Hello fellow members, I am venturing into the C&D Recycling industry and seeking any information I can find that can help me to be a greater success. I will have three Volvo L120's setup for waste handling and would like to hear thoughts, experiences and opinions regarding the pros and cons of solid and foam filled tires. The majority of time the equipment will be used at a transfer station however, in the event of a hurricane or other natural disaster I will be moving the loaders to help with clean up. Thanks in advance for your help...
C'mon where are the tire and wheel experts? I am waiting to hear from you!
IMO foam filling can be full of pitfalls, especially when you want to remove the tyres from the rims at wear-out. Solid tyres and your operators will most likely go home every night carrying their spinal column in a bucket ............. Have a think about Cat Flexport Tyres ........... http://parts.cat.com/parts/tires - for a loader application they can be service exchanged (Reman) where you hand in your old tyres and get a credit on the new ones you buy. Don't ask me about cost-effectiveness, I'm just looking at the maintenance/operating side of it. We use nothing else on our skid-steer loaders and are looking at using them on small/medium size FELs also.
I have heard that solid's aren't too pleasant on Operators and know that a foam-filled tire needs to be cut off when it's time to replace. As for CAT, no I won't go that road, I will have nothing to do with CAT, the local dealer crossed a line with my family that should've never been crossed 10 years ago. I have done some research on foam-filled and it would appear the technology has come quite a ways.
Solids would be fine in a transfer station where you're on smooth concrete.I wouldn't recommend them for any other application.Foam fill is the way to go,and they do not have to be cut off.I used to dismount foam filled 20.5-25's back in the early 90's using nothing but my mini-boom truck and the normal equipment.Only catch is you have to mangle the lock ring, then you dismount the tire as you would normally.You just have to replace the lock ring.The ones I did were for the City of Tacoma refuse dept.'s transfer station, and a new lock ring was part of the pricing in the bid.Anyways, there are several different types of fill properties-from no flex to being able to fill a radial tire and maintain the radial performance.There were other manufacturers making set-ups similar to the cat set-up, so look into that option.I recommend foam filling myself.I was a commercial/OTR tire service technician for over 12 years, so my opinion is somewhat informed.
Fantastic, I knew someone in here worked in the tire business. What you're saying seems only to confirm what I have been researching and I can't imagine having to change tires that often. As for those CAT type tires, no thank you, I need the ability to take my machines out into the real world in the event of major storms and help out with the clean-up effort. That's work and revenue to me and the real world isn't always paved with smooth concrete. Thanks again tireman!
Sean,have a look at cushion tyres, SG Revelution is one make we have used, we had a problem with solids that caused a cracked engine block and other problems due too losing the suspension property of the tyre.
Hello KWD, I just checked online about SG Revolution Tyres and unfortunately they seem to be European market only but they do look like a viable alternative.
SeaMac, Finally what did you do with the tires? What foam are you using? Will you recommend it for a CAT980G or for a CAT988B in a quarry? Thanks
Sea Mac, hope your machines are powershift with a torque converter. Solid tires are just 4 big flywheels on the axles and can be deadly to Hystat drive machines that can't coast off the speed as a powershift can. Later Bob
It depends upon useability which tire you will use. You are doing an outdoor or indoor operation. According to that you will select tires.
Alberto, Actually I haven't done anything with the tires as of yet. Due to a slow economy I am not in the financial situation I had hoped for to spec new machines .
Bob, The machines will be -as soon as the economy turns positive some more- Volvo L90G and Volvo 120G which are indeed NOT Hydrostatic. Thanks for the heads-up!
Rabia, All outdoor work, underground utilities to be more specific. Seems to me there has to be a better way than air in the tires, would love not having to worry about one less thing.
SeaMac, I did see a small cat hystat loader with a broken sungear shaft coming out of the diff. Upon closer inspection the mating sungear shaft was also stress cracked. Hystat drives hydraulically slow the machine ground speed and any increased centrifical force from heavy wheels/tires is an increase in physical load applied to the drive line. Later Bob
Bob/Ont, Again, appreciate the heads-up, the Volvo's aren't hystat so I have no worries there.
Seen a new cat shovel at a show recently, fitted withSG Revolution tyres !
I would go with the filled tires
DJ, as I said before you lose your suspension factor with solid foam filled tyres on shovels shakes them to bits
And even break the rear frame rails to. Later Bob
I have a wa 180 that has come out of a recycling life I did a repair last winter. had a peice of truck u bolt stuck into it. opened it up to find about 5 gasllons of slime like material. it looked like a porcipine inside.... but only the huge bolt was leaking , I let the slime ooze down and booted the tire and put it back together. That may be something to consider and the cost should be rather low.