Cooper Tire & Rubber Company recently added two new sizes to its Roadmaster RM272 commercial tire line – 11R22.5 and 295/75R22.5 – that are specifically engineered for drop-deck trailers.
Designed to ward off irregular wear and damage due to curbing, Gary Schroeder, director of Cooper’s truck and bus tire business noted in a statement that the RM272 features a four-belt steel casing and has a slightly rounded tread footprint, along with a reinforced shoulder to help withstand extreme side forces.
He added that its tread compound has also been formulated to provide optimum balance between resistance to side forces and maximum wear.
“Tires in this application are arguably the most abused of any in the trucking industry, and we designed the RM272 to withstand this harsh punishment Schroeder pointed out.
“We looked at a variety of tread profiles that could minimize the load on the shoulder rib, and worked toward a design that distributed the load more evenly across the entire footprint so that the shoulder takes on less of the lateral forces,” he emphasized.