Purcell Tire & Service in Fernley, NV

High ambient temperatures and long runs are hard on tires in a way that shows up as failures rather than as wear.

Heat is what breaks a tire down internally, and the thing that generates it is an under-inflated tire flexing. A tire running low in cool weather survives; the same tire running low across a hot desert highway does not. For a fleet, that makes pressure discipline the single most useful habit, more useful than any purchasing decision.

The same logic applies to air conditioning on the vehicles themselves. A system low on refrigerant runs its compressor without proper lubrication, and summer is the worst time to find that out.

Casings collected here go to the Purcell retread plant in Salt Lake City, the nearest of the seven, and come back ready to run.

What ends a casing is almost always heat, a tire run flat, or damage left unrepaired. On a hot corridor all three are easier to come by, which makes catching them early worth more here than it would be elsewhere. See retreading.

A unit leaving here is often not stopping again for a while, which makes the pre-trip walk round worth more than it is in a city.

Five things that account for most roadside calls on this kind of route:

• Pressure on every position, cold. Including the inside duals, which is where nobody looks.
• Tread and sidewalls, for cuts, bulges and anything embedded.
• Valve stems and caps, which fail quietly and cost a tire.
• Wheel nuts, particularly on a unit that has recently had tires fitted.
• The spare, if the unit carries one, which is useless at the pressure it has been sitting at for a year.

None of that takes long. All of it is cheaper than a stop in the heat with a load on.