Interbrew: Trailer tyre pressures
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• Maintenance of correct tyre pressures is another fuel-economy and tyre-wear mantra, but trailer tyre pressures in particular can still be prone to lack of attention. Interbrew UK nailed down the cost of this oversight by dropping the pressures on a set of trailer tyres by 25%. They were on a triaxle curtain-sided trailer pulled by a 380hp Volvo FM12 6x2 tractor; the outfit was loaded to just over 41 tonnes. Covering both sections of the RTAC/IRTE trial, including the tough stop-start portion, the Volvo managed an overall consumption figure of 5.56mpg when the trailer tyres were at their correct pressures. When they were dropped to 95ps1, the figure was 6.38mpg. This equates to a deterioration of 2.7%, which is broadly in line with the published data concerning the importance of tyre pressures and rolling resistance.
Michelin claims that its new generation of Energy tyres, the A2 range for long-haul work, offers 20% less rolling resistance than its standard E2 series of regional tyres.