Maintenance For Heavy Duty Truck Tires

Heavy duty truck maintenance is important to keeping your rig performing optimally, but it's easy to overlook the importance of maintaining the tires. Without the tires, after all, your truck wouldn't be able to leave the lot! 

When you fail to take care of tires, you can face a host of problems. This can be anything from sped up wear to a dangerous blowout on the road. Fortunately, proactive tire maintenance is simple once you know the steps.

Keep reading to discover easy do-it-yourself truck tire maintenance tasks. If you have questions or want to shop heavy duty trucks for sale, head over to Palmer Trucks. We offer 12 dealerships throughout Indiana, Ohio, Kentucky, and Illinois.

Equip Yourself With The Right Tire Maintenance Tools

First, get a tire pressure gauge. This small and affordable tool will give you quick insight into the tire's air pressure, which you can then adjust as needed. Try to check the tire pressure each time before you hit the road.

If you have a larger budget, you can get a tire pressure monitoring system instead. This impressive technology gives you real time updates into the tire pressure, allowing you to quickly identify a problem and track tire health over a period of time. Plus, it saves you the effort of manually measuring the air pressure.

Second, have a spare tire and jack stored in your heavy duty truck. If you end up with a flat tire, you will be able to quickly replace it and get back to driving instead of waiting for a tow truck.

Check Tire Health Regularly

It's important to catch issues early before they can turn into a safety situation on the road. Conduct regular inspections of the heavy duty truck tires.

Start by looking over for signs of damage, such as a small tear. Remember that small issues can turn into bigger (and more costly) ones, so you will want to address them as soon as possible. 

Next, look at the tire tread levels. Tread is important in ensuring your heavy duty truck maintains traction with the road. But, tread also wears down over time. Eventually, the tread will get so worn down that the tires will need to be replaced. Check the owner's manual to discover when that will be.

Finally, make sure there are no pieces of debris or foreign objects lodged in the tires. Check over each tire on a regular basis.

Use Best Driving Practices

How you drive can take a toll on the tires. Avoid overloading your heavy duty truck, which places undue stress on the tires. If you hit something, pull over to scope out the damage and address it quickly.

Use Proper Storage Practices

If your heavy duty truck will be sitting in storage for an extended period of time, the tires can suffer. There will be too much pressure pushing on one spot too long, which can result in excess wear and deflation. You will want to either get the heavy duty truck tires off of the ground or rotate them regularly to relieve the pressure.

We hope you found this maintenance guide helpful. If you ever need professional heavy duty truck maintenance assistance, the experts at Palmer Trucks are ready to help. Our parts replacement and service department can get your rig repaired and back to the road. We also offer a range of heavy duty trucks for sale if you are looking to upgrade. Whatever you need, you can find  it with us. Our dealerships are located throughout Indiana, Ohio, Kentucky, and Illinois. Contact us or stop by your nearest dealership, today!