Let's use $500.00 per tire as a round number for all costs associated with a single truck or trailer tire replacement. At $500.00 dollars per tire times 18 tires, that equals out to $9,000 in tires for every 18 wheeler rig. Quite an investment in nothing but tires!

Hypothetically, suppose you run 100,000-125,000 miles per year and all 18 of your tires will last a full year (with no flats or blowouts included). That's $9,000 per year in tire expenses you have to allow for out of your rig's overall earnings.

In reality, most rigs will not run the full set of tires a full year! They will require steer tire replacement twice to three times per year, and some will require drive axle and possibly trailer tire replacement within the year. Now we are talking at least $11,000 and as much as $21,000 in tire replacement expenses per year, not to mention flats etc.!

Now suppose you could actually run your steer tires for the full 100,000-125,000 miles, your drive axle tires at least 150,000 miles plus and your trailer tires for somewhere between 150,000 and 200,000 miles. That would cut your tire replacement down to a lot less than the original $9,000 per year we talked of above. Down to $5-6,000 per year or maybe less!

Wouldn't a savings of say $5,000 to $15,000 per year in tire replacement alone be worth shooting for? Get the downloadable book “Tire trouble? Handling problems?”, a one time investment of $15.95, and follow the repair/maintenance procedures contained in the book for savings like these!

Heavy truck suspensions take a real beating. Believe it or not, even air ride suspensions require regular maintenance. Regular suspension maintenance, such as regular correct u-bolt re-torque, will greatly reduce long term repair costs as well as short term costs like the tire replacement costs discussed above. Air ride suspension bushings will last longer & air bag damage from slipping components can be prevented, thereby helping to keep operating costs lower.

Correct power steering gear maintenance & some power steering gear repairs are no great mystery but doing it all wrong can result in whopping repair/replacement bills. For instance, there have been many instances where a TRW Ross power steering gear has been damaged beyond reasonable repair by someone replacing an input shaft seal using all the wrong methods.

Steering component tips like correct lower column timing, correct pitman arm timing, correct lubrication, correct steering column u-joint replacement & correct steering wheel pulling can lower repair costs and most certainly help in truck handling.

Other steering component replacement, like with control arm replacement or tie rod end replacement, can be difficult if done wrong or relatively easy if one learns the techniques from an experienced technician. With tie rod end replacement, correctly setting toe after replacement is vitally important. Without the use of a wheel alignment machine, one can correctly set toe within reason if the proper procedures and techniques are followed.

If you want to do suspension & steering repair/maintenance yourself, or provide your mechanic(s) with procedures, tips, troubleshooting tips, lubrication tips, etc., you can provide your mechanic(s) with many of these points from the book “Tire trouble? Handling problems?”

Heavy truck clutch adjustment causing clutch failures etc. is largely a preventable expense in big truck operation. Truck clutch adjustment can be done in less than an hour every 3 or 4 months, and will extend the life of the clutch dramatically.

Out of adjustment slipping clutches causes extreme heat buildup and burns the flywheel, clutch plates and pressure plate. Out of adjustment clutches cause constant contact between the clutch forks and the throwout bearing, causing excessive clutch fork wear. The clutch brake or clutch brake action suffers too, because if it even touches during clutch pedal depression, it will not stop the transmission gears and extreme heat buildup helps burn up the clutch brake. A non contacting or slightly contacting clutch brake even adds to the transmission's internal wear from grinding the gears!

Major repairs costing up to many thousands of dollars can be avoided by a simple regime of adjusting the clutch regularly or at least any time it becomes necessary. Heavy truck clutches must be adjusted both at the clutch itself and at the clutch linkage. However, when a regular regime is undertaken, most of the time only adjustment of the ring on the clutch itself is all that is needed until wear in the clutch fork etc. makes linkage adjustment necessary.

Heavy truck brakes is another area where cost reduction is highly possible. The tendency by truck/trailer manufacturers to make brakes self adjusting and make slack adjusters & brake cam housings non greasable tends to make truck owners not pay as close attention to brake maintenance as they once did.

Self adjusting brakes do not always keep the brakes adjusted properly and non greasable parts are not exactly a good idea. Periodically manually adjusting the brakes evenly and up to snuff will tend to increase brake shoe life from shorter stopping distances. Making the parts greasable, then greasing them with regular ordinary grease on a regular basis, will tend to extend the life of the parts.

Why regular ordinary grease? Manufacturers use synthetic grease sealed up inside these parts. Synthetic greases often does not bleed oil like regular grease. Parts that do not rotate completely around will tend to push the grease out of the part's pressure points leaving no lubrication at these pressure points if non oil bleeding synthetic grease is used. Oil bleeding regular grease will provide lubrication of these pressure points with the oil that bleeds from the grease, and a regular weekly greasing of these parts will reconstitute that lubrication.

The largest expense in truck operation comes from fuel expenses. Think on this the next time you spec a new truck: An engine with plenty of power without over fueling, and with a combination of plenty of forward gears and a well balanced rear gear ratio, will use less fuel than a choked back engine with a 6-9 speed transmission and ultra high rear gear ratio (ultra high in comparison to engine power & number of transmission gears) if driven right.

We had several trucks come to our shop with fuel consumption problems. These particular trucks had capable but choked back engines (held back by the onboard computer), ultra high rear end gears and a 9 speed transmission. By removing the parameters from the onboard computer that caused a choked back mode to occur with the engine, and changing the transmission from a 9 speed to a 13 or 15 speed, we increased fuel performance by a whopping amount. Rear gear ratio changes produced yet another increase in fuel performance.

These same trucks that before got 4-41/2 miles per gallon fuel mileage now got 7-71/2 miles per gallon.

Fuel efficiency in heavy trucks can also be increased by correct wheel alignment, maintaining correct tire air pressures, etc. By increasing fuel mileage, decreasing tire replacement and tire trouble costs, preventing clutch & brake problems and more, you can increase your bottom line by more than many people live off of for a full year! Learn these things and more in the book “Tire trouble? Handling problems?