Titan Tests New 63-Inch Tyre

Titan International subsidiary Titan Tire Corporation reports it has begun testing its new 63-inch tyre on the company’s newly constructed 24-foot bull wheel. The first 63-inch tyre, built in February 2008, is approximately just over four metres in total diameter and weighs approximately 5.45 tonnes. Titan will test the 63-inch tyre on the bull wheel, loaded with up to 226 tonnes at a speed of up to 45 miles per hour, and this testing will confirm the tyre’s casing and its heat characteristics. Ten days of testing is equivalent to a year of field use, and will allow Titan to know how it will perform before volume production begins.

“There were many who doubted Titan’s ability to produce and test this tyre,” said Titan Chairman and CEO Maurice M. Taylor Jr. “Never underestimate a small entrepreneurial company. This tyre has surpassed all of Titan’s expectations.”

Titan wishes to acknowledge the work of a number of employees that contributed to the rapid completion of the bull wheel project: Dan Kayser, manufacturing engineering manager; Todd Fetter, product engineer; Rich Sibbing, product engineer; Wayne Whittaker, manufacturing engineer; Jim Reed, electronics technician; Greg Heindselman, electrical supervisor; Dave Kuhl, product engineering director; and Dave White, maintenance manager. “We thank this team for all the work they’ve done, and for bringing the project in under the $8 million that was allotted,” said Taylor. “When all components are installed, which will happen by the end of May, the new bull wheel will test two giant tyres at a time.”