Yokohama Off Highway Tires

How to Make Skid Steer Tires Last Longer From moving material on the construction site to pushing manure on the farm to working with waste in recycling centers, we ask a lot of our skid steers—and their tires. Since tires are one of the major operating expenses for skid steers—behind fuel—smart owners and operators take steps to improve tire life as a way to cut costs and grow profits. Keep Your Tires Clean: It’s easy to overlook potential tire problems when your skid steers' tires are covered with mud or manure, or caked in concrete dust. Keeping your tires clean makes it easier to spot bumps, bulges, and cracks on your tires, along with blow-out-threatening debris that might get wedged in the tread or bead area. Inspect Tires Often: In addition to looking for deformities on your skid steer tires, inspect the tread frequently for uneven wear. It’s common for a skid steer to wear one set of tires—front or rear—faster than the other, or even one side faster than the other. Keep

Preventative Maintenance Helps Farm Tires Last Longer Ag tires are built tough—they need to be to handle the numerous challenges they encounter on the farm, from transferring equipment horsepower to the ground to pulling tillage equipment and carrying massive loads of seed, spray, and commodities. The durability and ruggedness of the best ag tires can make it easy to overlook the demands placed on them, but devoting time to tire maintenance can pay off, especially when you consider that the price of a single tire can run hundreds or thousands of dollars. A little preventative maintenance can go a long way to ensuring the long service life of your tire. Below are seven tips for making the most out of your investment in farm tires. Inflation Pressure Ensuring your ag tires are inflated properly is one of the best things you can do for your tires and a simple tire pressure gauge is one of the best investments you can make on the farm. Overinflation can cause excessive tire wear and can

Radial vs. Bias Farm Tires Farmers today have more options than ever when it comes time to select ag tires. One of the most common ways to differentiate the multitude of farm tires on the market is to divide them by their construction—bias ply or radial. Both bias and radial tires have their advantages, but radials stand apart as there are no real drawbacks to their use in farming applications. Keep reading to learn more about the features and benefits of both types of tires. Bias-Ply Tires Bias-ply tires are nearly as old as pneumatic (air-filled) tires themselves—they’ve been a common sight on farms for almost a century—and still present a viable option for many machines. Bias-ply tires are made by lapping multiple plies of rubber-coated textile diagonally over each other—also called “on the bias”—to create a single working unit. The construction of bias tires allows the sidewall and tread to work together as a single unit. Bias-Ply Tire Pros Bias construction creates a rugged, dura

Traction and Compaction in Wet Fields  Thoughts of perfect weather and ideal field conditions fill every farmer’s head, but those dreams aren’t always a reality. While we preach patience and believe in biding your time until a field is ready to support equipment, sometimes waiting isn’t an option. In cases when you simply must enter wet and muddy fields, here are some steps you can take to increase flotation, maximize traction, and reduce soil compaction. Find Your Tire’s Optimal Footprint  Operating your tires at lower inflation pressures increases their footprint, consequently spreading the weight of the machine it’s carrying over a larger area and minimizing soil compaction. Reduced inflation has the added benefit of putting more tread on the ground and improving traction as well.  Optimal vs. Underinflated:   An ag tire’s ideal inflation pressure accounts for the weight of the machine, what it’s carrying, and the speed it is traveling at. Knowing these three factors, you can use th

Operating super-powerful and massive machinery in extremely challenging terrain, loggers ask a lot of forestry tires. The best forestry tires help get equipment in (and out) of difficult-to-access sites, provide stability while carrying heavy loads, improve productivity, and ensure uptime — but how do you know if the forestry tire you’re looking at is up to the task? While there are numerous brands and styles of logging tires, there are some characteristics that all great forestry tires share.   Puncture Resistance Stumps, sharp branches, and rocks — logging sites are filled with hazards, and punctures pose an enormous problem for loggers. First and foremost is that loggers often operate in remote, hard-to-access areas, which means a replacement tire or tech to fix the tire is not always nearby. Machine downtime is particularly costly in businesses with tight margins, like logging. Tire manufacturers like Alliance and Primex use a wide range of ways to protect against punctures.   Ply

 The new Galaxy AT Grip Steel steel-belted skid steer radial from Yokohama Off-Highway Tires was designed from the ground up in close consultation with skid steer operators and industrial tire dealers. The result is a revolutionary, all-around performance design engineered to deliver higher performance and longer tire life for skid steers. “What we found when we sat down to talk to skid steer operators and tire dealers about skid steer radials is that the market is ready for the benefits radials deliver — more hours, better traction, better ride, and overall lower cost of ownership,” says Dhananjay Bisht, Product Manager — Earthmoving, Construction and Industrial Tires for Yokohama Off-Highway Tires America, Inc. “But what we also heard loud and clear was that they really wanted a strong sidewall. The feature they admired most about their old bias-ply tires was the stability and durability of the sidewalls. So we developed a radial tire that delivers the footprint and ride benefits of

Transitioning Compact Tractors for Winter Work As autumn edges toward winter, the days get shorter, the temperatures colder, and many small acreage owners and landscapers begin to transition their compact tractors from fall cleanup to snow removal. Compact tractors are winter workhorses—thanks, in part, to their ability to operate a wide variety of attachments—and play a vital role in both professional and personal snow removal. Some simple preventative maintenance and the right tire can help maximize the performance of equipment, avoid the thin ice of downtime, and ultimately ensure compact tractor owners don’t get left out in the cold this winter. Compact Tractor Attachments for Snow Removal In advance of the snow season, make sure snow removal attachments connect to the tractor and take them for a practice run. This ensures everything works properly and provides the opportunity to fix any issues in advance of plummeting temperatures and dumping snow. Popular snow removal attachments

Safe Site Visits for OTR Tire Salespeople, Field Engineers, and Technicians Whether it’s working around massive, fast-moving equipment on complex sites or handling pressurized tires, the job of an OTR tire salesperson, field service engineer, or technician is one with many potential hazards. Everyone who has worked in the tire industry for an extended period of time seems to know of someone who has had a close call or even been injured while visiting a site, which is why it’s vital that step one when visiting a site is to stay safety-focused. The Challenges of Servicing OTR Tires OTR tire personnel must contend with gargantuan equipment, heavy tires under high pressure, and busy sites in all manner of conditions—service calls commonly take place after dark, in every type of weather, and on every surface imaginable. Safety must be the top priority at every service call. Checking In on OTR Tire Site Safety Recognizing the risks facing OTR tire salespeople, field service engineers, and

  Minimizing the Effects of Mismatched Tires on Construction and Mining Equipment It’s common to see dual-wheel configurations on construction and mining equipment—they provide superior stability, are adept at handling heavy loads, and produce exceptional traction even in soft and slick terrain. While duals offer a number of advantages to fleet owners and operators, they also add a few unique challenges, the most notable of which is the need to ensure that tires in the dual position match, no small feat considering the conditions these tires commonly work in. Mismatched Dual-Position Tires It’s frequently said that running mismatched dual tires is a good way to destroy two tires for the price of one. Mismatched dual tires most often occur when a damaged tire is removed for repair or replacement and the remaining tire is left installed. This can lead to problematic situations, such as mixing new with worn tires, radial with bias tires, and/or tires with different tread patterns, tread d

  Equipping a tractor with the right tires can have a huge effect on its winter performance. The best tires for snow removal commonly feature block-tread patterns with low rubber-to-void ratios and snow-clearing channels. Radial tires generally outperform bias tires in slick and slippery wintery conditions, as they have large, even footprints that place more tread on the ground and ultimately deliver better traction. Radial tires can also travel at high speeds and travel long distances, which makes them ideal for snow removal operations carrying a lot of accounts or keeping up with large lots. They deliver a comfortable ride as well, which is something everyone appreciates—from the person working through the night to clear snow to the person cleaning their driveway. Yokohama Off-Highway Tires Alliance and Galaxy brands deliver numerous radial tires for snow removal applications. Popular options include:  Alliance 550 MultiUse:  a favorite choice for a variety of applications in all sea