Is There Another Word for Mining Tyres?
Thursday, March 11th, 2010At various functions, I am asked the same question: What do you do? I’ve answered in different ways: “I am employed by a company that sells tires worldwide.” or “We sell heavy equipment tires.” What I want to tell them, is that I sell mining tyres, but honestly, no one would have a clue about what I am talking about..
So, I usually just drop the bomb up front: ” I sell huge tyres for mining equipment. Some tyres are as big as 12.5 feet tall (3.81m, for those who are on the metric standard).” It sounds bragadocious, but it is important to expand their minds to accept something with a wheel size larger than twenty inches.
Now, the truth is, most of the tires my company sells are far less than 12.5 feet. In fact, many of them are only 4 feet high.
So, what is an OTR Tire? The definitions deviate greatly, but we will with the acronym “OTR”. It stands for “Off the Road”, or in minuscule cases “Over the Road”. Broadly Speaking, the following types of equipment use it, and I won’t include every type here, because you would be reading all day.
The elementary types of equipment that use these tyres are: loaders(skid steer, front end, and wheel-), haul trucks (rigid and articulated dump, crash trucks, cranes(the tires are acquirable in both on and off-road types), scrapers & road graders.
Now, some purists may say I am dismissing tractors & combines, but those are generally assorted as “agricultural use”, and don’t fall under “OTR”, per se. Others will pronounce that the category is much broader. This is an honest assessment. However, I am giving you the basic principles you need to understand, not a doctoral education on the tyres.
These tyres are getable in bias and radial flavors, just like passenger tires are. The essential deviation is in the size of the rims(20-63″ for the most percentage), and the heavy duty nature of the lugs, and rubber compounds. These are tires that can take the abuse that gravel, large rocks, and mud throw at them.
As to functions, these tires can be found working in the most wild weather, from the Mines of South Africa, to the Tar Sands of Canada.
So, what is an OTR Tyre? Very plainly put, it’s a tyre for construction, mining, or industrial functions, that maneuvers in extreme, off-road conditions, on very heavy equipment.
That’s the layman’s rendering. If you need more information on OTR Tyres, please call OTR Tire Supply, at 877-426-1090 .