We manage a fleet of SkyTrak forklifts that we rent out to local contractors. Our primary client is a rough framing contractor. The tires on our telehandlers are a 50/50 mix of air filled and foam filled. We are strongly considering a push into the new Solid Tires. They have been used on skid steers for years. Does anyone have experience with them? What are the plusses and minuses of them? Any feed back would be appreciated.
What I have noticed on most of the new tele handlers coming from the large rental yards is they are all coming with solid tires. The solid type tires that have the holes in them. I can see mostly plusses except for the initial cost but I have no idea how much a set cost. It seems they would get way more life and virtually no service expense than a regular air filled tire.
when I worked for Lull/Sky Trak back in early 2000's we tested a couple solid tires. if I remember correctly one of the issues was that when you do need new tires you also have to get rims. I can't remember the results of the stability tests but I think the side stability wasn't quite as good for the ones with a hole in the side. If you do a lot of asphalt driving the ride will probably be a little rougher. Foam filled tires can also be troublesome because they can't guaranty 100% fill so you could end up with a "soft" spot, depends on the person who'll led it.
I have a set of the ones without the holes but they have a large indentation in the sides and they have held up very well so far. The only negative i could think of is that they are heavier but we havent gotten it stuck yet. Also it is slightly rougher on the ride but not much compared to the foam filled.
The pricing has come down 5-10% in the last two years. I've been told by the various manufacturers (importers) that there may be a 50% shorter life with a cheaper version of the solid tire. It may look the same with apertures (holes) that are either elliptical , various round, or triangular. It is a bit confusing and I think the solid tire industry is rapidly evolving. I say Farewell and Good Riddance to air filled tire migraines.
This is not just a holes in the tires. The tires are manufactured by few layers with diffrent types of rubber. The upper layer is wear resistant and has a tread 2-3 times deeper than regular air filled tires.
We use them on all of our rental equipment, they seem to last about 1.5 compared to foam filled we have found. The wheel comes in a split wheel, now every time that you run your solid wheel bare. You can just press another tire on the wheels.
aerolift- Not alot of downsides to the solids but if I had to say cost would be a factor for sure. The flip side, you will get 2-3 times as much wear out of them so cost per operating hour over the life of the machine will go down. You can still damage them but it takes alot more abuse than a standard foam filled tire. One thing to look at are the new JLG Duraforce tires. These are designed by JLG and produced by Firestone specifically for the telehandler market. You will get twice the life out of them verse the old style loader grader tire. Also the Duraforce has a more "flat" tread design resulting in more even wear. These will not crown like the old style G2/L2 style tires.
We've got our first 15 sets (60 tires) of SolidBoss tires/rims. The initial reaction by our clients and sales people is very positive. We hope to improve performance and minimize the daily headache associated with tires. It was expensive, but so was each alternative. I would be glad to respond to anyone's questions.
It would be interesting to see how they do on the beach. (i'm a bit skeptical) They look like a great alternative for rocky, clay, dirt, etc. We use our TH460B (with foam filled) on the beach about 50% of the time. The TH's are the only machines that do well on the beach. The TL's and JLG's and Sky Traks just bury themselves.