Spring is coming, and it’s a good time to get out in the yard and perform a tire quality inventory on your fleet of vacuum trucks and other service vehicles. Today’s tires can take an enormous amount of abuse, but neglecting them can be quite costly. Follow these 10 basic tire maintenance procedures to lower your per-mile tire costs through extended tread life and fewer premature removals:

1. Determine proper inflation levels for your application.

The biggest influence on tire life is inflation pressure. At normal speeds, running tires at 20 percent under recommended pressure reduces tire mileage by 16 percent and fuel mileage by 2 percent. To determine the correct air pressure for your tires, gather information on your actual axle loads and refer to tire load charts provided by a tire manufacturer.

2. Establish a good inflation maintenance program.

Tire pressure is difficult to maintain because tires naturally lose air over time. Use a calibrated air gauge to check air pressure at least once a week. Flow-through valve caps make it easier for operators to check pressure and add air without removing the valve cap. Note that changes in ambient temperature will affect tire pressures. For every 10-degree F decrease in temperature, the pressure will drop 2 psi. So, during the colder months of the year, operators need to check and inflate tires more often.

3. Keep vehicles properly aligned.

Poor vehicle alignment causes most irregular tire wear. For example, steer axle toe-out will cause excessive wear on the inside of both tires while toe-in will cause wear on the outside shoulders of the tires. Ideally, most steer tires should have a small amount of toe-in. To maintain this, as well as stay on top of other types of irregular wear, your vehicles should be aligned regularly. If you’ve never had a periodic alignment program in place, you can increase tire mileage by as much as 30 percent by implementing one.

4. Mount tires correctly.

The rounder or more concentric the tire, the better it will wear. To keep tire run-out to a minimum, tires should always be mounted on the wheel correctly. Ideally, the tires should be match-mounted to the wheel. Check with the tire manufacturer to see how they mark their tires. The idea is to take the high spot of the tire and match it to the low spot of the wheel. If you mount properly, you may not need to balance the tire/wheel assembly.

5. Learn to “read” tires.

Drivers typically don’t check tread wear unless they experience ride problems. By then, it’s often too late to prevent premature wear. Regular tire inspections provide a lot of useful information and catch wear trends before they do too much damage. Problems can be diagnosed by visual inspection or by running a hand over the tread and feeling for abnormalities. Items to check for include distortion in the tread, feathering or cupping. If corrected early, bad wear patterns can be countered to extend tire life. Since rib-edge feathering is an early indicator of misalignment, your truck should go in for an alignment at the first sign. While feeling the tread, inspect the entire tire for safety-related damage such as cuts, cracks, blisters or bulges. If the damage is severe, the tire should be removed.

6. Rotate tires.

Moving tires around takes time and effort. The temptation is to leave them in one position for the life of the tread. But intelligent tire rotation promotes even tread wear and can net a lot of extra miles in tread life. Drive tires should be rotated between forward and back positions at least once to even out wear. Rear tires of a tandem typically will wear quicker than the forward positions. Some drive tires will also develop heel and toe wear. This can be evened out by reversing their direction.

7.Protect sidewalls from curb damage.

Urban routes present many opportunities for potential sidewall damage. Alert drivers to the importance of avoiding sidewall impacts and suggest driving maneuvers to reduce sidewall contact. Encourage drivers to inspect tires regularly for sidewall wear and damage.

8. Replace tires with matching ones.

For optimum tread wear, tires should be as alike as possible across the same positions. If a tire must be pulled due to irregular wear or a road hazard, it should be replaced with a tire matching the existing one. The more you can do to eliminate variation, the better your tread wear will be. On dual assemblies, the outside diameters and tread depths should be as close as possible. A good rule of thumb is no more than 2/32-inch tread depth difference between duals. It’s also wise to have the same tread design on both positions of an axle.

9. Check and replace worn wheel and suspension components.

These can be the hidden enemies of tire life. A wheel bearing that is not properly torqued can cause irregular tire wear. Worn shock absorbers can create depression wear on treads. To prevent irregular tire wear, replace shock absorbers and other suspension components on a set schedule.

10. Keep good tire records and use the data wisely.

Because every contractor’s operation is different, copying another contractor’s practices may do more harm than good. To manage most efficiently, collect and record information including tire inflation pressures, wear trends, and tire mileage at removal. Analyze tire performance over time and compare with different vehicle configurations and tire types. By changing specifications, you may be able to realize significant gains in total tire mileage and other performance goals.