Firestone Claims 18,000 More Miles on the Steer
Firestone claims 18,000 more miles on its new steer tire. That is the maker's number, not an independent test.
There is a new steer tire out with a number attached to it, and the number is worth reading carefully.
Firestone says its FS592 delivers 17% more tread life than the tire it replaces, which the company puts at about 18,000 additional miles on average.
What the tire is
It is a steer tire aimed at long-haul and regional work. It brings Firestone's Enliten technology to the company's commercial lineup for the first time, and it ships in four sizes, EPA SmartWay certified.
The physical change behind the claim is small and concrete: one additional 32nd of tread depth, on what the company describes as a durable casing.
Who is doing the measuring
Here is the part to hold onto. Those figures come from the manufacturer, published in a product spotlight. They are not the result of an independent test, and there is no third party in the story checking them.
That does not make them wrong. Tire makers generally do run the mileage work, and an extra 32nd of depth is a real, physical reason for a tire to last longer. It means the number belongs in the column marked what the maker says, next to whatever your own tires have actually done on your own lanes.
And notice what the comparison is against: its predecessor. Not against a competitor, and the source does not name which tire the predecessor is. So 17% more than what is a question you get to ask the dealer, in writing, before it turns into a purchase.
Eighteen thousand miles is worth doing arithmetic on
It sounds like a lot, and depending on your operation it might be. But the value of longer tread life is not a fixed number, it is a ratio, and you already have both halves of it.
Take what you paid per steer tire last time and what you actually got out of it in miles. That gives you your cost per mile on rubber. Then apply 17% to the miles side and see what the tire would have to cost for the trade to be flat.
If the new one carries a premium bigger than the extra life, the longer-wearing tire is the more expensive tire. That happens more often than the marketing suggests, and the only way to know is with your own two numbers.
The other side: tread life is not what parks trucks
Now the context nobody puts next to a tire announcement.
During this year's three-day International Roadcheck, in the United States, tires were the second most common vehicle out-of-service violation: 2,669 of them, 22.3%. That is nearly tied with brake systems at 2,816 and 23.6%.
Inspectors ran 54,575 inspections and put 10,350 vehicles — 19% — out of service. Tires were in the top two of the reasons why.
Those violations are not about a tire wearing out slowly. They are about pressure, damage, mismatched duals, exposed cord, and depth that dropped below the line while nobody was looking. A tire that lasts 18,000 miles longer still fails an inspection today if it is 20 pounds low today.
What actually protects the rubber
The steer position is the one that shows you what the rest of the truck is doing. Irregular wear on a steer tire is usually not the tire's fault at all — it is alignment, it is a worn component, it is a suspension that is not holding the axle where it belongs.
Which means the 17% is the ceiling and your setup decides how close you get to it. Buy the longer-life tire and run it out of alignment, and you will not see 18,000 extra miles. You will see a feathered edge and a tire you pulled early.
Three habits protect that investment better than any compound does: check pressure cold and often, look at the wear pattern every time you are under there, and get the alignment checked when the pattern changes rather than when the tire is finished.
Irregular wear on the steer is one of the first things a road simulator run reveals. We do alignment, suspension and heavy truck repair in Houston, Dallas and Monterrey: thetrucksavers.com.
Reference: Firestone FS592 commercial truck steer tire delivers longer tread life — FleetOwner