The Tire Industry Association (TIA) and Michelin Americas Truck Tires (MATT) have partnered to create a new training video for truck fleets.
The 20-minute video, “Wheel End Safety,” is intended to provide maintenance personnel and drivers with installation and inspection guidelines to improve wheel-end performance and safety. It also addresses a number of related topics.
"In addition to wheel-off and wheel-end fire prevention, 'Wheel End Safety' also addresses the dangers of welding on rims and includes dramatic footage that clearly demonstrates the risks to this dangerous practice,” says Roy Littlefield, TIA executive vice president. “Our hope is that fleets will use this video to educate drivers, maintenance personnel and tire service providers on the steps they can take to make the highways safer for themselves and all motorists.”
In order to illustrate the danger of a wheel-off incident, TIA worked with Michelin engineers to construct a controlled test at Michelin’s Laurens Proving Grounds in South Carolina, where the tire and wheel assemblies could be filmed after they separated from a trailer.
"This video dramatically demonstrates the importance of operating trucks and other commercial vehicles as safely as possible,” says Doug Jones, customer engineering support manager at Michelin North America. “By taking a few extra minutes to shore up wheel-end maintenance, fleet technicians can help minimize the number of dangerous wheel-off events.”
The video is available as a free download on TIA’s Web site, www.tireindustry.org, and on Michelin North America Inc.'s MATT Web site, www.michelintruck.com.
