TECHNOLOGY TYRES
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Newton Abbot haulier Roger Eggbeer, managing director of Eggbeers Transport, has been operating one of his fleet of 17 vehicles on Michelin Energy tyres for around a year now. The 38tonne Volvo FH12 420 and its Crane Fruehauf triaxle tank trailer make a daily run from Devon to Sheppey in Kent and back, hauling liquid clay on the outward leg and totalling 1,700 miles a week. This is almost the ideal operation for LRR tyres: a motorway journey with little urban work, and the consistency of the run has allowed Eggbeer to compare fuel consumption figures with some accuracy.
The trailer was fitted with 385section Energy wide-singles, and the first few months of operation showed an 8% improvement in fuel consumption, but this coincided with a move into spring rather than winter driving. More representative winter-to-winter comparisons (with 295-section Energy tyres added to the steer axle) have shown varying results, with an average saving over four months of 4.8%. This is very close to the 5% improvement that was hoped for: "I reckon we recouped the extra cost in the first seven weeks," says Roger Eggbeer.
Handling has not suffered, and tyre wear seems to be similar to a normal setup—Eggbeer expects around 120,000 miles from trailer rubber— hut it is too early to know for sure: "As much as people try to tell you that tyres wear evenly, they don't," he says.
The drive axle has now been fitted with Energys, and Eggbeer has recently kitted out another clay carrier—on similar, regular long-haul work— with low-rolling-resistance tyres.
Not everybody has seen convincing results from LRR tyres: we spoke to a NorthWestern operator who has seen no discernible improvement in fuel consumption, despite fitting a full set of Michelin Energy tyres to an artic on tnmking work. But he maintains: "I have a lot of confidence in Michelin—everything they've said so far has been correct." He thinks that other factors may also have affected the fuelconsumption figures.
And this is the difficulty in justifying LRR tyres: the fuel savings they deliver are not dramatic, and other factors (purchase cost, tyre life, handling and remould potential, for instance) make their usefulness even more difficult to calculate. Early trials indicate that in the right application—usually long-haul operation—fuel savings can be made with little or no sacrifice in tyre life.
But some designs appear to offer even better tyre life, and more flexibility in application.
Until a number of large operators specify LRR tyres as standard—or better yet, on half their fleets—we won't know for sure if they can deliver what they promise. But a 5% fuel saving is still not to be sniffed at.