Tricky tyre wear problem solved
Chris Chilcott is a contractor and livestock farmer from Truro who was having persistent problems with tyre wear, until he was recommended by another local farmer to contact his local Agri-Point dealer.
Like many contractors, Chris spends a great deal of time on the road - about 70% of his working time in total - in his John Deere 8420. Most of these roads are narrow, hilly and twisty. He was experiencing problems with uneven tyre wear – a major cost and inconvenience. He had tried a number of makes and estimated that tyres were costing him, on average, around £2.50 per hour. He had even bought new wheels to try one particular make of tyre.
Repeated discussions with both his dealer and tyre manufacturers could offer no explanation or solution. One manufacturer even tried to blame the camber on the road. After the advice of a fellow Cornish contractor, he visited Tavistock tyres - an AGRI POINT dealer – and tried Firestone's new R9000 Evolution tyres. He purchased 540/65R28 tyres for the fronts and 650/65R38 for the rears. After almost 1000 hours, there are no signs of irregular wear. Chris projects that the set of R9000EV will cost him £1 per hour to run with a projected wear life of 5000 hours on the front tyres and 3000 on the rears. Previous tyres had struggled to reach 1500 hours.
Chris Chilcott comments, "I was getting frustrated with the problem and the lack of advice. The Tavistock dealership gave me straight-forward, no-nonsense advice. Although I was initially expecting further disappointment, I have been surprised by the wear life I've been achieving, yet have found no compromise in ride comfort. As much of my work is on steep hills, I've found the traction to be excellent. The fact that the Firestone representative went to the trouble of contacting me, post-sale and gave me some useful advice on tyre pressures was also re-assuring. In addition to the lower running costs, the benefits in terms of time saved on replacing the tyres and preventing downtime are considerable. "
