now that is very odd to only get a week much less a month out of a tire, i have customers that have been running the same tires for months or even years in freezer applications.
there has to be some rather extenuating circumstances to eat a tire up in a month or less.
how cold is this freezer? (not that it matters because the customers i speak of are running in subzero temps)
even if freezer is in negative (below freezing) temps the tires should be lasting alot longer.
there must be some key element your missing here causing this problem
dock plate issues (running over the edge going in and out of trucks?) something to this effect? has dockplates or floors been modified to gain traction is some way?
i would say ice cutting them but if the guy is doing his job there would be no ice large enough to cut
if they are chunking then something must be cutting them deep enough to allow this
There is a man at the door whos sole job of the day it to chip ice. Trucks have been set to have a much reduced plugging effect and acceleration is set way down also. When operators are watched they treat the trucks like angels. When left to their own devices who actually knows. Tires are being chunking out. These trucks preformed well on the Main brand tire they used. As it is no longer available we are desperately searching for a replacement with a like performance or at least close. A tire is only lasting a week or less. They used to get a month or more. The Maine tire was a soft compound. We have tried some form of organic material and poly I will see if it was walnut shells.
And I would have expected an experienced tech like Proshadetree to have considered these things, but is the "plugging" set really soft, to keep the tire from spinning when they reach the edge of the ice and the operator plugs to slow down the truck? is there a buildup of ice at the door where the truck goes from an iced floor to a concrete floor?
How is the tire breaking down, is it the poly crystallizing, is it de-bonding from the metal ring of the tire, or is it 'chunking' out (breaking off pieces so that the tire is no longer round)?
Are they spinning the tire on the iced floor?
Set the controlled acceleration so that the wheel won't spin.
from my experience walnut reinforced tires are only good for gaining extra traction in a freezer applications where the floors are unusually wet and slick. Those tires are extremely expensive and are a softer compound than normal tires. The walnut shells impregnated inside the tire are made to come out of the tire and create a hole for a suction-like effect, therefore creating extra traction. Since he is having a wear issue i doubt this tire was even considered in the process of choosing a good tire for wear. If the ice is tearing up normal tires what do you think the ice will do to this softer compound tire?
Customer is just looking for a tire that will preform as well as the one no longer in production. Walnut might be an option I will check to see if it has already been tried. I have been brought into this situation late in the game.
Brent b we are interested...please give us more info
Have you tried walnut re-inforced tires? I have used them at a local freezer application and had great success with them.
from the sounds of it you have pretty much exhausted all your options
if you have tried every tire compound and hardness and still have the problem then maybe its time to stop looking at the tires being the fault and start leaning towards what the customer can do to help prevent this from happening.
As much as we would like to he the 'fix it all' kind of techs sometimes there are some things that we just cant do alone.
Finding solutions to problems does include customer co-operation and willingness in thier ability to adapt and sometimes they need to change something thier doing to help the situation.
Is there anything they can do to help prevent this?
Could it be something the operator can do to help?
Example:
I have a customer that goes through tires on one of his lifts because of the dock plate they use to go in and out of trucks with, they keep running over the edges of the dockplate and cutting the tires up. I have evaluated the situation and notified the supervisor but they still are using the same method. I've informed him of why its happening and told him the solution being to get another type of dockplate. The ball is in his court now.
We have tried several brands and compounds from hard to soft. They are on rr5200 crown standups. They drive into a blast freezer and then out. Ice is not the only surface they drive on. Ice is what is tearing the tires up though.
Proshadetree what brands and compounds have to tired so far?
What is the model of the truck?
Are these trucks only used in the freezer?
Have tried both in several different compounds. Looking to see what everyone else has had luck with.
are they using poly or rubber tires?