When it comes to selecting tires for Reliable Paving’s wheeled skid steers—a mix of more than a dozen Caterpillar 262Ds and Bobcats—shop and equipment manager Ryan Young says buying on price can be short-sighted.
When Young joined Reliable Paving 3 years ago, cheaper tires were failing in droves at th e company’s paving, repair, and construction sites all over the Dallas-Fort Worth area.
“It seemed like we were just calling in for tires left and right, all the time, on those skid steers,” he says.
He immediately implemented a new approach.
“For us, it’s usually, ‘what’s the most reliable?’ and we’re willing to pay for that because in the long run we get more durability and more life out of that more expensive tire,” Young explains.
NEW MIGHTY TRAC ND
Reliable Paving’s tire dealer, Brian Edwards of Star Tire in Dallas, Texas, knew Young would appreciate the new Galaxy Mighty Trac ND.
“The Mighty Trac has got a ton of rubber on it—just one 32nd less than the Galaxy Hulk—and the cost per hour is very low,” Edwards says. “I have a couple of customers using them, primarily on skid steers they’re doing paving work with, and they’re performing really well.”
The Galaxy Mighty Trac ND has a rubber-to-void ratio of 52:48, notes Ryan Lopes, national product manager for Yokohama Off-Highway Tires America, Inc. The tread blocks are placed more densely in the center of the tread to reduce wear, which opens up the sides for better self-cleaning, he explains.
“The tread blocks of the Mighty Trac also feature sipes, which improve their flexibility and traction as well as their ability to dissipate heat,” Lopes adds.
SIDE BY SIDE
A side-by-side comparison left no doubts at Reliable Paving.
“We had two machines and Star Tire put the Galaxy on one and we had this other cheap, knock-off brand on the other,” Young recalls. “You could just see how fast the other ones had worn out compared to the Galaxys—the cheaper tires already had a lot of chunks and were showing a lot more aggressive signs of wear. At that point, I made a decision to go with the Mighty Trac as much as I can.”