Great gawks at Goodyear!

The Bauma construction vehicles and equipment exhibition is currently well underway in Germany, and there have been some rather interesting developments shown at the Goodyear stand. First of which are the tyres for the world’s largest semi-truck.

Known as the Nicolas Tractomas TR 10×10 (Nicolas is a French heavy-haulage vehicle specialist), the 10 metre long; 3,5 metre wide; 4,6 metre high; 40-tonne (tare) behemoth needs some special equipment to carry it and its 535-tonne payload along.

That comes in the shape of 385/95R25 Goodyear GP-2B tyres – a multi-purpose 100 level tyre, most commonly used on mobile cranes for off road operations. These long-wearing radial tyres offer a high level lateral of traction in demanding conditions, and a smooth ride on hard improved surfaces. Its open shoulder grooves provide outstanding self-cleaning characteristics.

The Tractomas has been ordered by mining company LCR and will operate pulling a train of side-tipping trailers at a lignite mine in Queensland, Australia. It is powered by a 27-litre Caterpillar diesel engine, which develops 735 kW (1 000 hp) and will propel the tractor and trailers to a speed of 50 km/h over distances of up to 40 kilometres.

Secondly, the company held the world premiere for its new wheel loader tyre – known as the Goodyear RT-5D – for heavy applications. The new tyre offers 25 percent more load capacity than its predecessor – with greater comfort and better traction. This new addition to Goodyear’s Off The Road  tyre range is a level 250 (L5) traction tyre for severe conditions such as in quarries, difficult industrial applications, recycling as well as in open and underground mines.

The improved performance comes from reinforcements in the bead area, on the carcass breakers and at the ply turn-up. The RT-5D in size 29.5R25 has a maximum load per tyre of 22,4 tonnes at 10 km/h and 6,5 bars inflation pressure.

The RT-5D in size 29.5R25 is already approved as original equipment fitment on Volvo L220G and L250G wheel loaders.