Best value tire: 6 characteristics to look for

Knowing which tire offers the best value for your fleet management is essential to save resources, both financial ones and the tires themselves, which are valuable assets.

By choosing tire models that perform better in your operations, you avoid problems and premature replacements, ensuring the efficiency of your assets.

Identifying a tire with good value for money requires tracking and interpreting relevant data. Below, we explain how you can:

• Identify the best value tire;
• Recognize the characteristics of tires that offer good value for money;
• Understand the importance of tire management and maintenance to optimize your fleet's cost-benefit.

How can you identify the best value tire?

To identify the best value tire, it is essential to consider your fleet's type of operation, because this helps define the most suitable choice of tire to serve that specific operation.

There are different types of tires to consider:

• Urban tire: this is characterized as a high-severity tire, ideal for meeting the needs of a more demanding urban route.
• Highway: considered a low-severity tire, it is ideal for operations on roads and highways, because it is a lighter tire and offers less rolling resistance.
• Regional: this type of tire is considered medium-severity, being versatile and able to meet a range of demands.
• Mixed: this type is designed for use on different kinds of terrain, usually chosen for routes that have both road and “off-road” stretches in equal proportion.
• Off-road: used in off-road operations, such as construction and mining.

Each environment places specific challenges on tires, so knowing how to evaluate tires and their performance in different situations is essential to identify the most suitable models for each situation.

What works well in one operation may not be ideal in another, and the analysis must be adapted to your fleet's specific conditions and needs. This is what ensures you choose the tires with the best value for your operations.

What are the characteristics of the best value tire?

We can think of these characteristics at two stages: the tire's manufacturing and construction characteristics, before it is used, and its characteristics over the course of its use. Take a look:

Factory characteristics

Assess grip, rolling resistance and noise on the label

For tires sold in Brazil, including those intended for trucks and buses, the National Energy Conservation Label is an important reference for comparison. It reports the rolling resistance coefficient, the wet grip coefficient and the sound pressure level, which is the tire's external noise.

This care avoids mixing criteria from other rating systems into the fleet's choice. In practice, it is worth comparing tires by the label that applies to the Brazilian market and balancing grip, wear and rolling resistance, since these goals can conflict with one another.

Use treadwear with caution

Treadwear is a wear measure reported on some tires, but it should not be treated as a universal requirement for defining value for money in the fleet.

For new tires in Brazil, Inmetro, the country's national metrology and standards institute, does not adopt this rating as a regulatory criterion, because the tests cannot be reproduced under the same conditions of ambient temperature, ambient pressure and controlled asphalt conditions. For that reason, instead of setting a single number as a rule, management should use treadwear only when it is applicable and comparable to the context being analyzed.

Check rolling resistance and grip on the Inmetro label

The Inmetro label is an important source of information on tire performance.

It presents the rolling resistance coefficient on a scale from A to G and the wet grip coefficient on a scale from A to F. It also reports the sound pressure level on three scales, which helps compare noise between models.

This information can point to a tire that is more suitable, economical and efficient for the operation, increasing the chances of bringing the desired value for money to your fleet without relying on a single isolated measure.

Characteristics in use

Show good resistance to punctures and damage

Tires that are resistant to punctures and damage are more economical in the long run. They reduce the risk of service while in use, which can result in more costly repairs or replacements.

Offer a good balance between price and durability

A truck tire has a high purchase price, so good durability is important in your fleet management.

To know whether this holds true in your operations, you need to track the tire's wear over time and also the mileage driven after retreading.

Generally speaking, a tire can run up to 80 thousand kilometers over its useful life, going through the proper management and maintenance processes. With this information and by evaluating tire data, your cost-benefit calculation will be clearer and more accurate.

Be compatible with the fleet's operating conditions

Each fleet has its own needs and specific operating conditions, as we mentioned above. And for its value for money to be validated, the tire must be compatible with these conditions.

The asset must meet the fleet's usage demands and be suitable for the type of roads and terrain where the vehicles operate. This compatibility ensures consistent performance and greater operational efficiency.

The importance of tire management and maintenance to optimize the cost-benefit of these assets

Tire management contributes to optimizing the cost-benefit of these assets in the fleet's operation. It is an area that manages the use of tires in the fleet's operations, from purchase to disposal.

For a manager, understanding a tire's factory characteristics and how they can influence operational performance is indispensable knowledge, since it can lead to smarter and more effective purchases.

Likewise, understanding how the tire performs in the fleet's operations and analyzing its pressure and tread depth data is an activity that makes it possible to find the best value tire.

Combining the tire's characteristics with analyses of its performance in operations makes it possible to carry out analyses and also understand which are the best brands of tires for your fleet in particular.

Tracking tire tread depth is particularly important, because it indicates the level of wear and the average time it takes a tire to wear down, and it also helps determine the ideal moment for retreading.

In addition, this data and complete tire management ensure a highly accurate CPK calculation, which is crucial information in the search for the best value tire.

The cost per kilometer makes it possible to understand how much the fleet is actually spending on its tires for each kilometer driven. This metric helps identify whether the tires are offering a good balance between performance and costs, enabling more informed decision-making aimed at improving efficiency and savings.

To make this task easier and faster, discover Prolog App. An app and digital tool that help record and interpret the tire data entered during inspections and workshop routines, supporting analyses and reports for your decision-making.

Optimize your fleet's tire management with the Prolog solution, schedule your free system demo now!