CITY OF INDUSTRY, Calif., March 30, 2011 – Utility Trailer Manufacturing Company, the industry’s largest manufacturer of refrigerated trailers and a leading manufacturer of dry freight vans, flatbeds, and Tautliner® curtainsided trailers announces Hendrickson’s TIREMAAX PRO as an option for all model refrigerated trailers, dry vans, flatbeds and Tautliners.
TIREMAAX PRO is the first automatic tire inflation system in the trailer industry to provide constant pressure with active inflation, deflation and equalizing. In addition to automatic inflation, TIREMAAX PRO responds to changes in outside temperature by relieving air from tires when necessary. The system also equalizes the tire pressures across all wheel positions.
TIREMAAX PRO utilizes an integrated hubcap design that incorporates a custom valve for each tire position. During operation, these valves remain open to allow airflow to and from the tires. This feature provides the ability to control the maximum operating pressure of the tires.
Utility Trailer Manufacturing Co. is aggressively promoting the system to customers looking for tighter management of air pressures in their tires, especially for customers running wide base singles, such as Michelin’s X-One. Wide base singles are susceptible to “step up” in tire pressure, to levels that can cause uneven tire wear. Utility has found that over-inflation has been the primary cause of the wear with wide base single tires.
“At Utility we are running a test fleet of 63 trailers with wide base single tires and are seeing that by keeping the cold tire pressure closer to the tire manufacturers’ recommendation, by adding the TIREMAAX PRO system, that tire life was extended measurably” stated Craig Bennett, Senior Vice President of Sales & Marketing at Utility.
Other key features of Hendrickson’s TIREMAAX PRO include internal axle hoses, axle vent and Hendrickson’s precision spindle nut. The internal axle hoses and axle vent maintain the “hospital clean” wheel-end environment by venting remotely from the hubcap. The Hendrickson spindle nut enables precision bearing adjustment, is easy to re-torque in the field and all components can be re-used.
“We are excited to provide our customers a new option to reduce users’ number two maintenance cost next to fuel. Maintaining recommended tire pressure using TIREMAAX PRO will result in improved tire wear.” said Mr. Bennett.
For more information about Utility Trailer Manufacturing, visit: www.utilitytrailer.com.