THE CONTI CONTENDERS

2nd September 2010, Page 41

2nd September 2010

Page 41

Page 41, 2nd September 2010 — THE CONTI CONTENDERS

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Continental says its 'Regional Traffic truck and trailer tyres are suitable for up to 75% of all 'normal', over-theroad haulage industry applications in the UK. "Typical users will be doing inter-urban drops, but with also a fair proportion of their time also spent on the motorway," explains Sanders. "It's designed to cater for up to 75% long-distance work, urban work and everything in between, including non-extreme tipper work whose trucks spend maybe 20%-25% of their time off-road. It's got a good all-round grip with an element of self-cleaning of the tread." All of which made Conti's Regional Traffic the ideal choice for our 'control', and we fitted our DAF XF test attic with brand new HSR2 and HDR2 295/80R22.5 tyres on the steer and drive axles and HTR2 385/65R 22.5 wide singles on CIA 44-tonne curtainsider test trailer.

However, for those operators whose trucks spend more than 70% of their time on the motorway, Continental is offering the Eco-Plus Long Distance tyre. "The actual distance the truck covers is more or less irrelevant," says Sanders. "n the actual percentage of time they spend on the motorway that matters and on which fitment should be based."

Eco-Plus Long Distance tyres have a noticeably different tread pattern to their Regional Traffic equivalents, with the steer-axle pattern having virtually straight rlbs. The drive-axle variant's tread blocks are also closer together to reduce tread 'shuffle' (which causes drag) as well as slightly-shallower tread channels to help dissipate heat more effectively when tyres get hot, their rolling resistance increases.