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Service Tech 2013 Get up to speed with the fast-changing vehicle service side of your business – system by system!

January 2013 TireReview.com

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JANUARY 2013

CONTENTS Volume 113 | No. 01

40

30

44

Columns & Departments ■ FIRST LOOK: TireReview.com Farm Tires + Social Media + Health Care Taxes

■ COMMENTARY: First Off - New Angle to Old Problems The Car Side - Trials of a Mis-Bent Youth

12

■ NEWSMAKERS: TIA Ready to Hit the Road Micheln Reveals New UHP A/S Pirelli NAFTA Chief Paolo Ferrari New Tires, New Focus at Kumho Dealer Tech Wins Wix Award

■ BUSINESS:

FEATURES

Market Intel - Tire & Service Pricing Mobile Marketing - What’s Right For You? Selling Smart - A Workout for Your Team

30 Cover: Service Tech 2013

■ TIRES:

40 Top Shop: Samaritan Tire

Tire Tech - What Will RR Testing Prove?

Truck Tires - Maximize Removal Mileage

44 Tires: Agricultural Tire Troubles

■ SOLUTIONS: Spotlights - Dealer Software Products

BPA

INTERNATIONAL

Members of:

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|6 | 60

|8 | 12 | 14 | 16 | 18

| 22 | 24 | 28

| 46 | 48

| 50 | 54

Proud Supporters of:

TIRE REVIEW (ISSN 0040-8085) (JANUARY 2013, Volume 113, Number 01. Published monthly by Babcox Media Inc., 3550 Embassy Parkway, Akron, OH 44333 U.S.A. Phone (330) 670-1234, FAX (330) 670-0874. Periodical postage paid at Akron, OH 44333 and additional mailing offices. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Tire Review, 3550 Embassy Parkway, Akron, OH 44333. A limited number of complimentary subscriptions are available to individuals who meet the qualification requirements. Call (330) 670-1234, ext. 242, to speak to a subscription services representative or FAX us at (330) 670-5335. Paid subscriptions are available for non-qualified subscribers at the following rates: U.S.: $69 for one year. Canada: $89 for one year.

Canadian rates include GST. Ohio residents add current county sales tax. Other foreign rates/via airmail: $129 for one year. Payable in advance in U.S. funds. Mail payment to Tire Review, P.O. Box 75692, Cleveland, OH 44101-4755. Visa, MasterCard or American Express accepted. Founded in 1901. © 2013 by Babcox Media Inc. “Tire Review” is a trademark of Babcox Media Inc., registered with the U.S. Patent and Trademark office. All rights reserved. Publisher reserves the right to reject any subscription that does not conform to his standards or buying power coverage. Advertising which is below standard is refused. Opinions in signed articles and advertisements are not necessarily those of this magazine or its publisher. Diligent effort is made to ensure the integrity of every statement. Unsolicited manuscripts must be accompanied by return postage.

2 January 2013 | TireReview

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FIRST LOOK

ONLINE @TIREREVIEW.COM

inTIRES

Track Farm, Weather Trends If you want to make a big impact with your ag tire customers, it takes more than knowing tires and delivering timely service. In good times, when farmers have money, they’re willing to buy tires. Keeping a keen eye on weather conditions will not only help you better understand your order needs, but also help put the right tires on your farmer customers’ equipment. tirereview.com/inTires

BLOGS

inBUSINESS

Health Care Taxes

Social Resolutions

The Affordable Care Act has resulted in a number of changes to the U.S. tax code. While all manner of rumors have been floated about the real impact of the new health care law, there are some real-world impacts that businesses and individuals need to consider. tirereview.com/inBusiness

The New Year is a great time to take stock in last year’s performance and make vows for improvements. So what about social media? Are you ready to tackle the new challenges and opportunities in this important area? tirereview.com/blogs

TireReview.com Visitor Comments Englewood, NYTDA Exec Dom Lamantea Passes Away “Sad to note Domenic Lamantea’s passing. He was an instructor of mine in my early days at Michelin and he definitely had a passion for our industry. He will be missed.”

– Manny Cicero, Alliance Tire Group

Tires Stolen, SUVs on Blocks at Ky. Car Dealership “I’m sure they did. It’s not like it’s hard to get wheel locks off though. They don’t prevent theft if the thief is determined.”

– Brady Maples

The Great MSRP Debate “The real hurt from mail order companies is not the pricing but the fact that they don’t have to charge sales tax, and for us in New York, they don’t even have to charge tire tax. I’m happy we do a lot of TPMS sales and reset so we keep our customers coming back time and again.”

– Al’s Hubcaps

Tire Shop Owner’s Death Brings Sudden Las Vegas Shutdown

3550 Embassy Parkway Akron, OH 44333-8318 FAX 330-670-0874

330-670-1234 4 January 2013 | TireReview

“1. Get government to pass an Internet sales tax bill to level the playing field. If we can compete on a level playing field business will increase and we can hire.

2. The manufacturers need to stop saying the independent tire dealer is their most important customer, but acting in the completely opposite direction.”

– Arnie

“Sad way to bring in Christmas. Someone could’ve run the shops. People depend on their jobs just as employers depend on employees.”

– All Tire

Publisher David Moniz, ext. 215 dmoniz@babcox.com

tirereview.com

Wondering Where the Lions Are? All Over, According to Shops

Editor Jim Smith, ext. 298 jsmith@babcox.com Managing Editor Denise Koeth, ext. 274 dkoeth@babcox.com Graphic Designer Nichole Anderson, ext. 232 nanderson@babcox.com

Contributing Editors Mac Demere, Tim Good, Joanne Draus Klein, Al Cohn, Shana O’Malley, Jody DeVere, Rick Barnhart, Steve Ferrante, Rich Ashley, David Martin Advertising Services Kelly McAleese, ext. 284 kmcaleese@babcox.com Circulation Manager Pat Robinson, ext. 276 probinson@babcox.com Sr. Circulation Specialist Star Mackey, ext. 242 smackey@babcox.com

Sales Representatives Doug Basford, ext. 255 dbasford@babcox.com Dean Martin, ext. 225 dmartin@babcox.com Jim Merle, ext. 280 jmerle@babcox.com Glenn Warner, ext. 212 gwarner@babcox.com Sean Donohue, ext. 206 sdonohue@babcox.com Roberto Almenar, ext. 233 ralmenar@babcox.com John Zick 949-756-8838 jzick@babcox.com

FOLLOW US ON:

Bobbie Adams, ext. 238 badams@babcox.com David Benson, ext. 210 dbenson@babcox.com Sales/List Rental Don Hemming, ext. 286 dhemming@babcox.com Classified Sales Manager Tom Staab, ext. 224 tstaab@babcox.com

Babcox Media Inc. Bill Babcox, President Greg Cira, Vice President, CFO Jeff Stankard, Vice President Beth Scheetz, Controller In Memorium: Edward S. Babcox (1885-1970) Founder Tom B. Babcox (1919-1995) Chairman

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COMMENTARY FIRST OFF

New Angle to Old Problems A

s long as I’ve known Randy Groh, the latest TIA president has always been straight up.

Respectful about his approach, but he means what he says. He asks a lot of questions, gathers a lot of input, and when he says “Go,” you go.

This is what makes Randy such a strong follow-up to Larry Brandt, who completed the association reorganization push of his predecessor, Mike Berra, and drove TIA’s government relations and dealer training to new levels.

Groh used the recent Global Tire Expo/SEMA Show to stake his education position with a three-fold slate: • Continue growing member and tech training • Introduce a consumer tire education effort • Bring some clarity for dealers on used tires and tire aging Berra focused on refurbishing the inner workings of TIA and laying out an aggressive training future. Brandt brought those plans home – and then some, with the highly successful training road show that reached dealers and techs in 28 cities last year.

Groh’s platform is no less ambitious and may be the most daring and difficult, with focus on nagging industry issues (tire aging and used tire sales) that have become particularly troublesome over the past decade, and taking the first tentative steps into the great unknown – trying to educate the least focused link in the tire buying/care chain: the consumer.

Having been highly critical of lack of firm action on the sale of used tires and the entire tire aging issue (which is now older than some of the oldest tires being 6 January 2013 | TireReview

TIA’s RP approach to used, aged tires makes sense. RMA should agree, right?

sold today), TIRE REVIEW applauds the positive move forward – and the unique approach being suggested.

The “Recommended Practice” tag has been used for years in many other markets – notably both the automotive and trucking industries – as a way to bring a well-studied and considered processes, procedures, systems or even quasi-regulations to bear without lengthy debate and misguided politics.

While no one gets arrested for not following a RP, effective industries do a good job policing themselves, creating a strong air of “must do” vs. a weakkneed “please consider.” And it often is the case that there is a strong financial incentive for compliance, whether it is obvious operational cost savings, threat of lawsuits, employee/customer safety, compliance with actual laws/regulations, or to further the professionalism of that industry.

Bottom line: “Recommended Practice” is a legitimate and effective tool – provided it is more than just a piece of paper. That means such RPs must be bold, logical and actionable.

Right now we have nothing but socalled “common sense” guiding those who choose to offer and sell used tires.

There are some very responsible dealers offering used tires, but they are far from the majority. Manufacturers shudder just thinking about the potential liability attached to every used tire sold.

And there are a lot of dealers who chose to avoid selling used tires altogether, also fearing that one catastrophic failure.

Would a better solution be a RP that provides an acceptable framework for safely and profitably selecting, inspect-

JIM SMITH Editor jsmith@babcox.com

ing, repairing, selling and servicing used tires? Yes. Tire aging is vexing to many because too many want to make it more complicated than it should be. There is certainly a lot at stake, but we already know what is lurking in the shadows.

We need a point of reference that can be easily explained to tire buyers and protects both dealers and makers. A good RP can do just that.

Groh and TIA say they plan to work with the RMA on developing these RPs, which would seem to meet some of the, shall we say, “unique needs” of tiremakers. Especially when it comes to the issue of when is a “new” tire “too old” to be sold. Especially as it pertains to selling often untrackable takeoffs.

Despite the warm feelings being publicly expressed, the TIA-RMA relationship continues to run hot and cold – depending on the subject of the day.

Like, say, tire repair legislation.

One wonders just how much harmony the two can generate, or just how engaged they want to be, or just how closely they really, really do want to work. That, for better or worse, is for them to sort out. But the fallout will fall on you.

We strongly urge TIA and RMA to quickly find solid, common ground to build workable and sustainable RPs that will have a meaningful effect to the good of this industry.

But if they choose to continue down separate paths, then TIA must press ahead with its RP plan and get the right people, the right messages and the right budget to launch a strong first effort to reach the buying public. ■

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NEWSMAKERS INDUSTRY NEWS & EVENTS

Second Training Tour Ready to Hit the Road Training is certainly Job One with TIA, which has set the dates for its Certified Commercial Tire Service Instructor Training, and released the dates for its planned 17-stop 2013 Automotive Tire Service (ATS) Instructor Tour.

TIA said its Certified CTS Program exceeds the minimum training requirements established by OSHA and includes all aspects of truck tire and wheel service, including OSHA regulations, mounting/demounting/inflation, torque, puncture repair, balancing, road service and much more. The CTS Instructor course combines classroom and hands-on demonstrations, giving the students the tools and knowledge they will need to impart that information on their tire service technicians.

Baltimore classes, held at the Community College of Baltimore County in Catonsville, Md., will be March 19-22, April 23-26 and Dec. 3-6. Denver classes, held at Lincoln College of Technology in Aurora, Colo., are set for Feb. 26-March 1, Sept. 24-27 and Oct. 15-18.

The four-day, hands-on ATS Instructor classes will be conducted across the country, with the goal of educating hundreds of retail tire techs and dealers on the proper safety procedures and guidelines for servicing passenger and light truck tire and wheel assemblies.

For the ATS Training Tour, TIA has confirmed six dates so

Dealer Friend Dom Lamantea Passes Away Englewood Tire Wholesale executive Dominic “Dom” Lamantea, 69, died on Jan. 4 after a lengthy battle with cancer.

During his 40-plus year tire industry career, Lamantea worked for Michelin North America, WTC Tire & Auto Centers and Englewood Tire Wholesale. He also was very active with the New York State Tire Dealers Association, most recently serving as second vice president and board member.

8 January 2013 | TireReview

far: Feb. 5-8 – Miami; Feb. 12-15 – St. Louis; March 5-8 – Ghent, W. Va.; March 10-22 – Phoenix; March 26-29 – Charlotte, N.C.; and Nov. 12-15 – Jacksonville, Fla. The other 11 cities TIA will hold the ATS Tour classes in are Boston; Toledo, Ohio; Los Angeles; Rochester, N.Y.; Pittsburgh; Milwaukee; Seattle; Tampa; Oklahoma City; Minneapolis; and Houston.

“After analyzing the results of last year’s tour, we decided to revisit cities where we had the best attendance and add some regions where we felt there were gaps in our coverage,” said Kevin Rohlwing, TIA senior vice president of training.

For more information or to register, visit tireindustry.org or contact Christine Marnett at cmarnett@tireindustry.org or 800-876-8372 x106.

“Long before it was fashionable for a supplier to talk ‘value added service,’ Dom was delivering it. He didn’t know any other way,” according to Michael Finley of Englewood Tire Wholesale.

“When you sit with a tire dealer in the New York Metro area, you’re likely to hear stories of how Dom helped them start their business, or sat beside them during a real estate negotiations, or helped them write a business plan, or, by the way, attended their sons and daughters’ baptism, graduations and weddings.”

Lamantea is survived by his daughters Tricia and Traci, grandchildren Lexa and Jasper, and siblings Jack, Dolli Bacchi and Sandy Leone. The family

asks that in lieu of flowers, donations can be made to the St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis.

Dom Lamantea

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■ NEWSMAKERS:

RMA Sets Dates For 2013 Tire Safety Week The RMA has set June 2-8 as the 2013 National Tire Safety Week. Part of the RMA’s “Be Tire Smart – Play Your PART” program, NTSW is a focused push to help consumers learn how to keep their tires in proper working condition, including inflation, condition and tread depth checks.

RMA said that, “many participating retail outlets use the opportunity to promote tire care through advertising, promotions, free tire pressure checks and community and media outreach.”

Free NTSW promotional materials are available through RMA, and can be Ordered online at betiresmart.org.

Three Companies Get New Top U.S. Execs New executives have been tapped to lead three major tire companies – Toyo, Hankook and Kumho.

In early December 2012, former Michelin North America and Q Tires executive Roy Bromfield was hired as COO by Toyo Tire USA Corp. According to Toyo, Bromfield will “work in collaboration” with president and CEO Tatsuo Mitsuhata “to develop and oversee strategies for sales, product development, and all elements of the marketing mix.”

Bromfield was with Michelin for more than 20 years in a variety of domestic and international posts, including time as president and CEO of MNA’s Tire Centers LLC unit.

After three years at the helm of Hankook Tire America Corp., Soo Il Lee has been replaced by Byeong Jin Lee. The move was effective Jan. 1.

In addition to becoming the new president of Hankook Tire America, Byeong Jin Lee also will serve as COO for Hankook operations in North and South America.

Additionally, Hankook Tire America named Jeong Ho Park as senior vice president of marketing, also effective Jan. 1.

Soo Il Lee will become president and COO of Hankook’s China regional 10 January 2013 | TireReview

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NEWS & EVENTS

headquarters, replacing the man who is replacing him in the Americas.

At Kumho Tire USA Inc., president J.B. Kim will return to South Korea to head the parent company’s domestic OE and replacement sales divisions.

Coming on board as the new president in the U.S. is Hai Eok “Harry” Choi.

Choi has an extensive background in both sales and marketing positions in South Korea, Europe and Latin America.

ATD Goes North to Continue DC Growth American Tire Distributors closed out November with the purchase of the assets of Edmonton-based TriCan Tire Distributors. The purchase gives ATD 15 distribution centers spanning Canada, and marks the first time ATD has moved outside of the continental U.S. Calling it a “significant step for ATD,” president and CEO Bill Berry said, “Given the similarities of Canada’s retail structure and leading tire brands, expanding ATD’s footprint and distribution services into Canada represents a natural step for the company’s growth plan.”

ATD said it will operate TriCan, founded in 1978, as a standalone business unit and already is planning for expansion of the distributor’s footprint. TriCan will retain its name and management team, led by Chris Fletcher, president of TriCan since October 2006.

Landscape Changes With Dealer Sales The waning days of 2012 saw a lot of changes to the independent tire dealer landscape, with three familiar

dealers selling out, another reaching a significant goal and still another shutting down suddenly.

In the space of 48 hours in midDecember, Monro Muffler Brake Inc. purchased northeast Ohio’s Enger Tire, Durham, N.C.-based Tire King, and Ken Towery’s Tire & Auto Service of Louisville.

Out of the deals, Monro gains 12 locations in the Cleveland area, nine stores in the greater Durham region, and 24 retail stores in Kentucky and three in Indiana. All will be converted to Monro’s Mr. Tire store brand.

With the three recent buys, Monro Muffler Brake now has 950 total retail locations in the U.S. On the other side of the coin, Florida’s Tire Choice & Total Car Care, owned by Dan and Diane Hennelly, opened its 35th retail store. The new eight-bay Bradenton location sits right in front of a Walmart store.

“We are very proud of all of our business partners that in just eight short years – and a Great Recession – later that we have accomplished this lofty goal of opening 35 stores,” said Dan Hennelly, chairman and CEO. “Now it is time to set our sights higher.”

The sad news that longtime tire dealer Bruce Scher, 56, had passed away suddenly on Dec. 4 was exasperated by the equally sudden announcement on Dec. 17 that all of his 13 Las Vegas area retail stores were closed effective immediately.

The unexpected closing left the operation’s 100 employees without jobs, though some were kept on a few extra days to complete promised customer orders.

Scher also owned 17 tire stores in Southern California, the Riversidebased Scher Tire Inc., under a separate company. The Las Vegas closing did not immediately impact those stores. ■

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NEWS & EVENTS

Business Barometer Retail Sales – Nov ’12 vs. Nov ’11 (Final) 98

99

100

101

102

100.2

Total Tire Units

101.1

Broadline

100.1

HP/UHP

100.0

Undercar

101.1

Underhood

Retail Sales – Dec ’12 vs. Dec ’11 (Prelim.)

95

96

97

91

92

93

94

95

96

97

105

98

104

98

99

99.1 98.7 99.3 99.1 98.8

96.7

Total Tire Units

103

96.9

Total Service $s

96.8

Broadline

96.9

HP/UHP

101

LT/SUV

100

96.7

100

Total Tire Units

102

96.9

Undercar

96.9

Underhood

Total Service $s

99 98

Broadline

97

HP/UHP

Dec. Jan. Feb. Mar.

94

Retail Sales – Dec ’12 vs. Nov ’12

LT/SUV

101.1

93

Retail Sales – Year to Date

Total Service $s

100.4

LT/SUV

Service $

98.7

Undercar

98.7

Underhood

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Sept .

Oct. Nov.

97

July Aug.

96

Apr. May June

95

Tire Units

TireReview.com 11

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NEWS & EVENTS

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> Michelin North America

‘Key Influencers’ Tapped With UHP A/S Rollout

N

ew Orleans has always been Steve Calder, UHP technical marries performance and practicality,” “a different kind of place.” keting manager, talked about the parsaid Doug Brown, MNA’s UHP cateFrom its rich, unique history ticipants taking a “test driver gory manager. “This tire is ideal for to its people to its cuisine to its special approach” to the day’s activities; in someone who wants to optimize the place in all of our hearts, that spirit this way they will learn that “perforperformance of his or her vehicle and proved to well-accommodate Michemance is more important than what it drive with confidence year-round.” lin North America’s pre-Christmas says on the sidewall.”

MNA said the tire provides pre-launch of its latest tire.

The driving event itself was short “breakthrough levels of dry grip,” MNA used the recently opened in the number of stations (four), but thanks to Michelin’s Variable Contact NOLA Motorsports Park to show off vast in the number of cars (24) and Patch 2.0 technology, and “an aggresthe latest addition to its Pilot passentires (96) tested. The four separate test sive asymmetric tread pattern inger tire family – the Michelin Pilot areas – wet/dry braking, wet auspired by the Michelin Pilot Super Sport A/S 3. The Sport;” “incrediprivate “country ble wet grip and club” track in subresistance to hyurban New Orleans droplaning” on hosted some 60 any road surface print media on the because of “exfirst day of a multitreme amounts of day roll out. silica in the tread With such an incompound comtroduction, the tirebined with Varimaker hosts a pack able Thickness of print journalists – Sipes and large magazine and circumferential newspaper – to disgrooves;” and tribute word and “cold weather images of the new mobility” due to product, its inMichelin’s Helio tended target vehiCompound” and Sarah Robinson, Michelin test driver and technical marketing manager, explains cles and how it fits a how the Pilot Sport A/S 3 tread impacts wet and dry braking. its siping and bitdealer product ing edges in the screen. tread grooves.

This multi-day event included tocross, dry autocross and high speed The tire’s asymmetric tread patdedicated days for the new web, road course – required V- and Z-rated tern, which MNA said was unique for blogger and social media types – tires on sedans that included the Inall-season tires, helps reduce road what Michelin called “key influfiniti G37, Subaru WRX STi, Cadillac noise, provides greater flexibility for encers” – to experience the tires and CTS, and Audi A4. Complicating (at tire rotations, and puts more rubber offer their thoughts directly to conleast for the participants) the day a bit on the road for better handling and sumers. was the fact it was unseasonably cold control.

This evolution in company-to-end- in southern Louisiana.

The Michelin Pilot Sport A/S 3 user communication was noted by The Michelin Pilot Sport A/S 3 was developed and is being produced Jamey Fish, director of Michelin was compared directly with a variety in North America, MNA said, and is brand consumer experience, who of competitive tires, including the backed by the Michelin Promise Plan. touched on the new media approach Goodyear Eagle F1 Asymmetric AS, It will be available by mid-2013 in 65 and talked about the evolution of the Bridgestone Potenza RE970AS Pole sizes, ranging from 175/65R15 to Pilot lineup.

Position, Pirelli P Zero Nero A/S, 285/35R20, MNA said. ■ Referring to its described improve- Yokohama Advan S.4, Continental ments over previous Pilot all-season ExtremeContact DWS, Goodyear UHP options, Fish said the new Pilot Eagle GT, Bridgestone G019 Grid, and Jim Smith Sport A/S 3 “meets the needs of the the Yokohama Avid ENVigor.

Editor fast growing all-season UHP sub-seg“As an all-weather, all-season tire, jsmith@babcox.com ment.” the Michelin Pilot Sport A/S 3 mar-

12 January 2013 | TireReview

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> Pirelli Tire North America

A Conversation With Paolo Ferrari, Chairman & CEO

N

early one year ago, when Paolo it. To us I think it is much more simple Ferrari left Telecom Italia to join and easier to understand. The other Pirelli Tyre SpA as chairman and thing we wanted to get across, and this CEO of its NAFTA region operations, he is also sensitive, is that we are ‘prewasted little time making a major impresmium,’ we start from ‘premium.’ But sion on the tiremaker and its customers. the risk in saying that is that you sort of Days, weeks, months were spent addressing limit yourself as a ‘niche player’ to the everything the unit was doing, and what it extent that maybe some of these guys needed to succeed. And he did all of that in the audience won’t take you seriwith no tire industry experience or backously for bigger volume, for bigger ground.

In July 2012, Pirelli’s new $300 million passenger and light truck/SUV tire plant in Silao, Mexico, officially opened, clearly one major hurdle Ferrari knew desperately needed to be addressed. The tiremaker’s often confounding product screen was cleaned up, and decisions were made to boost Pirelli’s marketing, advertising and dealer education efforts.

The results of that initial work were unveiled and demonstrated at Pirelli Tire North America’s dealer and distributor meeting, held in November in San Antonio. While Ferrari will be the first to say that more needs to be done, he feels confident that Pirelli now has a clear path in the North American market.

At that meeting, Ferrari sat with Paolo Ferrari TIRE REVIEW for his first extensive industry interview. The full-length version of the interview can be read at business.” tirereview.com.

Over the last 30 years, it seems, Pirelli It seems that your dealer audience was in the U.S. has been up and down, and impressed by what they heard, particto some dealers quite inconsistent. Is ularly regarding the product screen, that a mindset issue with how Milan which you know was an issue. sees the market and customers here?

“You give me great confidence by “I think right now we have a good what happened yesterday. You just told balance. For instance, I guess I am a hyme the takeaways are exactly what we brid. I was born and raised in Italy, but I wanted to get across. Part of that was have lived in America. Riccardo Chici is tricky. The factory was an easy sell, they Italian but has lived here a long time. can see that. The marketing was also Tom Gravalos is as American as apple relatively easy. The product screen was pie. So I think we have a good mix of critical because believe it or not Milan is people who have more experience in very sensitive about anything we do America. We want to keep our Italian here that is not perfectly aligned with heritage, of course, and there is a lot of the way they see things. The way we value in that, but we must be smart explained the product screen yesterday enough to apply that locally in a way is different than the way Milan has that is oriented to the consumer.” theirs. Certainly in the way we describe

14 January 2013 | TireReview

Talk about coming into Pirelli from outside the company and your impressions of the North American tire market.

“As everybody says, it is the most competitive market that I have seen. At the same time it is also the most rational market, meaning that if you do things right, if you pull the right levers, the machine moves in the right direction. I think we are experiencing that in specific channels where we tried some things that in theory should have delivered certain results but they didn’t. So it is very competitive, it is very tough, but at the same time it is rational, it recognizes value and recognizes product quality. So if you use the right levers you can be successful. I like that, I like doing business in America because it is rational. The other thing that was surprising to me is that I would like to have more market data, more data that you can use to make reliable decisions based on sell out data, pricing, marketshare trends, etc. We have all of that data, as you know, but it is not as sophisticated as you would find in the fast moving consumer goods industries. Procter & Gamble knows exactly where it is sold, the little SKUs of shampoo in a Kmart in Cincinnati. So that makes it a little more difficult to manage products.

I would like to have more accurate sell out data, to be sure.”

Describe your management style and how you want to relate to dealers.

“My background is that I was born and raised in Italy and got my education in Italy first. I got my MBA is the States (New York University - Leonard N. Stern School of Business). So my management style is a lot more AngloSaxon than it is, say, Italian or European. Which means my management style is very, very direct, very transparent, and I know that I am only as good as my team is. The way I work is that I develop a very clear vision, I allow people to challenge my vision, and I think I

■ NEWSMAKERS: am smart enough to accept those challenges and maybe review, even partially, that vision. Once it is strictly clear, then we execute. I expect people to be entrepreneurs of their own functions, their own responsibilities for their roles in meeting that vision. The most important thing someone in my position has to do is move aside every doubt that comes along that continues to challenge that vision. Get them moved out of the way. What I have found over the years is that there are some people who spend their days putting doubts in the minds of your people instead of contributing to meeting goals.”

What do you see as PTNA’s strengths and weaknesses? Talk about the weaknesses first.

“Our weakness has certainly been the service level and the way we have been able to supply our dealers. And there has been a very simple reason for that is that: out of every 100 tires we sold in North America, only five were produced in North America. So 95% of what we sold was sourced from other Pirelli plants around the world that as much as they are close, they are still thousands of miles away. So the supply chain was very long. Now that is being addressed by our new Mexico factory.”

And strengths?

“I think the biggest strength is the fact that we really have a unique brand.

A truly unique brand that has a good level of awareness and an incredibly good level of equity among our target groups. A brand that is supported by tremendously high quality products.

And all we have to do is make sure that we align all of our market levers and ramp up our marketing to make sure we leverage these tremendous assets.”

How much of your business in the U.S. and Canada is through the independent tire dealer channel?

“We have about 80% that is not wholesale, 80% that is just retail, either through independent distribution or direct. Pure wholesalers are about 20%.

But within those I do include Dealer Tire, which is a wholesaler but a different kind of wholesaler, and Tire Rack.

So let’s say pure, pure retailer – the independent dealer – is about 50%.”

Obviously the new plant in Mexico helps Pirelli expand its reach in North

America. But in what other ways will the plant help PTNA’s efforts?

“Having a ‘steady state’ with production is going to improve profitability. We’re going to have at least two years of a ramp-up phase so our fixed costs will continue changing each year.

So getting to a ‘steady state’ will give us a profitability advantage. Fill rate, obviously, will improve, as I mentioned.

The most important point, I think, is the ability to be faster in reacting to market needs. Whether that is specific availability for certain products or certain initiatives, or to develop a product line for specific segments, that is really key.

As we go ‘premium,’ within that market segment we need to be able to develop product for the subsegments.

Having the plant means we can do more development and we can do it faster. This means a faster industrialization process and getting new products out to the market faster.”

How do you see the green tire, the fuel efficiency segment for Pirelli?

“I don’t think we’re in a situation where a tire positioned as an ‘all-green’ tire is going to sell a lot. But I do believe that the green tire concept is now more and more transversal to all tires. All tires will have the low rolling resistance characteristic that is desired, and I think that is being shown well by the OEMs. We have Porsche and Bentley asking us for low rolling resistance specifications for tires. Certainly the rolling resistance level for those tires will be different than that of a Prius, but it means that rolling resistance is there as an attribute and it is here to stay. It is now an important feature across the board, and while it is more important in some segments than others, it is not important enough to make it the sole performance proposition for a consumer. The challenge for us is improving rolling resistance but maintaining all of the other attributes you put into the tire.”

Looking at 2013, how do you think the U.S. tire industry will perform?

“We see 2013 as a transition year, a flatish market. Probably a weak first half and a stronger second half that will hopefully be the preamble to a full recovery in 2014 and beyond. I think the premium segment will follow the same trend, always four or five percentage points above where the total market is going to be.”

NEWS & EVENTS

What obstacles are there for tiremakers and for dealers going into 2013-14?

“For the dealers, the challenge is still going to be the economy, probably to a lesser extent in 2013 than before because the car parc is getting older and older and the tires are balder and balder, so there is going to be a natural replacement that is for need but it will be a relatively ‘poor’ type of replacement. The additional challenge they will face is probably the continuing consolidation of the retail market. The big are getting bigger and the small are getting smaller. That’s probably more of an issue for the smaller dealer. On the tire manufacturer side, we feel the high end of the market is still growing. As far as we are concerned, we are concentrating on the right end of the market where there is less price competition.

The other manufacturers that are more broad are still going to be suffering from price competition. So from a price competition standpoint, the more you are in the premium market the more protected you are.”

In terms of sales, how will Pirelli finish 2012 in North America?

“2012 will be a very good year for Pirelli in the U.S., Canada and Mexico.

For the U.S., both OE and replacement for us are growing. We are growing in volume, we’re growing in ‘premium’ and we’re growing in revenue. It’s a good year, a very good year. In the replacement market, our volume is slightly down, but that is the result of a conscious decision to slowly exit the standard market. In the ‘premium’ segment we’re growing by double digits.”

What are your goals for PTNA for 2013?

“Looking at 2013 and onwards – I have a three-year horizon in terms of a business plan – in ‘premium’ I think we can outgrow the market at least two times, we can grow twice as fast as the premium market in next three years.

And that means gaining marketshare, of course, and even then we are underrepresented compared to the OE that we do. If we get our supply chain in line, we can recapture the marketshare that we believe is natural.” ■ Jim Smith Editor jsmith@babcox.com

TireReview.com 15

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> Kumho Tire USA

New Tires, New Focus, New Dealer Resources

W

hile acknowledging that Kumho Dealer Portal ity to support the program, so that’s 2013 likely will be a chalLaunching in three phases in the why it was focused on UHP,” he said. lenging year for tire dealers “The program worked, but it left out first quarter of 2013, the Kumho Dealer and for the industry in general – sim- 85% of the market; if the dealer wasn’t Portal is designed to be an all-encomilar to what was seen in 2012 – Kumho a large UHP seller, he didn’t earn any passing resource for tire dealers, acTire USA executives gave attendees cording to David Koh, marketing money. Our production and fill rates of its annual dealer meeting plenty communications manager. came back (Brennan estimates they to look forward to.

With a communication focus, the now sit at 95% to 100%), so this year From new products and a return to portal will offer: training, promotions, we’re focusing on relaunching the prothe medium truck tire market to a rePOS materials, wearables, an image ligram.” vamped Premium Fuel program and brary, an ad builder, marketing supUnder the relaunch, the lowest purall-new Kumho Dealer Portal, the chase requirement has been dropped to port, product videos, announcements, meeting’s announcements a Q&A section and a chat lived up to its theme, “Fuel forum. Added functionality, for the Future.” In addition, possibly including rewards the tiremaker pledged to status and inventory tracking, work more closely with dealwill come as dealers offer their ers on events, promotions and feedback on the portal, Brensupport for their businesses nan noted. moving forward.

“The portal will provide acAt the event, held Dec. 7cess to a lot of different ele10 in Cancun, Mexico, Arments that will help the dealer mand Allaire, national vice sell more,” he said. “It gives us president of sales, welcomed the element to communicate 40 dealers and their guests, with dealers not just through along with tire trade media. them logging in, but possibly According to Allaire, the ecothrough direct emails, alerts, nomic uncertainty of 2012 has etc. It allows dealers to get resulted in a “wait and see more information about attitude,” but “Kumho Tire Kumho that may enhance Product planning coordinator John Mosby showed off two USA is now.” their business.” new additions to Kumho’s PSR product screen.

“One great element is the Fuel Additions flexibility to make adjustAllaire detailed changes to Prements based on dealer feedback,” 75 units per quarter, with a second mium Fuel, mainly that the tires inadded Megan Wentz, marketing combracket of 150 units per quarter. cluded in the program have expanded munications coordinator. “This allows Kumho will pay anywhere from $3 beyond the original six Ecsta UHP us to better service dealer needs and to $10 per unit depending on the type units to include 14 tread patterns that figure out what other information we of tire and the dealer’s level. And there cover passenger, CUV, SUV and light are benefits for full-line Kumho distrib- could be providing or utilizing more truck tires. “We are convinced we have efficiently.” utors, as well, with an available 2% rethe best affiliate dealer program in the bate on everything that is a paid upon New Products industry,” Allaire said, adding that reunit of Premium Fuel dealers, Brennan On the new product front, John wards are now easier to achieve, as noted.

Mosby, product planning coordinator, well.

Allaire told dealers the revamped introduced two new passenger prodRick Brennan, vice president of mar- program also offers enhanced marketucts – the Kumho Sense KR26 all-seaketing, laid out the details after the ing support direct to the retailer, inson touring tire and a still-to-be-named dealer sessions, explaining that when cluding: an all-new Premium Fuel Ecsta all-season UHP tire. the program first launched, a minidealer kit; new POS displays and Mosby said the new Ecsta AST, mum of 200 units per quarter were rebrochures; a redesigned EDGE online quired for a dealer payout. training program; new brand merchan- slated for release in the third quarter of 2013, will come in 27 V speed rated “When we rolled out Premium dise in the online store; and a new ad Fuel, we looked at what product we builder for customizable print and dig- sizes ranging from 15- to 18-inch wheel diameters. With a UTQG rating of 560 had available with large enough capac- ital ads.

16 January 2013 | TireReview

■ NEWSMAKERS: as the Honda Civic and the Mazda 3.

The KR26 was specifically designed for this segment by providing exceptional ride and handling, as well as a lightweight design for lower rolling resistance.”

Allaire highlighted Kumho’s renewed focus on the medium truck and bus radial tire market, with the newly-hired Ron Gilbert serving as director of commercial tire sales.

He added the tiremaker plans to add two TBR sales specialists, as well.

The tiremaker has a SmartWayverified tire for steer, drive and National vice president of sales Armand Allaire and vice president of marketing Rick Brennan gave Kumho dealers a trailer positions complete review of where the tiremaker is headed. with its KLS02e, KRS02e, KLD01e and KLT02e, Allaire noted, adding AA, the tire will carry a 55,000-mile that Kumho also is launching its new limited treadwear warranty.

KMD41. The tire, which replaces the The yet-to-be-named tire, which KFD04, is a mixed service drive tire will be marketed to sports cars and with an updated compound for better sporty sedans, is a “well-rounded tire cut/chip resistance and an increased that excels in all-season traction, wet maximum speed of 65 mph. It is availand dry handling and long mileage,” able in sizes 11R22.5 and 11R24.5.

Mosby said, adding it also offers im“Five years ago, we were a full-line pressive snow braking, handling and TBR supplier and had up to a 2% maracceleration. ketshare within that market,” Brennan The Kumho Sense KR26, an H-rated added after the meeting. “We ran into all-season touring tire, will launch in some issues with price competition in the first quarter of 2013 in 28 sizes the U.S. and we couldn’t meet that ranging from 13- to 17-inch wheel diprice pressure at the time, so our marameters. According to Mosby, the tire ketshare dwindled pretty rapidly.” offers circumferential grooves for water He said since that time, prices have evacuation and improved lateral grip; risen in the U.S., putting Kumho back a full-depth sipe system for enhanced in a competitive zone in the second tier wet, dry and light snow traction; multi- and spurring the tiremaker’s reenple lateral grooves for improved tractrance into the TBR market. “To get to tion; and a variable pitch tread block our maximum velocity overall, we for a quiet ride. have to offer all products,” Brennan He explained that OE tire sales of said. “That’s why we’re reentering and 14-, 15-, and 16-inch H-rated tires have hiring more people to specifically hanmore than doubled in the past two dle TBR. We’d like to get back up to years. “These sizes are primarily used our former marketshare.” on small sedans and hatchbacks, such

NEWS & EVENTS

Marketing Changes Detailed On the marketing side, Koh said Kumho’s goals for 2013 are to continue boosting brand awareness and perception, target print and digital enthusiast media for the AST launch, and continue to provide outstanding value. He also noted Kumho will increase digital advertising on enthusiast and trade websites, e-blasts, e-newsletters, mobile and social media, as well as grow its radio ad presence on top regional and local stations to complement sports sponsorships and promotions.

While the tiremaker will continue its successful sports marketing strategy – as an example, more than 720,000 Lakers fans saw Kumho’s lower ring display at the Staples Center in the 2011-12 season – the extent will be reduced somewhat to allow more resources for partnering with tire dealers on regional events, Koh added.

“Sports marketing did a great job for us in increasing our brand awareness, but more importantly, through our activation efforts at sports events, we were able to interact with people so that brand awareness will stick longer in their minds,” Brennan told TIRE REVIEW. “We’re still brand building, but for us it’s really important to help our partners and support them. It could be anything – sports, Internet, consumer promotions – to support them in selling more Kumho tires to earn them more profits. We want to tailor the approach with each dealer, instead of creating a standard program that we take out to everyone.”

Kumho is so serious about working with its dealers to improve their businesses, the tiremaker created a dedicated email address to answer comments, questions and concerns: fuel@kumhotireusa.com.

This improved focus on dealer profits was echoed by J.B. Kim, Kumho Tire USA president and CEO, in his address to meeting attendees.

“When tough economic times face us, we must join forces to overcome obstacles,” he said. “There are no easy promises, but this is what we can tell you…that you can and should count on Kumho tire in 2013.” ■

Denise Koeth Managing Editor dkoeth@babcox.com

TireReview.com 17

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> 2012 Best Tech Award

Missouri Dealer Tech Wins Top Honors in Contest

K

im Brant, an automotive technician at Joe’s Tire and Auto Service in St. Joseph, Mo., was selected as the 2012 Best Tech.

The second annual Best Tech contest is sponsored by Wix Filters, part of the Affinia Group, and the Babcox Media Tech Group, which includes BRAKE & FRONT END, IMPORTCAR and UNDERHOOD SERVICE magazines.

Brant was announced as the winner during the annual Automotive Warehouse Distributors Association (AWDA) Meeting and Conference in Las Vegas on Oct. 29. As part of his award, Brant and a guest traveled all-expenses paid to AAPEX in Las Vegas.

Runners-up in the 2012 award contest were Kevin Dietz from BTS Tire and Service in Providence, Rhode Island, and Travis Luscomb from Larson’s Service Inc. in Peabody, Mass.

“From the diagnosis of electrical problems to evaluating exhaust systems to recommending the best parts – technicians play a major role in enhancing a vehicle’s performance,” said Mike Harvey, brand manager for Wix Filters. “We are thrilled to recognize Kim Brant as the 2012 Best Tech.

Harvey specifically pointed out Brant’s “distinguished career built on outstanding customer service as a committed advisor and resource, and for his dedication to learning as vehicles become more sophisticated with a wider range of repairs and maintenance work.”

Brant, an ASE Certified Master Technician and a Wix Expert-Level certified tech, said he was thrilled and humbled to receive the honor of being named Best Tech.

“With complicated systems that make up automobiles today, it is imperative that technicians provide the highest-quality service to ensure that drivers and passengers are safe on roadways,” said Brant. “I am truly delighted to win this award not only

18 January 2013 | TireReview

for myself, but for everyone at Joe’s Tire & Auto Service. From our technicians, owners to service writers, we hold the shop to the highest standards by encouraging ongoing education, implementing top-level industry standards and providing excellent customer service, which drives returning customers.”

Brant, who has been in the automotive and repair service industry for 28 years, was a runner-up in the

Kim Brant, right, displays his Tech of the Year trophy with two-time NHRA Funny Car champion Tony Pedregon.

2011 Best Tech program. He has worked at Joe’s Tire and Auto (stjoeautoservice.com) for about four years, and before that served as a technician in a few local car dealers and tire stores.

Besides his exceptional customer service, Brant has been active in his community’s youth organizations and local technical school. He was especially recognized for community involvement that includes raising money for Habitat for Humanity, assisting in fundraising efforts to support the Special Olympics, and

participating in neighborhood beautification programs and recycling efforts.

He also is credited for his penchant to go the extra mile to gain a new customer for Joe’s Tire and Auto Service, an independent tire dealership that has been servicing the St. Joseph area since 1984.

“My biggest enjoyment is from the challenge of determining the vehicle failure and taking that process clear through to returning the vehicle to the customer, properly repaired,” he said.

Brant’s love of vehicles developed at an early age through his father’s business. “My father owned a Mobil service station from my infancy to my teenage years,” Brant said.

“Without his involvement in the automotive world, I’m sure that I would not be involved myself.”

One of the most unique jobs Brant had seen as a technician had to be the servicing of an A/C system on a local Life Flight helicopter that had been grounded. The law requires the A/C system to be in working order for the helicopter to be used for medical purposes, but the company that previously serviced the system was no longer in business. So the owner of Joe’s Tire asked Brant to see if he could fix the helicopter’s system.

Although he had never repaired a vehicle designed to leave the ground, Brant hit the Internet to do some research, grabbed his tools and headed out to Rosecrans Memorial Airport, where he was greeted by a grateful Life Flight crew.

Brant said he was happy to be of assistance in the Life Flight’s return to the skies, and that today’s shops can find business “outside the box.”

“I’ve worked on a lot of unique vehicles – from Ferraris to Lamborghinis to Prowlers – but not many techs in this business can say they have worked on a helicopter.”

And not just any helicopter, but a Life Flight helicopter. ■

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BUSINESS

MARKET INTEL

TIRE REVIEW and InteliChek present up-to-date tire and service price information from major U.S. metropolitan areas.

For this monthly feature, InteliChek directly contacts a selection of independent tire dealers, mass merchants/chain stores and car dealers to obtain current pricing on replacement tires and vehicle services.

InteliChek requests and verifies

Seattle, WA Market Period 12/3-12, 2012 Mass Merch.

A

Mass Merch.

B

Tire Dealer A

retail prices via phone calls, using common specific vehicles, tire sizes and vehicle services. In that way, direct and useful comparisons can be made by readers.

The tire prices shown in this report are for tires only, and do not include mounting/balancing or any add-on warranties or other services or fees. To allow for a more accurate comparison, the level of tire brand –

Tire Dealer B

Car Dealer

Tier 1, Tier 2 and Private Brand/Other – recommended by the retailer is noted. (See legend below charts.)

The services chosen for these surveys include a standard oil change (oil plus filter), a standard fourwheel alignment and front brake work (replace front pads and turn both rotors).

For more information on InteliChek, visit intelichek.com. ■

Colorado Springs, CO Market Period 12/3-12, 2012 Mass Mass Merch.

Merch.

A B

Avg. All

Tire Dealer A

Tire Dealer B

Car Dealer

Avg. All

Vehicle 1 Oil Change/Filter Replace All: 215/60R16

$29.99 $556.08*

$27.99 $42.95 $678.40* $868.00*

$29.98 $687.89

Vehicle 1 Oil Change/Filter Replace All: 215/60R16

$29.99 $630.80**

Vehicle 2 4 Wheel Alignment Replace All: 225/60R16

$79.99 $79.95 $69.99 $79.00 $129.95 $539.96* $387.96** $416.00** $440.00* $532.00*

$87.78 $463.18

Vehicle 2 4 Wheel Alignment Replace All: 225/60R16

$79.99 $79.99 $64.99 $479.96* $427.96*** $520.00*

$79.99 $69.95 $454.00* $420.00*

$74.98 $460.38

Vehicle 3 Front Brakes, Turn Rotors $220.00 $179.90 $180.00 $190.00 $189.95 Replace All: 265/70R17 $719.96* $535.96** $796.00** $620.00* $640.00*

$191.97 $662.38

Vehicle 3 Front Brakes, Turn Rotors $149.99 $362.88 $140.90 Replace All: 265/70R17 $799.96*** $539.96*** $820.00*

$185.00 $220.00 $604.00* $640.00*

$211.75 $680.78

Tire Dealer B

Avg. All

$24.99 $23.99 $696.96* $640.00*

Des Moines, IA Market Period 12/3-12, 2012 Mass Mass Merch.

Merch.

A B

$36.99 $35.99 $29.99 $36.50 $589.14* $378.54** $458.32* $845.00*

$33.89 $580.36

Miami, FL Market Period 12/3-12, 2012 Tire Dealer A

Tire Dealer B

Car Dealer

Avg. All

Mass Merch.

A

Vehicle 1 Oil Change/Filter Replace All: 215/60R16

$33.00 $29.99 $24.95 $540.00** $495.96* $554.52*

$29.99 $34.95 $526.00* $712.46*

$30.58 $565.79

Vehicle 1 Oil Change/Filter Replace All: 215/60R16

Vehicle 2 4 Wheel Alignment Replace All: 225/60R16

$69.99 $403.96*

$79.99 $79.99 $463.96* $560.84*

$64.99 $79.95 $564.00* $390.96*

$74.98 $476.74

Vehicle 2 4 Wheel Alignment Replace All: 225/60R16

Vehicle 3 Front Brakes, Turn Rotors $159.99 Replace All: 265/70R17 $575.96*

$160.00 $250.00 $667.96* $863.40*

$169.99 $145.00 $676.00* $688.00*

$177.00 $694.26

$31.89 $527.96*

Mass Merch.

B

Tire Dealer A

Car Dealer

$29.99 $29.99 $503.96* $699.84*

$35.00 $40.00 $472.00* $791.52*

$33.37 $599.06

$79.99 $79.99 $80.00 $311.96*** $495.96* $440.00*

$65.00 $90.00 $512.00* $476.00*

$79.00 $447.18

Vehicle 3 Front Brakes, Turn Rotors $129.00 $197.93 $230.00 Replace All: 265/70R17 $503.96*** $791.96* $640.00*

$125.00 $220.00 $744.00* $592.00*

$180.39 $654.38

Boston, MA Market Period 12/3-12, 2012 Mass Merch.

A

Tire Dealer B

Avg. All

Indianapolis, IN Market Period 12/3-12, 2012 Mass Mass Tire Merch.

Merch. Dealer A B A

Tire Dealer B

Vehicle 1 Oil Change/Filter Replace All: 215/60R16

$32.00 $38.99 $423.54* $808.00*

$29.59 $537.86

Vehicle 1 Oil Change/Filter Replace All: 215/60R16

$34.99 $740.00*

$34.99 $44.99 $538.46* $768.00*

$35.99 $611.01

$59.99 $79.99 $87.50 $69.99 $109.95 $359.96*** $463.96* $504.00* $348.96*** $392.68*

$81.48 $413.91

Vehicle 2 4 Wheel Alignment Replace All: 225/60R16

$89.95 $79.99 $79.00 $89.99 $79.95 $532.00* $356.00** $640.00* $412.00** $392.00*

$83.78 $466.40

Vehicle 3 Front Brakes, Turn Rotors $180.00 $154.99 $275.00 $180.00 $200.00 Replace All: 265/70R17 $539.96*** $559.96* $711.48* $549.85*** $672.00*

$198.00 $606.65

Vehicle 3 Front Brakes, Turn Rotors $250.00 Replace All: 265/70R17 $748.00*

Vehicle 2 4 Wheel Alignment Replace All: 225/60R16

$26.99 $503.96*

$29.99 $19.99 $452.00* $501.80*

Legend

22 January 2013 | TireReview

Car Dealer

* = Tier 1 Brand

Avg. All

** = Tier 2 Brand

Mass Merch.

B

Tire Dealer A

$29.99 $35.00 $484.12* $524.48*

$169.99 $200.00 $660.00* $904.00*

*** = Private Brand/Other

Car Dealer

$200.00 $179.95 $736.00* $672.00*

$199.99 $744.00

Rapid Response: 800-928-1184 ext. 46023

BUSINESS

MOBILE MARKETING

What’s Right For You? T

Compare mobile websites and apps to determine your shop’s needs

he elections are over and the by the end of 2013, there will be holidays has passed. Now is a more searches on mobile devices great time to take a quick than on traditional computers. breath, reflect on the past year and Based on how fast mobile marketmake plans for 2013. Was 2012 a year ing has grown in just the past six of change for your business? months, I personally think it will be Many of our newest clients shared sooner than that. their frustrations with me about how Consider this: According to recent much things are changing. And how statistics from Google, nearly 60% of fast. The way you market must all searches regarding a particular change, as well. business come from a mobile device.

Just recently, I was a featured speaker at an event in Baltimore.

As I was explaining the three places you must be found to get new customers, one of the attendees in the audience started getting very upset.

Then, in front of several hundred people, he stood up and started screaming at me.

The good news was that he wasn’t mad at me. He was actually mad at himself. His business was down from the year prior Sources: Gartner, 2010; Google Mobile Optiand he was still spending $20,000 mization Webinar, 2011; Cisco, 2011 a month with the Yellow Pages.

What used to work plainly – at So Much Confusion least for this gentleman – doesn’t alThe good news/bad news in these ways work anymore. His business? statistics is that people searching for He runs a tow truck company – once your business on a mobile device are a darling for such phone books. generally NOT shopping, but they The days of simply putting out a are looking to make a purchase. They sign or having a coupon in the paper are interested in something you are are gone. Even the Yellow Pages and selling but aren’t necessarily sold on similar phone books are now online you as the resource. and have gone mobile. The truth is Here are some interesting numthat whether we like it or not, the bers from a survey recently pubworld is going mobile. lished by Google, based on its The use of mobile phones for Inresearch of consumer behaviors on ternet search has grown much faster mobile devices. than anyone expected. The Mobile The question I often am asked is: Marketing Association predicted that 24 January 2013 | TireReview

BRIAN SACKS Contributing Writer brian@trackableresponse.com

Do I need a mobile website or a mobile app?

The correct answer is both. However, let me make some clear distinctions for you. A mobile website is what should appear on the screen of a smartphone or tablet when someone is looking for your product or services.

If they come to your website and it is not mobile-optimized, there is a very good chance – better than average – that you will lose them as a potential customer. Testing and statistics clearly show that those conducting a mobile search will not take the time to thumb around a standard website; something designed to look great on a 15-inch laptop screen doesn’t work well on a 4-inch smartphone screen.

Simple and elegant is the rule.

You want to ensure that your business is easy to connect to with a “click to call” button, as well as maps that can integrate with any navigation system consumers may have on their mobile devices.

Google’s latest Maps is a great option.

There are other features important to an effective mobile website, but the major issue with mobile websites is that too much information is a negative. Your mobile website must be easy to look at, easy to navigate and easy to make a connection.

Mobile websites are primarily for attracting new customers. Apps for mobile devices are designed to keep customers by making it handy to maintain a relationship.

There are many ways to raise rev-

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■ BUSINESS:

MOBILE MARKETING

even a way to schedule service appointments. They also will be able to receive text messages from you.

The easiest customer to sell your products or services to is your existing customer who already knows, likes and trusts you.

The bottom line is that most businesses will benefit from both a mobile website and a mobile app.

However, it is a priority to first focus on a mobile website.

Once that is in place, you should then consider adding a customized mobile app to your marketing toolbox. ■

Source: Google 2012 Mobile Survey enue in your business. Making new sales is always an easy answer, but the best way to increase revenue is by bringing current customers back for more services. That’s where a mobile app can be beneficial.

With a mobile app, your customers will have your business at

26 January 2013 | TireReview

their fingertips 24/7. Best of all, they agreed to have your mobile app on their mobile devices.

Your customers will have your logo (branding) on their mobile devices, as well as your hours of business, locations, phone numbers, services, coupons for downloading,

Rapid Response: 800-928-1184 ext. 46026

Brian Sacks is a mobile marketing expert with more than 26 years of direct response marketing experience. He is co-founder of Trackable Response Inc., a mobile marketing provider to the tire and auto service industries, based in Catonsville, Md. Brian can be reached at brian@trackableresponse.com or 410-7471100.

BUSINESS

SELLING SMART

Does Your Team Need a Workout?

W

ith 2013 now upon us, many individuals have adopted the popular New Year’s resolution of getting in shape. While that certainly is a noble objective – and if you’re one of these individuals I hope this is the year you achieve your physical transformation goal – what about your business?

Have you ever considered the fitness level of your customer service effort?

No, I’m not referring to some sort of employee exercise program. Rather, I’m asking if the employees that provide sales and service to your customers are functioning at peak per- formance.

If you haven’t given this proper consideration, you’re probably not seeing the big picture issues that are likely hurting your business performance.

Just like with personal fitness, there are many aspects to managing the well-being of a customer service effort.

With personal fitness, exercising one area, say your shoulder muscles, will improve the shape and performance of that area, but will do little for the rest of your body and overall conditioning.

Customer service fitness is much the same way. It’s about conditioning all the elements that make up a high quality customer service effort by executing specific strategies and techniques to improve performance and results.

In order to reach an optimal level of customer service fitness, there are certain questions that you should ask yourself to properly assess your organization. The answers will give you a clear overview of where you are succeeding and where improvements need to be made.

Here are six key questions you 28 January 2013 | TireReview

The New Year is a great time to measure your dealership’s customer service fitness

should be asking now to improve your business performance this year:

1) Are You Keeping Them in Peak Condition?

STEVE FERRANTE Contributing Writer steve@Saleawayllc.com

service performance and ultimately its bottom line. As I wrote in the July issue on best practices to build a winning team culture, unengaged employees don’t create engaged customers. If employees are feeling negative and underappreciated, you can rest assured that they will either directly or indirectly communicate this to your customers.

Do you know any professional sports teams that only play games and do not practice on a regular basis? Probably not, but this is a frequent occurrence in the tire/auto service industry. Employees show up for work (the games) and do very little, if anything, to practice and improve their skill set in between.

Sales and customer service training and skills enhancements should be ongoing processes to ensure your team is well-resourced and properly prepared to succeed.

A sales organization that is not well-trained often loses those precious sales opportunities, costing substantial dollars in lost revenues and profits.

The same is true of customer service.

Without a well-trained staff, you’re not maximizing customer interactions and any deficiency in this area leaves the door open for capable competitors to take the business away from you. Sales and customer service are the lifeblood of every business. No Train, No Gain!

This area goes hand-in-hand with employees’ attitudes. It’s often overlooked, but for effective customer communication, how we sound is actually more important than what we say. Along with appearance and body language, the voices of your employees are a significant part of the first impression and ongoing perception that a customer has of your organization.

Winning organizations sound a certain way: positive, professional, upbeat. Do your employees sound that way or do they sound bored, tired and disinterested? Make some calls to your store and find out for yourself. If you’re hearing less than pleasant, cheerful voices on the line, guess what? Your customers are, too!

2) What is Their Attitude?

4) How Do They Engage?

Positive attitudes are the fuel that powers a winning team culture to drive a world-class customer service effort. It’s critical to be honest in your assessment here. Do your management and work environment contribute or detract from proper attitudes? Do your employees feel appreciated and recognized by the company?

Employee dissatisfaction can dramatically affect a company’s customer

Whether face-to-face or on the phone, every customer-employee interaction should have a functional element and an emotional element.

The functional elements represent the business/transactional side of your customer interactions. The emotional elements are the people/relationshipbuilding side.

Although functional components are a necessary part of customer interac-

3) How Do They Sound?

■ BUSINESS: tions, it is the emotional aspects that cultivate relationships and create lasting loyalty to your business. All too often, tire/auto service employees rely on the functional elements and minimize, if not outright neglect, the emotional elements.

For peak customer service fitness, employee-customer interactions should have a proper balance between functional and emotional elements. Recognizing the importance of connecting with customers emotionally, world-class customer service organizations typically focus 50%-70% of their employee development and customer attention on the emotional aspects of interactions.

who are merely satisfied will happily leave as soon as they find a business that provides a superior experience.

As I teach in my sales and customer service training, there are three possible outcomes to every customer interaction: satisfy, dissatisfy or impress.

The goal should always be to impress.

Customers who are impressed are far more likely to return in the future and become a “promoter” of your business to their network of friends and family.

Ask yourself, is the service your organization provides ordinary (like your competitors) or do you truly exceed expectations and impress customers on a regular basis?

5) What Do They Do? One of the leading indicators of a company’s customer service health is a consistent effort of employees to go the extra mile and consistently exceed customer expectations.

Unfortunately, quite often personnel are not exceeding expectations; they are, at best, just meeting expectations. Consumer research has shown that companies typically lose 50% of satisfied customers, and that those customers

6) How Do They Manage Problems?

The true test of a business’ customer service fitness is not when things are going right, but rather what is done when things go wrong. All too often, when confronted with a customer problem, store personnel take on a defensive posture and argue against the customer’s position.

This lack of empathy and under-

Rapid Response: 800-928-1184 ext. 46029

SELLING SMART

standing rarely works to create a happy, loyal customer. The best companies recognize that, even if the customer is wrong, it is far better to agree with their feelings and concede a little now than to risk losing a customer forever – and having that person “spread the word” of their dissatisfaction with the business.

Is your organization losing customers due to ineffective management of customer complaints and problems?

In an upcoming issue, I’ll explore customer complaints in detail and how to proactively manage them to ensure you don’t jeopardize customer relationships and potentially harm the reputation of your business.

For now, happy new year and best wishes with your resolutions! ■ Steve Ferrante, CEO of Sale Away LLC, is the producer and host of the Pinnacle Performance sales and customer service training program for the tire/auto service industry. He can be reached at 866-721-6086 ext.

701 or steve@saleawayllc.com.

TireReview.com 29

FEATURE

AUTHOR Title email

Service Tech 2013 From A to Z, Qs and As to Sharpen Your Knowledge

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early every tire dealer offers vehicle service – whether it is basic maintenance or complete repairs.

Service is a major revenue stream for tire dealers, especially in today’s economy where drivers want/need to “get another year” out of their vehicles.

So it’s not surprising that the typical tire dealer will see well more than 50% of his/her annual revenue come from service work; some dealers easily top 80%. The cost to participate – ongoing training, equipment, parts and supplies – is high, but dealers are responding and are taking advantage of the opportunity to shore up their service side.

To help add to their education regime, TIRE REVIEW has compiled an extensive collection of key questions often asked by service technicians of all skill levels, and responses from our cadre of auto service experts.

Visit tirereview.com to see a more extensive collection of vehicle service questions and answers, and email jsmith@babcox.com with your comments about this feature!

30 January 2013 | TireReview

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SYSTEM: BATTERIES Q. How can you tell if a battery needs to be replaced?

A. There are several ways to determine if a battery is “good” or “bad.” A battery is “bad” and needs to be replaced if: a) it is fully discharged (no voltage at the terminals) and it won’t accept or hold a charge; b) it takes a charge but never recovers to full voltage; or c) it accepts and holds a charge, but fails to maintain a certain voltage when a load is placed on the battery (or it fails to deliver its normal current).

Batteries are tested for two things: state of charge (a base voltage measurement that shows if the battery is low or fully charged), and capacity (a load or conductance test that checks the condition of the plates inside the battery).

Connecting a voltmeter to the battery’s positive and negative terminals (key off and all lights and accessories off) will reveal the charge level of the battery. A reading of 12.66 volts indicates a fully-charged battery. If the reading is 12.45 volts or less, the battery is low and needs to be recharged.

Some batteries have a built-in charge indicator; a green dot tells you the battery is at least 75% charged.

A dark indicator (no dot visible) means the cell is low and the battery needs to be recharged. A yellow or clear indicator tells you the electrolyte level inside the cell is low and the battery needs water. If the battery has a sealed top and water cannot be added to the cells, the battery must be replaced.

A load test or conductance test will tell you if the battery is still usable. The load test is done by applying a current load on the battery (one-half of its cold cranking amp or CCA rating) with a load tester for 15 seconds. A good battery that is at least 75% charged should not drop below 9.6 volts.

A conductance battery test is faster and easier, and can be performed even if the battery is run down. The conductance tester pulses an alternating frequency sig-

nal through the battery to reveal its condition. If it fails the test, your customer needs a new battery.

Q. How long should a car battery last?

A. All lead-acid car batteries have a limited service life, typically four to five years with wet cell batteries, and a couple of years longer with absorbent glass mat (AGM) batteries. How long a battery lasts depends on battery construction (conventional wet cell or AGM, and the durability of the cell plates and connectors), the operating conditions to which the battery is subjected (heat, cold, vibration, frequency of use), the number of discharge/charge cycles it has experienced, and the condition and performance of the vehicle’s charging system.

For maximum life, auto batteries must be maintained at or near full charge throughout their life; they don’t recover well if allowed to become fully discharged. This can occur if there is a problem with the vehicle’s charging system or if lights have been left on after turning the engine off. Though many models go into “sleep mode” to conserve power, there still can be a steady drain of power that will eventually run the battery down if the car isn’t driven often enough or long enough to fully recharge the battery.

SYSTEM: BEARINGS Q. How can you tell if a wheel bearing is failing?

A. Noise is the most common symptom, usually a cyclic chirping, squealing or growling noise that changes in proportion to vehicle speed. The sound may disappear at some speeds or only occur at certain speeds. The noise may get worse when turning, or it may disappear momentarily.

Looseness or roughness in the bearings is another symptom. Any play or roughness that can be felt when rotating a tire by hand may indicate trouble. If the bearings are the adjustable type, cleaning, repacking and readjusting them may solve the problem. But if the vehicle has sealed wheel bearings, looseness or roughness, it’s time to replace the bearings.

To check wheel-bearing play, raise the vehicle so the wheel is off the ground, then grab tire at the 12 and 6

o’clock positions and rock the tire back and forth. As a rule, you should not feel any play or looseness if the vehicle has sealed wheel bearings. On older vehicles with adjustable wheel bearings, a little play is normal but a lot of play is not. Refer to the vehicle’s service specifications for the maximum amount of acceptable play.

Wheel bearing play can be measured with a dial indicator by placing the dial indicator against the hub and rocking the wheel in and out by hand. As a rule, you should see no more than .005 inches of play if the bearings are good.

Q. Do wheel bearings require maintenance?

A. Wheel bearing cartridges and hub assemblies on late model vehicles do not require any maintenance. They are sealed for life and cannot be lubricated.

TireReview.com 31

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SYSTEM: BEARINGS (cont.)

On many older vehicles, the wheel bearings are not sealed and do require periodic inspection, cleaning and repacking with grease. The recommended service interval is typically every 30,000 to 50,000 miles (or more frequently if the vehicle is driven off-road or through hub deep water). Wheel bearings also should be inspected and lubricated when the brakes are serviced, or if a bearing problem is suspected (noise, roughness or looseness).

After the bearings have been installed, bearing endplay must be adjusted to specifications by tightening

and then backing off slightly the spindle nut. Most older cars and trucks allow a small amount of end-play, but some require a slight preload. The grease cap must fit tightly to keep water and contaminants out of the hub.

SYSTEM: BELTS & HOSES Q. If a serpentine belt is squealing, should it be replaced?

A. It depends on the condition of the belt and belt tension. A worn or glazed serpentine belt can be noisy, as can a belt that has been contaminated with motor oil, grease or coolant. But even a relatively new belt in good condition can slip and squeal if the automatic tensioner is weak or the belt is not tensioned properly.

An automatic belt tensioner uses spring tension; a stiff coil spring inside pushes the tensioner arm and pulley outward to keep the belt tight. Over time, the spring may weaken or break. The pivot arm also may stick or bind as a result of rust and corrosion, preventing the tensioner from exerting adequate pressure against the belt.

Symptoms that indicate a need for a new belt tensioner include excessive belt flutter when the engine is revved, noise from the tensioner pulley bearings, visible wobble or looseness in the tensioner pulley, binding or

Rapid Response: 800-928-1184 ext. 46032 32 January 2013 | TireReview

â– FEATURE: dragging in the pulley bearings, or belt squeal immediately after engine start up, when turning or turning on the A/C. Sometimes belt noise may be the result of someone having installed a replacement belt that is the wrong length. If a belt is too long, the tensioner may not have enough travel to keep the belt tight. Markings on the base and arm of an automatic tensioner indicate its minimum and maximum range of travel. The indicator should usually be about halfway between the minimum and maximum marks. If the indicator is at or near the maximum mark, it means the belt is worn and needs to be replaced.

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If the gauge is flush with the tops of the grooves, the belt is worn and needs to be replaced.

Belts made of rubber or other synthetic rubbers should be replaced if they are cracked (more than four cracks per inch), frayed or have chunks of rubber missing. Belts also should be replaced if they have been contaminated with oil, grease or coolant.

Q. What could cause the premature failure of a radiator or heater hose?

A. Heat and ozone accelerate the normal aging process that causes natural and synthetic rubber hoses to lose

Q. How do you determine belt wear on a serpentine belt?

A. Most late model serpentine belts are made of EPDM rubber, which allows belts to last upwards of 100,000 miles. EPDM rubber belts can still look like new even at high mileage and don’t crack like older neoprene belts, so there are fewer telltale clues that a belt may be nearing the end of its service life.

The best way to gauge belt wear is literally with a special gauge designed for this purpose. Several belt suppliers have inexpensive plastic belt wear gauges that can reveal the true condition of a serpentine belt. The gauge fits into the grooves on the underside of the belt.

Rapid Response: 800-928-1184 ext. 46033

TireReview.com 33

SYSTEM: BELTS & HOSES (cont.) their elasticity and become hard and brittle. EPDM hoses are more durable in this respect, but they, too, can deteriorate after many years of service.

If a coolant hose fails at unusually low mileage, it may signal something unusual is going on inside the cooling system, such as electrolysis corrosion. Contaminants in

the coolant such as salts or minerals, or depleted corrosion inhibitors in the coolant can allow electric currents to use the coolant as a conductive path. This can accelerate internal corrosion of vulnerable metal parts (heater core, radiator and other parts), as well as the hoses. Electrolysis can eat pits and lesions into the inside lining, weakening the hose and eventually eating all the way through.

If a low mileage hose has failed, it should be cut open and inspected to see if the inside has been attacked by electrolytic corrosion. If it has, the cooling system needs to be cleaned and flushed, and refilled with fresh 50/50 premixed antifreeze to avoid the possibility of recontamination with softened water or tap water. If a customer is refilling with full strength antifreeze, they should mix it in equal parts with distilled water, never ordinary tap water.

New radiator and heater hoses, as well as new clamps, should always be recommended for any customer who is replacing a water pump, thermostat, heater core or radiator.

SYSTEM: BRAKES Q. Are there any standards for comparing friction materials?

Rapid Response: 800-928-1184 ext. 46064

Rapid Response: 800-928-1184 ext. 46034 34 January 2013 | TireReview

A. Yes. One such rating method is the SAE J661 and J866A Brake Lining Quality Control Test, also called a “chase� test. A one-inch square of friction material is placed in a special machine that measures the material’s coefficient of friction over a range of temperatures. From this, the low- and high-temperature friction ratings for the material are determined and printed as a two-letter edge code on the brake linings.

The edge code letters for most passenger car and light truck linings are some combination of E and F, while G and H are found primarily on racing pads. The coefficient of friction range for E is 0.25 to 0.35 (least aggressive), F is 0.35 to 0.45, G is 0.45 to 0.55, and H is 0.55 to 0.65 (most aggressive).

As a rule, the better the friction material, the more consistent its friction characteristics will be under different temperatures and pressures. A friction

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SYSTEM: BRAKES (cont.) material rated FE will provide good braking when cold, but may fade when it gets hot. Friction materials rated FF and higher often are recommended for performance applications.

Q. Can you mix different kinds of friction materials on the same wheel?

A. Yes. Some OE and aftermarket brake suppliers are now using different types of friction materials for the inner and outer brake pads on the same wheel. By doing this, they can take advantage of the different performance characteristics of different friction materials to improve overall brake performance and customer satisfaction.

A semi-metallic pad or friction material with a slightly higher coefficient of friction may be used on the inside of the rotor with a softer and less aggressive ceramic or non-asbestos organic pad on the outside.

Under no circumstances should different types of friction materials be used on opposite sides of a vehicle (same axle). Any significant difference in friction coefficients side-to-side can cause uneven braking and a brake pull.

Since brake pads are normally replaced in matched axle sets, this is usually not a concern, but it can be if a customer is replacing only the brake pads on one wheel be-

cause the pads were contaminated by brake fluid from a leaky caliper.

The same issue can arise if a customer is replacing a leaky or frozen caliper with a loaded caliper that comes preassembled with new pads. The new pads in the loaded caliper should match the friction characteristics of the old pads on the opposite wheel, otherwise the pads on both sides need to be changed to keep braking effort equal.

Q. Will resurfacing rotors eliminate a brake pedal pulsation?

A. Brake pedal pulsation is caused by thickness variations between the faces of the rotor. As the rotor turns around, any variation in thickness of more than about .001 inches may be felt when the brakes are applied.

Resurfacing the rotors to make both faces flat and parallel will solve the problem, but it may be only a temporarily fix.

With a pedal pulsation issue, most experts recommend replacing the rotors. The thickness variation that causes pulsation often is the result of hard spots in the rotor that extend deep into the metal. Resurfacing only shaves off the top of the hard spots. Eventually, the hard spots return – sometimes within a few thousand miles after resurfacing.

SYSTEM: CHASSIS PARTS Q. How often do chassis parts need to be replaced?

A. More often than they are now. Long before they hit

Rapid Response: 800-928-1184 ext. 46036 36 January 2013 | TireReview

the salvage yard, most vehicles have worn-out ball joints, control arm bushings, tie rod ends, steering racks, springs and other chassis parts that should have been replaced long ago, but were not.

Worn chassis parts are most often detected when a vehicle is experiencing tire wear, steering or handling problems, or when a technician is doing a pre-alignment inspection. The consequences of ignoring worn chassis parts can be serious, if not deadly. If a badly worn ball joint fails, the suspension collapses, causing a loss of steering control. The same thing can happen if a badly worn tie rod end separates from a steering arm.

Most OE chassis parts are built to withstand the rigors of everyday driving, and will usually last well beyond 100,000 miles or more. But as the cumulative effects of potholes, jars and jolts add up over time, even the toughest chassis parts can succumb to wear. The life of the parts depends on the size and weight of the vehicle,

Rapid Response: 800-928-1184 ext. 46037

and what kind of roads it is driven upon, and the number of miles driven.

Q. If one ball joint is worn out, should the others be replaced at the same time?

A. Chances are the ball joint on the opposite side is also near the end of the road, even if it is still marginally within specifications. Many technicians recommend replacing both joints at the same time.

Q. How does a short-long arm (SLA) suspension differ from a strut suspension?

Rapid Response: 800-928-1184 ext. 46038 38 January 2013 | TireReview

A. SLA suspensions use a pair of control arms on each side to support the steering knuckle and wheel. The pivot points of the arms are connected to the chassis with bolts and bushings, and the arms are connected to the steering knuckle with an upper and lower ball joint. The spring is usually placed between the lower control arm and vehicle sub-frame, but on some applications it may be located on top of the upper control arm. SLA suspensions are typically used on larger, heavier vehicles such as fullsize pickup trucks, SUVs and luxury rear-wheel drive passenger cars.

Alignment problems can occur if the ball joints or control arm pivot bushings are worn. This may cause a steering pull, suspension noise or accelerated or uneven tire wear. Replacing the ball joints and/or bushings will usually cure the problem.

Most strut suspensions don’t use upper control arms or upper ball joints. These parts and the spring are replaced with a MacPherson strut assembly. The strut attaches to the upper part of the steering knuckle and the bearing plate on top of the strut allows the wheel to steer in either direction. The spring is positioned

around the strut for a more direct acting suspension. Strut suspensions are typically used on front-wheel drive cars and minivans, and also some crossover vehicles and smaller SUVs. On “wishbone” strut suspensions, upper control arms and ball joints are both used to support the steering knuckle, but struts are still used to support the weight.

SYSTEM: CV JOINTS & HALF-SHAFTS Q. Is it easier to replace a worn CV joint or to replace the entire halfshaft?

A. The hands down favorite in most instances is to replace the entire halfshaft as a complete assembly. It’s faster, easier and only a little more expensive than replacing a bad CV joint.

Half-shafts in front-wheel drive cars and minivans connect the transaxle to front-drive wheels. On AWD or RWD vehicles that have half-shafts, the shafts connect the differential to the drive wheels.

Removing a half-shaft with a bad CV joint requires dismounting the wheel, removing the outer axle nut and separating the outer end of the half-shaft from the steering knuckle or hub. Some disassembly of the suspension also is necessary so there is room to push the half-shaft back through the knuckle or hub. Once the outer end is free, the inner end of the shaft can be disconnected from the transaxle or differential.

Most replacement shafts come with new/remanufactured inner and outer CV joints, eliminating the risk of reusing worn high-mileage joints if only one joint on a shaft is being replaced.

Q. How do you know if a CV joint needs to be replaced?

■ FEATURE: A. Most CV joint failures occur as a result of a boot failing. If the boot fails, the grease leaks out and contaminants get inside the joint. Other symptoms include: • A popping or clicking noise when turning. This almost always indicates a worn or damaged outer CV joint. A quick way to verify this condition is to put the car in reverse, crank the steering wheel to one side and drive the vehicle backwards in a circle (check the rearview mirror first). If the noise gets louder, it confirms the diagnosis and the need for a new joint or replacement shaft assembly.

• A “clunk” when accelerating, decelerating or when putting the transaxle into drive. This kind of noise can come from excessive play in the inner joint on FWD applications, either inner or outer joints in a RWD independent suspension, or from the driveshaft CV joints or U-joint in a RWD or AWD powertrain. Be warned, though, that the same kind of noise also can be produced by excessive backlash in the differential gears. A quick way to verify the diagnosis here is to back the vehicle up, alternately accelerating and decelerating while in reverse. If the clunk or shudder is more pronounced, it confirms a bad inner joint.

• A humming or growling noise. Sometimes due to inadequate lubrication in either the inner or outer CV joint, this symptom is more often due to worn or damaged wheel bearings, a bad intermediate shaft bearing on equal length half-shaft transaxles, or worn shaft bearings within the transmission.

SYSTEM: SHOCKS & STRUTS Q. Does the vehicle need to be aligned after replacing the shocks or struts?

A. Replacing front struts does require realigning the front wheels. Many struts have “camber bolts” at the lower end that allow the strut to be repositioned with respect to the steering knuckle. Even if the position of the camber bolt is marked as a reference point prior to removing the old strut, manufacturing tolerances in the new strut housing

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may change the alignment. For this reason, alignment should always be checked and adjusted as needed after the new struts have been installed.

On other struts, alignment is adjusted by moving the top of the strut in or out to change camber, and/or moving the top of the strut forward or backward to change caster.

As before, alignment should always be checked and readjusted as needed after the new struts have been installed.

With rear struts, there may be camber adjustments at the top or bottom of the strut that can affect rear alignment. But even if there are no factory adjustments, wheel alignment should be checked after the struts have been installed to make sure alignment is within specifications and that no other parts are damaged or bent.

There is no need to realign the wheels after new shocks have been installed. The shocks play no direct role in wheel alignment other than to dampen the movements of the suspension.

Q. How can you tell if the shocks or struts need to be replaced?

A. Symptoms that typically indicate the need for new shocks or struts include suspension bottoming after hitting a bump, excessive nose dive when braking, excessive body lean or sway when cornering, a bouncy or undulating ride, wheel shudder or shimmy after hitting a bump, and cupped tire wear.

Fluid leaks are another clue the piston seals are leaking. Sooner or later the loss of fluid will diminish the shocks’ or strut’s ability to control the motions of the suspension.

Gas leaks are harder to see, but if a piston is leaking fluid, chances are it has probably lost its gas charge, too.

This will significantly reduce the shocks ability to resist fade when it is working hard.

A bounce test is still a valid means of identifying weak dampers. Rock the suspension several times up and down, then release it. If the dampers don’t stop the motion within one bounce, the shocks are weak and should be replaced to restore like-new ride control. ■

Rapid Response: 800-928-1184 ext. 46039

TireReview.com 39

TOPSHOP FEATURE

SHANA O’MALLEY Contributing Writer

Samaritan Tire Ownership Shift Brought Steady, Solid Growth High ceilings, large floorspace and clean bays give Samaritan Tire service and tire techs an efficient, comfortable place to deliver quality service.

TOP SHOP SPECS: > Samaritan Tire Tire Brands: Goodyear, Dunlop, KellySpringfield, Michelin, BFGoodrich, Uniroyal, Continental, General, Kumho, Pirelli, Yokohama, Vogue, Nitto, Nexen, Hankook, Bridgestone, Firestone, Carlisle, Falken, Toyo, Mickey Thompson Tire Changers: Hunter, Corghi, Beissbarth Tire/Wheel Balancers: Hunter Road Force Lifts: Hunter, Rotary Alignment Racks: Hunter, John Bean Brake Lathes: Ammco Compressors: Champion, Ingersoll-Rand POS Software: Goodyear GBMS Marketing/Buying Groups: Michelin MAST, Kumho Fuel, Continental Gold and Goodyear G3X

40 January 2013 | TireReview

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ocated in the suburbs of Minnesota’s twin cities, Samaritan Tire has been helping customers find the perfect set of wheels and tires since 1971.

It originated as a retailer, and ran a wholesale operation until the early 2000s. When the original owners decided to sell, longtime tire salesman Chris Mortensen purchased the retail side of the company in 2003 after decades of experience in various areas of the tire business.

Since Mortensen took over, the multi-brand tire store has been growing steadily.

“We went from being a $1.5 million a year store to a $4 million a year store and we went from selling 10,000 tires a year to 25,000 tires a year,” says Mortensen, adding the amount of business his single store does is

comparable to a company with five or six locations.

Mortensen’s secret to success is sticking with what he knows, and for him and his 60 employees, that is tires and tire service.

“I think what makes us unique is the experience we have here in the store,” says Mortensen. “My store manager has been with the company for 25 years and our service manager has 20 years of experience, so you’re always talking to someone who is experienced in the business.”

With decades of knowledge in the shop, Mortensen said they’ve built a solid reputation with customers when it comes to quality products and exceptional service.

“I think tires are very complicated now, compared to the way they used to be,” says Mortensen. “When I

■ FEATURE:

TOP SHOP

started out, 17 years old in high school mounting tires, back then you had maybe 12 sizes to choose from and the biggest decision was whether you wanted a radial tire or a bias ply tire.

Now you have the complexity with tire pressure monitoring sensors and performance tires and low profile tires.

That makes instillation a bit complicated, so I think it’s important to have the people who have experience to dial it all in.”

Mortensen adds that they try and make the purchasing experience as easy as possible by making recommendations and keeping most appointments under an hour.

“People are short on time so it’s pretty important to do what we say we’re going to do,” he says. “We give people rides to work and back. We also make it simple to buy tires. Sometimes it’s hard to get the year, make and model of the vehicle, let alone tire size, so we’re good about making the right recommendation based on the customer’s driving habits.”

The 10-year-old facility features 10 bays, three alignment racks and an open waiting room with modern amenities.

42 January 2013 | TireReview

Samaritan Tire does about $4 million in retail tire and service sales – 25,000 tires – from this single location.

“The waiting area is pretty spacious, it’s got wireless (Internet) and cable TV and vending machines,” says Mortensen. “A lot of people wait here. After about 20 minutes they want to get up and walk around so we have an open atmosphere. They’re welcome to go watch technicians work on the car.”

Range of Brands The shop keeps roughly 2,500 to 3,000 tires in stock, including Good-

year, Dunlop, Kelly-Springfield, Michelin, BFGoodrich, Uniroyal, Continental, General, Yokohama, Vogue, Nitto, Bridgestone, Firestone, Kumho and Pirelli. It also has a wholesale supplier located just a few minutes down the road.

Mortensen says approximately 80% of business comes from tire sales and service. The rest of the business is made up of wheel alignments and service for brakes, suspension, shocks and struts.

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While Samaritan Tire doesn’t do underhood work such as fluid or oil changes, they’re able to catch a lot of tire business that other multi-service places aren’t equipped to do.

“We have a lot of high-end tire changing equipment with Corgi, as well as machines that other places don’t have,” he says. “We can do Michelin PAX tires and basically any kind of tire.”

With heavy snowfall during eastern Minnesota’s harsh winters, Mortensen says they do a lot of seasonal tire changes and provide a unique solution for seasonal tire storage.

“We store tires here in the building, so if you do winter and summer Well-kept and relatively uncluttered, the front sales counter at Samaritan Tire. changeovers, we will store them. That way customers don’t have to take them home,” explains Mortensen. “It “When we’re at those events, we’re not really selling makes it easier for them so they don’t have a set of tires tires, we’re building relationships with customers who taking up space in the garage. It also keeps them coming come back to us,” he adds. back here, because if they have tires here, they’re probably While Mortensen says he isn’t always a price leader going to come back for service.”

When it comes to advertising, Mortensen invests in com- compared to his competition and big box chains, he bemercial spots on a major radio station in the Twin Cities and lieves customers keep coming back to Samaritan Tire because they know they’ll get a quality job, good customer relies on the shop’s website to inform customers.

“If you look at what people do before a major purchase, service and no hassles.

“The experience level is very high; people trust that whether it’s tires or anything else, they do a search on the we’re going to get it right the first time,” he says. “We’re Internet to get some information and then make a few big on when we say we’re going to do something, we do it phone calls and make a decision,” says Mortensen. Their and you’re going to get what you pay for.” ■ NetDriven site makes it easy for customers to search brands and shop for tires, he says.

The company also is involved in promotional and community events such as the “Back to the 50s” car show hosted by the Minnesota Street Rod Association. The annual event is held at the Minnesota State Fairgrounds and features more than 11,000 cars.

Additionally, Samaritan Tire is a vendor at Car Craft’s Summer Nationals and a sponsor of the local car club Eurowerk’s.

This past summer, the shop hosted its seventh annual car show, which featured 140 cars and 300 spectators. All of the money raised during the event was donated to the Courage Center, a Minnesota-based, non-profit rehabilitation and resource center.

“Those events help us a lot because if you have a show car and you trust us to put tires and wheels on that, then you’ll surely trust us to put tires and wheels on your pickup truck or your everyday driving car,” says Mortensen.

Mortensen adds that seeing his customers at events helps with one of his biggest forms of advertising – word of mouth.

TireReview.com 43

TIRES FEATURE

JIM SMITH Editor

Serious Concerns Drought, DC Weigh on Entire Farm Tire Chain

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ast January we were looking at three straight years of record farm incomes. Fast expanding crop opportunities and fast-growing export markets brought good news to everyone in the ag chain – from the field to the equipment manufacturer.

And then the rain stopped. Well, it never really started. The Drought of 2012, while nowhere near as epic the 1930s Dust Bowl, still dramatically altered attitudes and plans. And a relatively dry autumn 2012 has farmers on edge about the coming year.

While irrigation systems, “good genetics” and crop insurance helped minimize the damage for farmers, experts say the drought was every bit as bad as described, perhaps worse than imagined, and left ag tire buyers – OEMs and farmers – wary of the near-term.

“Right now, most of the Great Plains and the Southeast are still in serious drought, and parts of the Midwest are still too dry for comfort,” reports Seth Walters, vice president of marketing and supply chain for Alliance Tire Americas. “Everybody will be waiting

>TAKEAWAYS • DROUGHT RECOVERY SLOW • CONCERNS OVER FARM BILL, NATIONAL FINANCES • EXPERTS SEE BETTER SECOND HALF OF 2013 • IF, VF HOT TECHNOLOGIES 44 January 2013 | TireReview

for snow in the next few months. Few farmers are in a buying mood – an attitude we expect will carry into 2013, when insurance checks and some winter rainfall will hopefully raise optimism again.”

“As the summer progressed and conditions became worse, we saw a definite pause in our replacement market business, especially on harvest related tires,” says Tom Rogers, director of ag tire sales and marketing for Bridgestone Americas. “Understandably, growers were not buying tires where drought conditions existed. As we look into 2013, we see overall net farm income still very strong and all indications point to a good year in the ag tire business next year.”

Bill Haney, sales manager for BKT Tires USA, says that the “main impact on 2012 was replacement tire shipments were slowed down during the third quarter, and inventories were high. This means availability will be good during the spring 2013 period.”

Michelin North America’s James Crouch, farm segment marketing manager, says that even with the drought, heading into the close of 2012 “farmers are still projected to have the second highest net farm income year ever due to high commodity prices and land protected by crop insurance. New equipment sales continued to be strong throughout 2012, and the downturn in the replacement tire market is expected to reverse in 2013 as farmers reinvest in their business, and dealers continue to work through their inventories.”

“It appears that although OE orders and shipments remained pretty strong through the 2012 fall, it was more than likely from orders that were placed and

financed several months prior,” offers F.A. Jenkins, president of Mid-USA Tire, a distributor of Petlas brand ag tires. “Equipment orders may have been placed upwards of 12-plus months ago. It is rumored that several newer orders were canceled due to the drought conditions that covered a large portion of prime agriculture production regions, especially on larger tractor and harvest/combine equipment.”

Skip Sagar, sales manager for Titan Tire Corp., concurs with his colleagues on the impact of the Drought of 2012, and suggests at least part of 2013 looks good. “Looking into 2013, OEM schedules for production of farm equipment seem to be pretty strong. The second half of the year is anybody’s guess.

There were some availability issues during 2012, so we believe there’s quite a bit of pent-up demand. When some of the uncertainty goes away and the growers receive their crop insurance payouts, we anticipate an increase in spending on replacement tires.”

It’s obvious, though, that caution will be the watchword for 2013. No one can predict the weather, and Washington has to tackle both an important Farm Bill (stalled in Congress) and negotiate a long-term resolution to our fiscal and debt problems.

More Important Than Ever Even though the Drought of 2012 is over, only the calendar has changed and it’s certainly not business as usual anymore. Dealers will have to get back to a more consultative sell, experts suggest. “It’s a perfect time for dealers to be selling return on investment,” says Walters. “Farmers are under pressure.

They’ve seen commodity prices go up,

■ FEATURE: but they’ve also seen all their costs go up, too. They need confidence that their tire supplier is providing service and a long-term relationship he can trust in good times and bad.”

Jenkins suggests that strong new equipment sales over the past few years opened the door to some new tire players, giving dealers new options. “The heavy OEM focus with the major brand producers has allowed new import manufacturers to enter the market and gather up some replacement marketshare.”

Trends and Planning While the drought captured the headlines, the biggest “variable” has been the Farm Bill, legislation that governs everything about the farm economy from subsidies to crop insurance to research programs.

“Federal programs have a big im-

pact on planting decisions, dairy profitability, and other aspects of agriculture,”says Walters. “Farmers watch that carefully for a sense of how secure their safety net is, and so do their bankers. Congress was clearly willing to gamble with the entire farm economy as the election approached – and that didn’t help anybody’s attitude.”

From a trend standpoint, BKT’s Haney says, “farmers are managing income increases by keeping debt down, making land purchases, and general improvements to their own personal financial planning. They are tending to be thoughtful about equipment purchases to better manage this recent increase in income.”

“As input costs continue to increase, farmers are being more efficient,” says

Bridgestone’s Rogers. “This is driving the precision farming trends, equipment purchases and tire choices. We are seeing farmers maintaining proper tire inflation, and specialized and higher capacity equipment are making growers more efficient, which is driving demand for application specific and higher load capacity tires.”

Precision farming techniques and technologies have fully captured the attention of today’s farmer, according to Mid-USA Tire’s Jenkins. “Precision farming is leading OE equipment purchases,” he says, and that will impact later replacement buys.

While farmers are concerned about what’s happening in North America, they’ve also become global in their viewpoints, according to Sagar. “We always have to consider the fact that we live in a global marketplace. China is stockpiling soybeans, which impacts exports, and therefore, prices. Roughly

55% of the soybeans grown in Iowa go to export. So, a lot of what we see going on globally will have a direct impact on our exports.”

The national attention on “renewable fuels is an important factor, too,” he says. “Roughly 40% of corn production in Iowa goes toward renewable fuels. So, any legislation on renewable energy production will profoundly impact agriculture in some states.”

Latest and Greatest Performance in the field is always the key issue for crop farmers. As one expert said squarely: Performance and value never go out of style.

“That said, the big story of the past year or so is definitely flexion – IF and

TIRES

VF tires,” says Alliance’s Walters. “The benefits are really impressive – IF tires can carry 20% more load at a given inflation pressure, or operate under a particular load at 20% less inflation pressure, compared to a conventional tire of the same size. That gives farmers the flexibility to haul bigger loads or to manage their inflation pressure to reduce soil compaction.”

Bridgestone’s Rogers and Michelin’s Crouch concur. “Equipment is becoming more and more specialized and capacities keep growing as farmers look for ways to become more efficient,” says Rogers. “This is driving demand for application-specific tire designs and higher load capacity tires.

Growers are looking for the best of both worlds, more load capacity but at a reduced inflation pressure to minimize compaction.”

Vital, says Crouch, are tires that “enable the farmer to carry the same load at a lower air pressure than the standard tire, offering IF and VF class tires in many of our market segments. With the lower pressures required in these tires, the farmer is lighter on his field and experiences less yield-robbing soil compaction, improved traction and longevity of the tires.”

“At the moment, there’s nothing so different or so new that dealers can’t service these tires with their existing equipment,” suggests Scott Sloan, Titan’s product engineering manager.

“Dealers need to continue to stay informed on these new technologies in order to recommend the right tire for the job. We also want dealers to be very vocal about any issues local farmers are having with tires, because we’re striving to take much more of a solutionsbased engineering approach.”

From the dealer side, says Rogers, “knowledge and service are still key.

Providing extended seasonal hours and having in-field service capabilities are critical; having the training to understand specific applications earns a customer trust and makes that dealer the expert in his area.”

“The best thing a dealer can do is to sell the right tire for the job and make all the appropriate recommendations for proper inflation and use,” says Walters. “Deliver a timely response when problems arise. And give good, honest advice, whether it’s repair or replacement. There’s no quick patch for broken trust.” ■ TireReview.com 45

TIRES

TIRE TECH

What Will RR Testing Prove?

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abels indicating fuel efficiency (rolling resistance), wet grip and noise are now mandatory on all replacement passenger tires sold in the European Union. The new EU label grades tires on a scale from “A” to “G” for fuel efficiency and wet stopping distance.

The Energy Act of 2007 required NHTSA to establish a national tire fuel efficiency consumer information program for replacement tires – testing and education on tire fuel efficiency, safety and durability.

In March 2010, NHTSA issued its “final rule” on the Tire Fuel Efficiency Consumer Information Program. The actual regulations are expected to be released within the next 12-18 months.

NHTSA plans to require some type of new tire label showing a grade for fuel efficiency (rolling resistance), safety (wet traction), and durability (treadwear). As you might tell, this is more about tire testing and performance measurement than it is about consumer education.

>TAKEAWAYS • ROLLING RESISTANCE MEASURE ALLOWS COMPARISON • CONSISTENT WITH EU TEST SYSTEM • 12-18 MONTHS UNTIL IMPLEMENTED IN FULL 46 January 2013 | TireReview

NHTSA fuel efficieny label scheme may not matter in not-so-perfect world

The fuel efficiency rating will be based on rolling resistance. NHTSA conducted a two-phase study to determine how it would rate rolling resistance. Phase 1 was an evaluation of laboratory test protocols, while Phase 2 examined the effects of tire rolling resistance levels on traction, treadwear and vehicle fuel economy.

Wet traction and treadwear ratings are part of the UTQG Standards already required by federal law and the tire labeling scheme will not change the existing UTQG test methods.

The new label will use different ratings than the present sidewall information, which will supposedly give consumers true apples-to-apples information so they can compare one tire to the next. If fuel efficiency is their concern, the grades should let them chose the tire that delivers the lowest rolling resistance. Same with “safety” and “durability.”

Rolling Resistance Factors Rolling resistance is the force required to move a loaded tire at a constant speed, on a level road in a straight line; it primarily is caused by the high hysteresis of rubber compounds.

Hysteresis is the characteristic of any material that causes the energy required to deform the material to be greater than the energy of its recovery. Rubber’s high hysteresis means it bounces back slowly and with more resistance than a material like steel that bounces back faster and more completely.

The combination of hysteresis, the tread’s interaction with the road surface, and cycling of the tire’s internal components as the tire rotates through

RICH ASHLEY Contributing Editor

repeated cycles of deformation and recovery produces rolling resistance.

The tread and its underlying plies are a tire’s heaviest and largest components and create most of its rolling resistance – typically about two-thirds of the total. The sidewall and bead area account for the remaining one-third.

Because larger tires contain more rubber and internal components than smaller tires, within one particular tire model line, larger sizes will have more rolling resistance than smaller sizes.

There are two principal standards for measuring rolling resistance: rolling resistance force and the rolling resistance coefficient. Rolling resistance force measures energy loss per unit of distance in pounds of resistance. By comparing rolling resistance force, tires of the same or different sizes can be readily and accurately compared.

The tire rolling resistance coefficient is calculated by dividing the measured rolling resistance force of a particular size tire by its load rating. Rolling resistance varies with the load on a tire, so tires with different load indexes are tested at different loads.

With rolling resistance coefficient, larger tires may have a lower rolling resistance coefficient than smaller tires, even though larger tires generally have higher rolling resistance forces. Consequently, rolling resistance coefficients only allow realistic comparisons among tires within a single size.

The NHTSA test will be based on calculated rolling resistance force using the ISO 28580 Draft International Standard the EU selected for its rolling resistance rating system. This should allow harmonization of the

U.S. and European standards and test practices.

RR and Fuel Economy Fuel economy is determined by a vehicle’s total resistance to movement, including aerodynamic drag, driveline friction, inertia, the grade of the roadway and tire rolling resistance. Typically, tire rolling resistance is only 15% of a vehicle’s total resistance in stopand-go driving. Driveline friction is the largest component at 45%, overcoming inertia represents 35% and aerodynamic drag 5%.

Once out on the highway in relatively steady speed conditions, tire rolling resistance generally represents about 25% of total rolling resistance while aerodynamic drag rises dramatically to about 60%. Driveline friction is only about 15% of the total and overcoming inertia is not a significant factor.

The impact of tire rolling resistance on fuel economy ranges from 4% in city driving to 7% on the highway. Auto manufacturers typically estimate that a 10% reduction in tire rolling resistance will result in a 1% to 2% improvement in vehicle fuel economy. NHTSA found that a 10% decrease in tire rolling resistance resulted in a 1.1% increase in fuel economy.

Vehicle manufacturers have continued to demand low rolling resistance tires as OE to help achieve CAFE standards. Tiremakers have responded with reduced weight tires molded with thinner sidewalls, shallower tread depths, and low rolling resistance tread with silica replacing carbon black.

Does It Really Matter?

How much of an actual difference is a set of these lower rolling resistance tires going to make to the consumer?

Consider a situation where low rolling resistance replacement tires have a huge 20% decrease in rolling resistance vs. the existing tires.

We need to multiply the portion of the tires’ influence on overall rolling resistance (15% city and 25% highway) by the 20% decrease in tire rolling resistance to calculate the potential change in miles per gallon.

If the vehicle previously provided 25 mpg in the city and 30 mpg on the highway, the calculated increase in fuel mileage for tires with 20% lower rolling resistance would be 3% (25.75 mpg) in city driving and 5% (31.5 mpg) on the

highway. A measurable difference, but there are some hurdles to achieving the calculated savings.

First, the new tires may not initially provide lower rolling resistance as fulltread tires generate more rolling resistance than worn tires. Because of the reduction in tread mass and hardening of the tread compound, tire rolling resistance usually drops 20% during a tire’s life. While the gradual reduction in rolling resistance and any subtle increase in fuel mileage probably went unnoticed, the installation of new tires (even with 20% lower rolling resistance) is likely to be a break-even and may even cause a decrease in fuel mileage.

Also, new, full-tread passenger car tires are typically 0.5-inch larger in diameter than identical worn-out tires. So the revolutions per mile for the new tire may cause the vehicle’s odometer to understate the actual miles driven by 1% to 2%, and fuel economy would appear to decline a like amount.

Finally, tires branded as the same size may vary in their specifications by manufacturer and model. Passenger car tires sometimes vary by as much as 0.2inch in diameter, with resulting differences in revolutions per mile. If a tire rolls fewer times per mile than the tire it replaces, the vehicle will actually be traveling farther than indicated by the odometer.

Individually, these factors are probably not significant. However, when added together, a consumer’s new low rolling resistance tires may not produce the expected improvement in fuel economy. If OE low rolling resistance tires were replaced, the new tires may even appear to reduce fuel mileage.

On the other hand, correct tire pressure may be as important as the tires themselves. A 20% reduction in inflation pressure (from 35 psi to 28 psi) may increase tire rolling resistance 10% or more resulting in a 1% to 2% reduction in fuel economy.

The key seems to be in understanding the numbers. Reductions in tire rolling resistance only reduce a portion of the vehicle’s total rolling resistance.

Valid comparisons between tires can only be made within a particular tire classification (e.g. standard touring vs. standard touring), and while lower rolling resistance tires can enhance fuel economy, the day-to-day difference is not large. ■ Rapid Response: 800-928-1184 ext. 46047 TireReview.com 47

TIRES

TRUCK

Maximize Removal Mileage T

he goal of fleets when it comes to their tire program is to maximize tire removal miles and fuel economy. This keeps the fleet maintenance budget and fuel costs in line.

To get optimum removal mileage, tires must wear smooth and evenly. If irregular wear develops, tire fuel economy will also suffer. Any signs of uneven and irregular wear should be considered an early warning sign that there are other issues – either with the vehicle or tire/wheel assembly – that need to be addressed.

This is why it is so important that tires are visually inspected on a regular basis. Such inspections are also important because, as we all know, steer, drive and trailer tires all have unique irregular wear issues that can develop.

Steer tires are the most sensitive when it comes to developing uneven wear. Shoulder step or more commonly called ‘chamfer wear,’ is where there is ‘step’ (depressed) wear in the shoulders. This is confined to the outer portion of the shoulder rib. It can occur in either one or both shoulders.

Tires run in line-haul operations tend to see this type of wear, especially if the specific tire tread pattern does not have a ‘defense’ or pressure distribution groove. This condition will not affect overall mileage or fuel economy, and it is not something that requires the tire to be replaced.

Full shoulder wear is another story.

This excessive wear extends over one or both shoulders, and is usually related to misalignment. If there is excessive axle toe-in, the outside shoulder of both steer tires will be worn. If there is too much toe-out, then the inside 48 January 2013 | TireReview

Staying ahead of irregular wear means understanding how and where it starts.

shoulder of both steer tires are worn.

If you find one steer tire has inside shoulder wear and the other steer tire has outside shoulder wear, then the diagnosis is the drive axles are misaligned. Sometimes poorly maintained

AL COHN Contributing Editor

Feather wear is also found on steer tires that have excessive toe and/or drive axle misalignment. Feather wear is the condition where each individual rib is worn high to low. Excessive side force scrubbing is the cause of feather

The most important tool in a tire tech’s arsenal is a good tread depth gauge. It’s the best way to gauge irregular wear patterns.

suspension components can produce similar tire results. On rare occasions, improperly seated beads will also lead to the same irregular shoulder wear.

Another alignment-related condition that is common for steer tires is ‘one-sided’ wear. This is defined as excessive or fast wear extending from one shoulder gradually to the other shoulder. Drive axle misalignment is usually the culprit. If you measure the tread depth in each groove and the measurement keeps getting smaller, then you know it is time to check the vehicle alignment.

wear and this not only affects tire removal miles, but fuel economy is also significantly reduced.

If you find tires that have shoulder cupping that creates a scalloped appearance then this indicates an out-ofbalance condition. If the tire is also underinflated, this can magnify this problem. Too much wheel-end bearing play will also contribute to this shoulder cupping condition. You will need to diagnose this imbalance condition, which may include the wheel, hub, and/or brake drum.

Depressed rib wear or punch wear

■ TIRES: can be found on steer tires that are run underinflated. Improper tire bead seating and assembly out-of-balance can also generate this tread condition.

Usually one rib is depressed compared to an adjacent rib. It is an easy condition to spot. Maintaining proper tire inflation pressure based on the load will usually minimize this condition.

Drives & Superwides There are many different drive tire tread patterns available in the market.

The common denominator is the lugs.

If there is rapid shoulder wear on only the inside shoulder of an inside dual tire then negative axle camber under full load may be a contributing factor.

Axle-flex under load and misadjusted bearings need to be checked. Also, if there is uneven inflation pressure between the duals, this can also lead to this condition.

If you have a vehicle running superwide tires on the drive position and both shoulders have fast wear then the tires are overinflated. Superwide tires are sensitive to running at pressures based on the load. When you add too much air, the shoulders are not in contact with the ground, which leads to shoulder scuffing and fast shoulder wear.

Heel/toe wear is found on dual drive tires that have mismatched tires and/or mismatched inflation pressures. Heel/toe wear can be described where each lug is worn high to low from the front to back edge. This condition is very easy to eliminate. Ensure that when you replace only one tire of a set of duals that the overall circumference is as similar as possible. The worst case scenario is installing a new drive tire next to a worn drive tire. If the overall circumferences and tire

>TAKEAWAYS • IRREGULAR WEAR IS A TIREKILLER FOR FLEETS • ID-ING IRREGULAR WEAR LEADS TO RIGHT SOLUTION • DRIVERS, ALIGNMENT ARE OFTEN CHIEF CULPRITS

pressures are not equivalent then the heel/toe wear will become more severe.

Alternate lug wear is another irregular wear condition found on drive tires. It is caused by the same conditions just described regarding heel/toe wear.

When it comes to trailer tires there many irregular wear conditions that develop simply because this is the most neglected of all wheel positions.

Many fleets do not own their own trailers and, as a result, are not checking tire pressures and conditions on a regular basis and have minimal visual inspections.

If you see a tire with a localized spot of excessive wear across the tread face that may even extend into the casing, then this is considered a brake skid. New brakes, aggressive use of brakes, and driver abuse such as using only trailer brakes to stop a vehicle will all lead to brake skids. Driver education will help minimize this condition.

Diagonal wear is represented by localized flat spots worn diagonally across the tread.

These diagonal spots will repeat around the tire. In most cases this condition develops as a result of a minor brake skid and progressively gets worse. This can also occur because of loose wheel bearing and a toe-out condition.

The two irregular wear conditions for trailer tires directly related to alignment issues are rapid wear on one shoulder and onesided wear. Excessive camber will lead to rapid shoulder on one shoulder. Onesided wear – the measured tread depth of each groove diminishes as you go across

TRUCK

the tread surface – is usually caused by too much toe. Very few fleets actually check trailer alignment but if you come across either of these two irregular wear conditions then it is an early warning sign to perform a trailer alignment.

Another common condition seen in trailer tires is called multiple flat spot wear. There are numerous areas worn around the tire. These tires just look ugly. When trailer tires are not maintained for inflation pressure, mismatched inflation pressures, driver abuse of trailer brakes, and empty loads all contribute to this trailer tire irregular wear.

Training drivers and vehicle service technicians to visually inspect tires and measure inflation pressure on a regular basis is the best way to identify irregular wear conditions at an early stage.

Understanding the probable causes of the specific irregular wear condition will allow your fleet customers to make the proper vehicle corrections to ensure that they maximize tire removal miles and fuel economy. ■

Rapid Response: 800-928-1184 ext. 46049 TireReview.com 49

SOLUTIONS

SPOTLIGHT

Product Spotlight Dealer Software Technology Whether it’s the click of a mouse or a finger swipe across a tablet or smartphone, technology is changing the way tire dealers run their businesses. Dealers need to access their shop information seamlessly, from anywhere and from any device – and many of the latest software developments provide just that, and more. Cloud storage service, mobile applications and easy online shopping tools are some of the latest features in dealer software technology.

TIRE COMPANY SOLUTIONS As a premier technology provider in the industry, TCS said it understands what tire dealers and automotive centers need to run a business effectively and efficiently. Among many new features, Tire Power software provides single click access to tire and part data, labor lookup, vehicle and TPMS info and parts ordering. Additionally, the latest software includes distributor integrated tire lookup and direct ordering, as well as customer information enhancements, including vehicle data lookup and marketing efficiencies. tcstire.com Rapid Response: www.TRRapidResponse.com/46150 Or call 800-928-1184 – Ext. 46150

FREEDOMSOFT TireShop is the latest tire store management software from Freedomsoft. It is designed for speed, efficiency and exceptional ease of use, according to the company. TireShop is a full-featured program for full service shops. It is tire store software, auto repair software, and quick lube software all in one. tireshop.info Rapid Response: www.TRRapidResponse.com/46151 Or call 800-928-1184 – Ext. 46151

50 January 2013 | TireReview

■ SOLUTIONS:

SPOTLIGHT

NET DRIVEN

AFTERSOFT

The Net Driven Service Center represents a significant upgrade, the company said, and features thousands of new automotive illustrations, hundreds of new service descriptions, online customer quoting and enhanced service scheduling, specials/coupon integration, search engine optimized content and is GPS-enabled.

The Net Driven Service Center represents “our continued commitment to delivering the most cutting-edge effective Internet marketing solutions to the automotive industry,” the company noted. netdriven.com

Aftersoft provides point-of-sale, retread and e-commerce software to retail, wholesale and commercial tire dealers and retreaders. VAST Enterprise point-of-sale is used by some of the largest and most successful tire dealers in North America, according to Aftersoft. VAST ItemBroker allows dealers to shop online for parts, showing multiple vendor costs and availability from one screen. Also new is the Warehouse Management Software module, which provides comprehensive functionality from product receiving and put-away to picking and shipment. VAST is used by over 1,900 customer locations across North America. aftersoftna.com

Rapid Response: www.TRRapidResponse.com/46152 Or call 800-928-1184 – Ext. 46152

Rapid Response: www.TRRapidResponse.com/46153 Or call 800-928-1184 – Ext. 46153

ANDREOLI & ASSOCIATES The Bay Management module of the cloud-based HITS BPOS point-of-sale software enables rapid identification of open bay times and quick creation of repair orders that are automatically populated with date, time and bay from a calendarbay grid, according to Andreoli & Associates. Bay Management within HITS BPOS is designed to enhance efficiency and workflow by allowing shop associates to work off the same calendar-bay grid. At any time, everyone in the shop knows what work is going on, in which bays, when, and for how long. aasys.com Rapid Response: www.TRRapidResponse.com/46154 Or call 800-928-1184 – Ext. 46154

Rapid Response: 800-928-1184 ext. 46051

TireReview.com 51

■ SOLUTIONS:

SPOTLIGHT

MADDEN CO. MaddenCo has unveiled the company’s new mobile suite, including MciFleet, which allows salesmen and/or customers to review fleet status, retreads, orders and other customer account information. Additionally, MciDelivery captures signatures on a smartphone at the time of delivery to the customer while text messaging allows salesmen to text customers from the point-of-sale counter. The mobile suites are available for iPhone, Android and BlackBerry smartphones. maddenco.com Rapid Response: www.TRRapidResponse.com/46155 Or call 800-928-1184 – Ext. 46155

AUTOWARE TECHNOLOGIES AutoWare Technologies has launched the recently updated NextWheels online e-commerce program at jegs.com. Customers can now buy custom wheels and tires directly through the NextWheels online program, after they have visually previewed exactly how the wheels and tires will look on their vehicle. With a simple click of the “check price and availability” button, the program will guide users through the selection of the wheel and tires, according to the manufacturer. The wheels and tires are then added directly to the existing shopping cart. jegs.com Rapid Response: www.TRRapidResponse.com/46156 Or call 800-928-1184 – Ext. 46156

52 January 2013 | TireReview

■ SOLUTIONS: ASA AUTOMOTIVE SYSTEMS The Tiremaster family of software products has introduced the next generation of innovation for ASA Automotive Systems, including web-based applications running in the cloud for all mobile devices, including tablets, PCs, laptops and smartphones. Tiremaster software is comprised of a series of interfaced modules that can be tailored to meet the point-of-sale, inventory management, order processing, accounting, marketing and e-commerce needs of any size retail, wholesale or commercial tire dealer or auto repair shop. asaautomotive.com

SPOTLIGHT

WECNOLOGY WECnology offers a full array of reputation marketing products including mobile marketing with MobiText to create a VIP loyalty club to keep customers coming back. MobiText creates mobile coupons, text messages nad full landing pages with graphics, as well as conducting polls, questionnaires, and text-2-win contests. In addition, the tire dealer software tracks mobile loyalty user programs. wecnology.com Rapid Response: www.TRRapidResponse.com/46158 Or call 800-928-1184 – Ext. 46158

Rapid Response: www.TRRapidResponse.com/46157 Or call 800-928-1184 – Ext. 46157

E-SOLUTION PROFESSIONALS E-Solution Professionals has launched the latest release of its popular Ezytire product – Ezytire mobile. Ezytire’s mobile website is enabled free of charge on all Ezytire websites and allows consumers to view inventory, pricing, place orders and contact the store directly from their mobile devices. E-Solution Professionals develops e-commerce applications for the tire industry including Tireweb, Tirelibrary, Ezytire and Wheelweb. eztire.com Rapid Response: www.TRRapidResponse.com/46159 Or call 800-928-1184 – Ext. 46159

Rapid Response: 800-928-1184 ext. 46063

Rapid Response: 800-928-1184 ext. 46053

TireReview.com 53

SOLUTIONS

PRODUCTS

Hot New Products Performance Balancer Bosch has released the WBE 4430 high performance wheel balancer, featuring integral wheel illumination. According to Bosch, the WBE 4430 includes high performance low taper mounting adaptors for more accurate and repeatable mounting. A laser indicator and self-locking weight application are help to increase weight placement accuracy and ensures that the weight is placed at the proper location every time. bosch.com Rapid Response: www.TRRapidResponse.com/46160 Or call 800-928-1184 – Ext. 46160 Online Marketing The Kukui online marketing suite offers clean, powerful website designs, optimized to boost conversion rates as well as search engine rankings, according to the maker. The simple-to-use content management system is included with every website and is integrated with a tire dealer’s POS system, enabling owners to see their marketing ROI. Additionally, it helps owners effortlessly improve customer relationships through service reminders, emails, blogs and customer review posts. kukui.com Rapid Response: www.TRRapidResponse.com/46161 Or call 800-928-1184 – Ext. 46161 Skid Steer Tire The Galaxy Muddy Buddy from the Alliance Tire Group introduces a super-deeptread design to the Alliance lineup of skid steer tires. The Muddy Buddy’s new extradeep tread, shallow lug angle and sharp shoulders provide better traction on slick or slushy surfaces, and offer more high-durability rubber for longer service life, according to ATG. Additionally, the Muddy Buddy is ideal for the construction industry, which enhances skid steer performance in muddy conditions and on uneven surfaces. atgtire.com Rapid Response: www.TRRapidResponse.com/46162 Or call 800-928-1184 – Ext. 46162 Police Pads ACDelco is adding a proprietary surface coating to its police brake pads to help reduce the break-in period and improves pre-burnish brake effectiveness. According to ACDelco, the coating is designed specifically for police ap54 January 2013 | TireReview

plications and is suitable for both patrol and high-speed pursuit situations. The newly coated pads provide coverage for Chevrolet Caprice, Impala and Tahoe; Ford Crown Victoria and Interceptor; and Dodge Charger police vehicles. acdelco.com Rapid Response: www.TRRapidResponse.com/46163 Or call 800-928-1184 – Ext. 46163 Tire Printer LAC tire printer is based on unique inkjet technology and offers excellent printing quality in full color, according to the company. Printed images will be durable for one year and its printing speed is 6 to 7 minutes on average for one sidewall. accorp.com Rapid Response: www.TRRapidResponse.com/46164 Or call 800-928-1184 – Ext. 46164 Heavy-Duty Synthetic The Shell Rotella T6 0W-40 is the latest product now available from Shell Lubricants. The full synthetic heavy-duty diesel engine oil is designed for extreme cold conditions by using free flowing synthetic base oils that allow reliable pumping on start-up under extreme cold climate conditions. It also remains thick enough under high temperature operation to protect against engine wear, according to Shell. rotella.com Rapid Response: www.TRRapidResponse.com/46165 Or call 800-928-1184 – Ext. 46165 Bead Expander Ken-Tool recently introduced the new T131 utility tire pneumatic bead expander (31431). According to Ken Tool, this product was designed to save time for both service tractor shop technicians who have difficulty getting 10- to 22-inch diameter utility tires to seat on the wheel rim. Weighing just two pounds, the T131 uses an internal heavy-duty neoprene rubber tube featuring an internal over-pressure relief valve that protects the expander from accidental over inflation.

Additionally, it can handle shop air pressures up to 150 psi. kentool.com Rapid Response: www.TRRapidResponse.com/46166 Or call 800-928-1184 – Ext. 46166

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www.newwheel.com or 800-486-0931 TireReview.com 55

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■ COMMENTARY: Continued from page 60 the pizza with a fork. “Care for some soggy pizza?”

“Naw, I’ll pass.” Riley topped up his travel mug and carried it over to the office door. He peeked into the bays. “Hey, is that a 3.8 in the car Beanie’s working on?”

I nodded. “We replaced the upper intake plenum – leaking coolant into the cylinders.”

Riley chuckled. “Another connecting rod bites the dust.”

I snapped my head around, almost dropping my fork. “What do you mean by that?”

He shrugged. “Just that almost every 3.8 I ever saw in our rebuild shop came in with a bent con rod caused by a leaky plenum. You know – hydro-locking and all that.” He slurped some coffee and grimaced.

“Sheesh, got anything to neutralize this wicked brew?”

“We used to,” I said dejectedly, “but donuts are off the menu right now. Care for some Parmesan cheese?”

After Riley left, I went to find Basil.

“Is it possible for a bent rod to cause a miss at idle, but not at higher speed?”

Basil tugged his left earlobe thoughtfully. “It’s possible. I wouldn’t bet the farm on this, but the theory is that because the bent connecting rod shortens the stroke, the piston has already gone past TDC by the time the spark fires.

Therefore, the ECM sees this as a misfire. But when the timing advance kicks in at higher rpm, the cylinder begins to contribute enough to smooth things out.”

We had Beanie check the compression, and sure enough, No. 2 cylinder was slightly lower than all the rest.

With a borescope we also could see that the piston wasn’t coming up as high as it used to. “I don’t think our customer is going to be happy about this,” said Beanie.

Basil rubbed his chin. “In the future, it might be a good idea to do a compression test on these leaky plenum jobs before we go any further.”

All of a sudden, the smoke alarm went off as smoke poured into the shop. Tooner burst through lunchroom door, a tray of flaming pizza in his gloved hands. “Fire in the hole!” he hollered as he crashed through the

outside door and into a snow bank.

Apparently, he’d snuck in and turned up the temperature setting on the toaster oven when I wasn’t looking, and then forgot about it.

“Sheesh,” said Beanie in surprise.

“Ashes Monday again, and it’s not even Tooner’s turn.” ■

THE CAR SIDE

Rick Cogbill, a freelance writer and former shop owner in Summerland, B.C., has written The Car Side for a variety of trade magazines for the past 14 years.

“A Fine Day for a Drive,” his first book based on the characters from this column, is now available for order at thecarside.com.

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COMMENTARY THE CAR SIDE

Trials of a Miss-Bent Youth W

ell, Beanie, what did you bring us today?” I tucked a leftover Christmas napkin under my chin in anticipation. “And hurry it up…I’m hungry.”

Basil nodded in agreement as he added a touch of honey to his tea.

“After last week’s disaster…” – he glanced significantly in Tooner’s direction – “…I’m looking forward to today’s offering. Hopefully, it’s not a burnt one.”

“Hey, watch it,” growled Tooner. “Keep this up and you’ll get nothing from me but store-bought junk.”

Not a bad idea, I thought.

Last week, Tooner had tried to bake cookies in our microwave using a metal cookie tray, and almost burnt the shop down in the process. As a result, we now refer to his day as Ashes Monday.

The crew at Slim Shambles Tire & Auto Repair had made a New Year’s Resolution – instead of buying greasy donuts once a week, we’d take turns bringing goodies for coffee break. This week it was Snacks à la Chef Bean.

Beanie colored slightly as he opened up a large paper bag. “I apologize, guys, but I was too busy to cook this weekend. So I just grabbed something out of the freezer.” He plunked a frozen pizza on the table and stared at it. “My mother gave it to me two months ago. I guess I should have given it a few minutes in the microwave, huh?”

Basil sighed and reached for his lunch kit. “It’s those late nights 60 January 2013 | TireReview

Microwave and frozen pizza prove as big of a challenge as misfiring Chevy Impala

again, isn’t it, Beanie? When are you going to start keeping sensible hours?”

Tooner snorted. “Sensible? These rowdy young upstarts don’t know the meanin’ of the word. I’m tellin’ ya, Bean, quit partyin’ yer life away or you’ll end up a loser!” He waggled an arthritic finger in Beanie’s direction. “An’ I speak from experience.”

“Hey,” protested Beanie. “I wasn’t

partying. Samantha dragged me to a bowling marathon with all her friends. I was throwing gutter balls until 4 a.m.!”

The pizza wasn’t getting any warmer, so I removed the napkin and changed the subject. “How’s that intake job coming Beanie?

Surely you must have it running by now.”

A 2002 Chevy Impala with a 3.8L V6 had been hibernating in Beanie’s bay for the past two days, suffering from a bad case of upper plenum replacement. The EGR port had

RICK COGBILL aka Slim Shambles Contributing Writer

melted, allowing engine coolant to leak into the combustion chambers.

It was a common complaint with this motor. At first, our apprentice had welcomed the challenge, but now he wasn’t so sure.

Beanie sank back in his chair.

“I’ve got it back together, but it has a misfire at idle on cylinder No. 2.” He frowned. “The funny part is, once I raise it off idle, it smooths out.”

Tooner chewed on a piece of beef jerky, the only treat he could find in his brown paper lunch bag. “Have ya checked for fouled spark plugs, or tried swappin’ the injectors around?”

Beanie nodded. “Done all that. Checked the whole ignition system, as well.” He sighed. “Got any other suggestions?”

We put together a list of things to check that included cleaning the MAF sensor, flushing the injectors, checking the O2 sensor action, and even pulling off the valve covers to check for broken springs. As he shuffled off to continue his testing, I threw his frozen pizza in the toaster oven – I wasn’t taking any chances with the microwave. With any luck it’d be thawed out by noon.

A little later, Re-man Riley stopped by for a late coffee, a good indication things were slow over at Block Busters, the rebuild shop where he worked.

“What’s cooking today, Slim?”

“Not much,” I replied, poking at Continued on page 59

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