load have anything to do with the distance? >> Yes. >> Okay. How does that play a part? >> Well, obviously you're going to have uh air pressure uh relevant to the load that it's carrying. So, if you've got a load and the air pressure is minimal and
07:10
you're exceeding that 3 and a half miles, that tire is going to heat up very quickly. Okay. You you talked about the tread depth taking up some of the the the chamber space um where the air goes in. >> What about the sidewall on the bead? >> Um generally beefier on L5 than L3
07:28
>> a little bit. Yep. >> Yeah. >> Yep. You'll see you'll see some uh it it's not as substantial as you might think like the like the tread face is, but yeah, you'll you'll typically see a little beefier. >> So, I always think of going L5 and going down. Would you think of it going the
07:45
other way, starting at an L3 and then moving up to an L4 and an L5 as you see appropriate? >> Tough decision. It's it it's all done based on the data that we can collect. Mhm. >> Um it there just is no normal, >> right? >> I can walk into a place and everybody
08:07
will tell me, "Well, it's an L5 application." Well, I may not see it that way, >> right? >> Um without collecting the data, without doing the site severity and seeing what that vehicle is actually doing, it's hard to make a determination until you have that. >> H
08:26
Okay. Okay. So, if you're the OE spec, you wouldn't necessarily say drop an L3 in there and then we'll figure it out. >> No, I mean, even uh even OE spec, you you've got to have an idea what that vehicle is going to be doing. >> So, let's say I'm stubborn. Not that I
08:44
know anybody who's stubborn. >> Not you. >> Let's say I'm like, "No, we're just going to run a L5. Thanks, Mark." You know, I want the deepest tread on this. I don't want to have to deal with tires. How fast could that that tire potentially fail um or start to fail if I'm in the wrong
09:02
application? If I'm going five miles an hour? >> Uh couple hundred hours. >> Couple hundred hours. Yeah. >> Um I've seen uh I've seen 500 hours wipe out a set of L5s. >> How big? What size? >> 4565 45s. >> That's a $80,000 mistake. >> 90. >> Yeah,
09:23
>> maybe a hundred. in certain certain types of the >> $100,000, you know, they're 25 to 30,000 a piece. >> Uhhuh. >> And uh wipe out four of those. Yeah. >> So the the advent of the L4 is is it because of situations like that? I mean, an L4 is still a 456545.
09:44
Uh that's a 992 tire, right? >> Mhm. >> I mean, there's very few people who even make that. Um but there's plenty of people who make an L5. Um, is it because of those failures? You think that the L4 is getting more more popular, more people are making it?
10:02
I don't know how to really answer that. Um, I think I think it's just getting people are more aware that you can get an L4 that will last just as long as an L5 with the right application, right air pressure. Um, just because it has more tread does not necessarily correlate to
10:23
longer hours of operation. >> So if we if we move to L4s, L5 sounds like it's a pretty limited space. It's three 3 to three and a half miles an hour done over with. It's shorter hauls for the most part. And L4, how big is that bandwidth? that can uh that can vary depending on
10:45
the commodity and air pressure, but you can go, you know, in the middle teens. >> Mhm. >> And and still remain cool enough um depending on the operation, but yeah, you can go to the middle teens per hour. >> That seems pretty fast to me. >> Yeah, >> it is. >> Yeah.
11:02
>> You know, that that would be an extreme. >> So, you you've mentioned commodity a couple different times. explain to me how that makes an impact because I just think of it's weight. It doesn't whether it's water or gold or rock. What's the difference?
11:16
>> Well, commodity pretty much conforms to the bucket. So, if you've got an extended bucket, like I was on an operation yesterday that had extended buckets and they were roll out buckets, but they were about 6,000 lbs was all they were carrying. Three tons.
11:34
That's relatively light. you know, a little bit of crushed corn product or wheat product, something like that. Um, is altogether different than hauling um aggregate, for example, or wet aggregate, whether it be dry corn or dry wheat, something like that, versus uh
11:53
wet aggregate. It makes a world of difference in how that tire performs. >> You've mentioned custom buckets on this on this pod and and a few others. How how would I even recognize I'm out there assessing a mine site that it is a custom bucket? >> Typically, if it's on a mine site,
12:11
you're going to see it's going to be um extended. You're going to you're going to notice that it's substantially bigger. Um the biggest thing that we see on a lot of mine sites is it'll be hardened and they'll add uh structural steel to it as well as just plate steel.
12:32
um and then weld on it. So that adds a tremendous amount of weight on that bucket. >> So you you have the history of going and and seeing tens of thousands of loaders in your career. Is is a custom if you're an operator, is that is that something you can see right away? You go, you
12:49
know, you have a custom bucket or is that something that can be overlooked? >> Uh it can definitely be overlooked. Um, fortunately I can kind of pick them out right away, you know, but uh, yeah, it can definitely be overlooked very quickly. >> I I guess where I'm going with that is
13:05
if if you're a new operator into a mine site or even an experienced operator and you're you're rotating equipment. Is it possible that you go, well, hey, I I know I can lift this or this is what I'm carrying. And you could be overloaded quickly because you didn't know that you
13:19
had a custom bucket and you're just scooping up. >> Absolutely. Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. If you're a if you're a new operator, you could you could easily uh miss that. >> You know, the first thing that comes to mind for me, Mark, is you get you get a
13:31
bucket with that they've extended um to hold more capacity or or lift more capacity. How's that affect air pressure? Because manufacturers generally have a a a spec on, you know, between this air pressure and this air pressure. And I've seen some operations that exceed that.
13:47
>> Isn't the air pressure just to put the max that's on the sidewall? Yes sir. >> And and yeah, that definitely plays a part, John. Um air pressure is going to be there. Again, it's going to be relevant to the load. >> Um you're you're going to have to do the
14:10
math to add whatever air pressure you need to add to go above what the recommended is at uh you know, the baseline. Um, keep in mind all that is relevant to speed. So, >> um, air pressure is important, speed's important, and and the commodity being carried, the weight being carried is
14:31
important. So, it's it's kind of a combination of the three. >> How do you how do you you got scales? I mean, how do you assess what's going to be the right air pressure for a loader? the most of the modern equipment um has a fleet management system that'll tell
14:46
you what that bucket is picking up. So, you know, you can go and you can ask the operator to run in, grab a load, pick it up, and you'll see the weight capacity that it's that it's got right then and there >> in the cap. >> Yeah. >> So, it's it's showing what's being carried.
15:04
>> Yes. >> Right. And then you're going to adjust the air pressure based off of that. >> Yes. >> Okay. front front to rears. Uh I mean that's something that we've heard in the industry for a long time. Max out the fronts, you know, bring the rears down
15:18
uh you know, 10 20 PSI. Um where do you start on that? >> So that's when we look at the total weight of the vehicle um and what it's carrying laden versus unladen. Um that's that's kind of a tricky one. Um, for the most part, you can take the dry
15:42
weight of the vehicle and correlate that to the rear air pressure. And then the front is systematically going to be relevant to um what it's carrying the load and and weight. >> You were you were in Arizona last week, right? >> Yes. >> So, when you're in these environments,
16:02
and I this isn't something that I grew up in. I grew up in a pretty consistent temp zone. We're all in California today, but you go to Arizona, you go to Nevada, you go to Texas where it could be 40 degrees during the wintertime and it could be 110 degrees during the
16:17
summertime. We talk a lot about that in agg. But how does that play a role in air pressures on loaders at a at a mine site? >> Well, anytime you have uh ambient air pressure change, you could have uh air pressure change inside the chamber. So, it's important to look at it every
16:36
single day as well as the run times. Um, a lot of the new uh equipment out there and and a lot of the new technology is looking at inside running temperature. Um, that's crucial on a lot of equipment nowadays. >> What kind of technology you're talking about? Pressure sensors. There's
16:56
pressure centers s uh pressure sensors and uh interior monitors that will give you inside running temperatures. >> I I would think if you're looking at a whole fleet of equipment, I mean, how realistic is that? I mean, how many how many people how many maintenance
17:12
managers are going, "Well, this is my tire guy said this is the pressure in the front and this is the pressure in the rear." And you run that all year round. >> How realistic is it that they change the air pressure at at different >> different times of year? Yeah.
17:25
Oh, I don't know that they necessarily need to do that. I think you can run the same air pressure year round. >> Okay. >> Yeah, >> it's just about checking it first thing in the morning no matter what the temp is. >> Right. I'm I'm more worried I'm more
17:36
worried about internal temperature than I am air temperature. >> And if you're if you were to set it and forget it, how much is that pressure going to change over the course of a week or a month? >> Well, without valve caps, it can it can do it by the hour. if if it's uh sealed
17:55
up correctly. Um ambient air temperature with minimal change, it'll hold for two weeks, you know, without uh major concerns, but uh typically we try to check it every single day um every shift. >> Every shift. >> Hey Mark, besides the heat buildup, we
18:15
all know that's a huge issue with tires coming off prematurely. What are some of the other issues on a on a load and carry application could low air pressure cause? >> Well, you'll see a lot of wear components on the on the wheels. Um, we'll definitely start to see structural
18:32
failure on on wheel components. Um, you could see indexing. Uh, that's quite common, especially on low air pressure. >> What's explain for everybody what's indexing? Indexing is when the the wheel spins inside the tire. The tire stays stationary and the wheel spins inside of it.
18:53
>> Yes. >> And that's that's caused by what? >> Uh can be low air pressure if if there's not enough pressure holding it out against the wheel. >> Um and with the high torque of the new equipment, um you could definitely see an index situation. So, what's happening
19:10
is they dig into that pile where they need that torque and that air pressure is not set right, it's going to spin that wheel inside the tire. >> Absolutely. >> U which could cause bead issues. >> Bead issues. Uh you could have a a possible blowout failure. Um catastrophic failure. Um
19:30
there again, you know, wheel components being worn out. >> What what what wheel components and how would you look at it? How would you know if the wheel components wore out? Typically, you're going to see the be the bead flange area. Um, there's gauges
19:44
out there. It's called a go no-go gauge. And, uh, it's real simple. You just, uh, when you've got it apart, you put the gauge on, and if it's in spec, it's good to go. If it's not, you move on. >> That's once the tire's taken apart. >> Once the tire is taken apart.
19:58
>> So, that's something you'd recommend to a maintenance manager, fleet manager, mine manager. Their tire tech has a go no-go gauge. >> Yes. >> What would you guess? I mean, it's, you know, we we've heard more about wheels in the last few years than than ever, especially on 992s.
20:13
Um, how often do you think they're actually inspected properly during a tire change? >> Mark doesn't want to throw anybody under the bus. >> Well, I I think I think you're going to find that that's um that's a training opportunity for most techs out there. Some guys are doing a
20:32
fantastic job, other guys not as much. Um, that being said, uh, there's lots of room for improvement in the industry. >> Yeah. Well, it's not that big of a deal, right? It's not like it's a safety issue. >> It's a huge safety issue. It's a huge safety issue.
20:49
>> So, you're How do you easily check if you're indexing? I mean, indexing seems to be a relatively sizable problem. It's hard to see though, right? Unless you're sitting there watching it. How would a maintenance manager or even an operator check to see whether he's indexing?
21:06
It's very simple. Just take a piece of chalk, draw a line across your wheel up halfway up the tire, >> and uh you know, watch it for an hour, two hours. >> So, uh going to L3s, I mean, what are some of the things that are going to trigger you towards that shallower tread
21:23
where you can go faster? >> Well, uh ground conditions would be one. um >> what ground conditions >> if it's typically an L3 will give you a little bit more traction um in a in a muddy situation for example if you're in a in a soup/mud situation an L3
21:46
typically will do a little bit better job >> um and then uh if it's if it's a speed situation you're definitely going to be uh looking at an L3 depending on the length of the hall over we said what 15 miles an hour. >> Yeah. Give or take. Yes.
22:05
>> Yeah. I mean those are I think those are nice clear baselines for our audience. You got three three and a half miles an hour 15 miles an hour. That's where you start need to look at that those are your your your boundaries so to speak you say. Yeah. >> Yep.
22:18
>> Okay. So speed uh uh terrain. >> Terrain's always a concern. Um, if it's got a lot of rocks in it, you could you could end up with a lot of uh, you know, rock strikes, uh, cut separations, that kind of stuff. >> That's where you go back to an L4.
22:35
>> You would look at possibly an L4 or an L5. In that situation, you're going to want to look at protection. >> Mark, on on the heat dissipation, >> how does how does that work? How much quicker does an L3 cool down than an L5? And why does it cool down so much
22:52
faster? The air chamber obviously is bigger in an L3. So that will dissipate heat a little bit better. Um, and there's less quoteunquote material, so you don't have to cool down 4 inches of rubber. You have to cool down 2 inches of rubber. >> And does that go through just the tread
23:12
or is it dissipate through the sidewall also? >> It'll go through the sidewall down into the bead area. It'll hold heavy in the in the tread area, but it'll go all the way down into the bead area. So, what's the general rule if you if you're running an L5 too hard and that tire
23:25
heats up, >> how long is that equipment sitting on average? >> I'd like to see it sit for 24 hours if it exceeds uh the heat elements. >> Wow. A whole day. >> Yeah. >> Multiple shifts potentially. >> Multiple shifts. Brand brandwise, are manufacturers
23:46
working towards having their tires be able to cool down faster or it potentially enhance beads to reduce indexing? You don't have to have the answer. I'm just curious. >> I don't know. I mean, do I have reason to believe that they're always working on that? Absolutely. Um, is there
24:04
anything that's published that I'm aware of? Not right off the top of my head. That would be something I think I would be chasing if I'm a tire manufacturer. Indexing, if I know indexing is an issue that there's challenges related to it, hey, can I create a bead that helps
24:18
prevent indexing in general? >> Absolutely. Um, but it's it's relevant to the wheel components and the air pressure. Mhm. >> Unless you're going to actually screw the bead onto the wheel, you're going to have an a possible index situation. >> Yeah. I always think of it from a
24:40
warranty standpoint. You know, someone says, "Hey, this tire was terrible." They look at the brand on the sidewall, they say it's because of that uh tire manufacturer, you know, the the wheel components are relatively static. >> The the air pressure is up to the tire
24:54
dealer, the whoever's maintaining that asset. Um, but if I'm looking at my brand, I'm going, "How do I make that bead to prevent indexing?" >> I'm sure they're looking into it. I don't know of anything off top of my head that's u that's published that that they're
25:10
>> moving forward with. >> Uh, we got to get some measurements. I want to measure the beads on same size tire, L4, L5, L3. >> Yeah. >> See the differences. >> Yep. >> Um, so you were Give us a a case study here. I mean, you were at a a commodities yard. You said a corn feed
25:26
recently. >> Yes. tell us about it. >> Uh so we had um uh a couple failures at that facility and so they wanted to do a site severity to see why the they had the failures and uh so we went in and we did a uh like I said a site severity. We checked uh the
25:44
speeds and the air pressures and uh basically found that uh for the commodity that they're carrying the speed that they were going they were just a little bit under inflated. How about by how much? >> Uh about 15%. >> That's doesn't sound like a lot.
26:01
>> It's a lot. It's It's a lot quick. Um you know, it doesn't seem like a lot, but you're talking, you know, 7 8 9 10 lbs. 12 pounds is is a lot fast. >> What uh what size loaders? >> Uh those were 65 uh Hitachi 65s. So 8 yard buckets, nine yard buckets.
26:22
>> And then what kind of tire? What was actually happening with the tire that was failing? >> They were beat outs. >> Beatouts. >> Yeah. >> What's a beat out? >> Uh were where they actually fail at the bead area. Heat related failure at the bead area.
26:37
>> Above the bead at the actual bead. You have to see it when you take the wheel off. How did they know? >> Uh well, the one actually failed while the uh while the bucket was up in the air, so he knew right away. >> The like the bead blew out. >> Yeah. Oh wow.
26:53
>> Yeah. Yeah. Catastrophic failure. Could have been uh much more uh devastating, but uh fortunately it wasn't. And uh the other one was uh it just you could see it beat out right over the wheel >> or blew out over the wheel. >> Yep. >> Oh wow. So that destroyed the wheel
27:11
components also, I'm assuming. >> No. No, it didn't. It It didn't actually have catastrophic failure. Um, we we caught it before it was catastrophic. >> Was that a L5 application? >> No, that was an L3 application. >> L3. >> Did you replace the wheel components?
27:32
>> Uh, we are going to >> Yeah, >> that was the recommendation. >> Is there is there any reason why you wouldn't >> shortsighted? A lot of people um look at it as a as an expense. um rather than an investment and uh so some people will look at the uh the expense of it but at
27:54
the end of the day it's it should be done. >> I I don't Yeah, I don't know how you how you couldn't I mean John knows the story of I had a tire blow up on me many many years ago um and it was run out on a wheel. Um you know you see that right away if you have a catastrophic failure.
28:10
I mean, you are assuming that you had the wrong application, wrong tire, but at the end of the day, anything could have happened in there. You might as well replace the wheel components while you're there. Just seems like too risky. >> Yeah. How often does I'm assuming, you
28:24
know, will wheel components normal wear and tear item. And I think that's the misconception is a lot of people don't they think it's either damaged or something happened to it, but we know that it's a normal wear and tear item. How often does should wheel components
28:39
be replaced? Is there a certain set timeline like hey every third set of tires we should we should replace wheel components or there there's nothing written um as a plan in the United States. Uh I recommend at least every other tire at the at the longest stretch. Um but industrywide
29:04
uh other countries you have to uh uh position that that wheel to um to come off and be tested at 10,000 hours >> by like a third party. >> Yes. >> Really? You have to yank it off at 10,000 hours. >> Yep. And it has to be they have a static test that they put on it. >> Yeah.
29:25
>> Run some electricity through it. um check it for cracks, that kind of thing, and then put it back into business. >> Australia, Europe, >> Australia, um I think Canada is working on a similar, um European, I don't know what their market is. Uh but Australia, I think it's $10,000.
29:46
>> That makes sense with the huge amount of mining they do. >> Ultra class. >> Yep. >> Yeah. What else you do this month? >> Uh uh going to do some haul truck stuff. Um, kind of excited about that. Um, it's always a good time. >> I I I've only seen pictures. I've never
30:05
seen one in person, but there are L4s and L5s going on some hall trucks, articulated dump. >> Yeah. Yeah, there are some. >> It I mean, what applications are those where you're using that? I've always thought of an L3 or maybe one of these higher faster perform or faster speed
30:24
L4s that are out there. Well, hopefully they're not using an L4 or an L5. Hopefully they're using an E4 or an E5. Yeah, >> something that's uh you know, could be dual rated, dual marked. Um but, uh you know, E4s, uh they do a they do a great job. Um
30:46
articulated dump trucks running the the higher speeds up to, you know, 29, 30 mph, 31 mph. Um, the E4s do a really good job. There's there's no reason to really be concerned about that. >> How fast? >> Uh, 30 31 >> on a on a E4 for articulated dump. Y
31:04
>> So that's a huge difference when we're talking about loaders versus articulated dumps. >> Yes. Y >> um I've seen some pictures of an of an L5. What would you run an L5 on articulated dump? Well, >> or when >> I guess that would be a specific site. Um, lowspeed,
31:27
you know, level ground probably. Um, maybe hauling on a a commodity, you know, maybe uh uh I I don't know. I I would have a issue with L5s on a >> I'll bad sales guy. >> Yeah. >> You know what? It might have just been OE pictures. I saw it on uh in a Kamasu
31:48
catalog and I saw it in a Volvo catalog, >> right, for their articulated dump. And it could just have been an OE fitment that they put on there. >> The guy who put that picture together. >> No, it was it was in their catalog. >> Wow. >> Well, if you were working at like a steel mill,
32:05
>> Yeah. >> where you were hauling a commodity over concrete area. >> Okay. >> And it was a short run and on and on and on, you could get away with it. Um there are applications where it could work but uh be very limited. >> Okay. So this is a good question. What's
32:23
what's an application that you put in an L3 or L4 or L5 that you wouldn't you wouldn't normally think of? >> Rephrase the question. >> So we we're building some standards here on where you would put each tire. You're saying hypothetically it'd be rare that
32:39
you could put a L5 on an articulated dump. What's a rare scenario where you put something in like that? Um, any place where you would have uh a a puncture situation where uh maybe you were like scrap steel, >> something like that where you wanted the extra protection of an L5
33:04
>> um especially in the face area, but it was uh slow, you know, um could possibly be a heavy haul, but short distance, very slow again. >> Um, so there's situations where it would go. >> Okay. And you've put them in in that? >> No. >> No. No. >> I
33:25
uh in that situation, I would probably go to a solid. >> Really? >> And if if the L5 was capable of doing it and I was putting it into a metal facility, I would probably look to see if I could do a a a solid It's interesting. >> Why? >> Because then you take away all the puncture
33:51
scenario. >> And it's got to be slow. It's got to be slow. It's got to be the right application. But could you do it? You could >> on all six tires of articulated dunk. >> Sure. >> It's interesting. Never never thought of that before. >> Yeah. If if anybody has pictures of
34:08
that, we want them in the comments. >> Yeah. I've never seen it. >> I just want to see an L5 on articulating dump working. >> Yeah. You know, I I I just think, you know, here in California, man, can you imagine that going to court and going, "Well, it's designated L5, not E5."
34:22
>> You lost already. Something happened. >> Well, the you know, the dual mark thing is always interesting to me. I mean, there there 30 years ago. Yeah. You had big separation on the loader side. It It's There's more L4, L5 only, but a lot of stuff is dual marked now.
34:37
>> Yeah. Yeah. Most of the stuff coming across is is dual marked. >> Have you ever seen an L5 dual marked? I I I don't recall ever seeing one. >> That's a good point. >> I don't think I've ever seen one. >> Yeah. >> Yeah. It's on that Volvo. >> It's on that Volvo. Now I'm gonna go
34:53
Volvo's website and look at this thing. I got to see it. >> Yeah, I'll find it. If I can find it and we can put it on the pod. >> Yeah. Then I want to know who ordered that that articulated dump with L5 on it. >> They maybe it was just during a shortage. Maybe they just didn't have
35:05
any tires when they needed to do the photo shoot and they needed to promo it and maybe marketing thought it was cool. Well, you know, for a couple of us old guys here who remember 2003, 2004 with the, you know, global shortages. Yeah. >> I mean, we had people I had people
35:19
asking for it. I don't care if it's an L5, L3, E2, they they'd buy anything they could possibly put air into to get that equipment running. >> Yeah. >> And don't don't count it out. Silver and gold look pretty good right now. You could have people you could have people
35:34
starting to pan out there. >> Yeah, that's for sure. I I wouldn't mind another um shortage like that to be honest with you. >> Mike or Mark, you live close to Gold Country almost. You could be out there panning. >> I do. Uh we John and I were talking
35:47
about that this morning at the price. I might go buy a might go buy a new shovel. >> I could Yeah. Have you panned before? >> No. >> No. Okay. >> It's a lot of hype. It's not that fun. >> Right. Yeah. Right. >> Like anything else, it's a bunch of work.
36:01
>> Yeah. It's a bunch of work and for for what you think is gold and it's fake gold. So Yeah. Okay. Um, I'll add in I'll add in one more. I've seen some loaders in very unique applications use LS2s. Um, your forestry tire uh type tread. Uh, have you put any of those on? Have
36:25
you seen them? Where would you put that application? So, if you've got uh a loader, for example, that's uh maybe clearing out um an orchard or possibly uh in a logging type situation, we've put uh forestry tires on them. >> Yeah. >> And uh they they've done well
36:48
>> on uh multi-piece wheels. >> Uh yes. Yep. >> Yeah. You don't have to change out the wheels. You can um some of the new places are there's some new manufacturers out there that are B that are building uh multi-piece wheels >> from a puncture resistant standpoint. L5 LS2
37:08
similar or L5 much more puncture resistant. >> Uh if >> I always wonder that. >> Well, some of the LS2s have steel steel um steel in the um tread face. >> That's what I mean. You've got the Primex, the Super Primax, the Mega Super. I mean, they got all these different models of it.
37:26
>> And they also have uh you know, the Forestry tire typically has a compound that's um puncture resistant. You know, it's cut resistant. >> So, um I would put that up against any L5 in that same scenario. >> Yeah. >> Because uh because an L5 doesn't necessarily give you puncture
37:48
resistance. It just gives you more tread >> to go through. >> I feel like this is a project for you. You've got some backcountry uh boys out there that could test that those those two things in your neck of the woods. >> Yeah. >> All right. What else, guys?
38:04
>> That's uh pick my brain clean today. >> All right. Where's your next um site severity? >> Uh the next one I think is going to be in Hawaii. >> Hawaii. Nice. It's good time to go to Hawaii. It's been a little cold here in California. >> Yeah, I had to wear a vest for my walk
38:24
this morning. >> You know, it's horrible when we wake up here in California. It's like 43, 44 degrees and we're all freezing and >> this is where everybody in Minnesota is going to hang up. >> Yeah. >> Well, good luck in Hawaii, Mark. Uh we're looking forward to having you on again.
38:40
>> Thank you. >> Absolutely. >> Appreciate it, >> J. Thank you. >> Thanks, gentlemen. Around the bead podcast, tire talk for trucking, mining, agriculture, and more. Your home for fleet solutions. Aiming to inform, pioneer, and entertain the tire world in
39:08
connected industries. Sponsored by East Bay Tire. Keeping essential industries moving forward.
