Goodyear is still not sold on wide-base truck tires

Jan. 4, 2006

Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. is still evaluating wide-base truck tires, says Al Cohn, manager of strategic initiatives for Goodyear's commercial tire systems. Meanwhile, the Akron, Ohio-based tiremaker has no plans to market wide-base truck tires anytime soon.

"There are still a lot of issues" associated with wide-base tires, according to Cohn, "including mileage, retreadability, etc."

(Goodyear typically refers to wide-base tires as "super singles," a term it has trademarked.)

In July 2004, Goodyear told moderntiredealer.com it was going to introduce two wide-base truck tires during 2005. The size 445/50R22.5 tires, the G392 SSD and the G394 SST, were never made available to the aftermarket.

However, Cohn reports that a number of trucking fleets are currently testing Goodyear wide-base prototypes. "There are some fleets who are sold on it."

In addition, Cohn says that Goodyear has not ruled out making wide-base truck tires available down the line. "We'll have them at some point."