Purcell Tire & Service in Kansas City, MO

A truck running long distances out of a hub wears tires in a way that is entirely predictable and almost entirely preventable.

Heavy-duty truck alignment deals with the tractor. Trailer alignment deals with what is behind it, and a trailer that tracks crooked drags the tractor's drives sideways for every loaded mile while the driver feels nothing.

Two rules follow. Align before fitting a new set rather than after, because otherwise the new tires spend their first miles correcting the problem that destroyed the old ones. Then align the unit rather than the vehicle: doing the tractor and leaving the trailer fixes only the half you can see.

Casings collected here are retreaded at the Purcell plant in Potosi and returned ready to run.

The number worth asking about is what proportion of your casings currently passes inspection. If it is low, the cause is usually tires being run flat or damage going unrepaired rather than anything about the tires themselves. See retreading.

Wheel refurbishing is the service on this list that fleets most often overlook, and the one that most often explains a problem nobody can find.

Corrosion where the tire bead sits against the wheel creates a path for air to escape. The tire holds pressure for a while and then does not, and the leak is invisible because it is hidden behind the tire. A fleet chasing slow leaks across a set of trailers is frequently chasing wheel condition rather than tire damage.

Refurbishing deals with the corrosion, the pitting and the old coatings, and returns the wheel to service for a fraction of replacement. What it cannot fix is a wheel that is cracked or badly bent, and a store that tells you so is doing the right thing.