Those of you with 7.5t lorries...

JennBags

JennBags

HHOSS Wonder Woman
Joined
21 May 2002
Messages
18,416
Location
West Sussex
Visit site
...how do you handle getting your tyre pressures checked and inflated? With my car, I tend to check & re-fill them every couple of months, but I rarely do the lorry as I'm pretty sure I can't use a normal petrol station air-pump (they only go up to about 60psi). I've taken my lorry down to the local lorry garage place a couple of times, but I don't really use them for the mechanics so I feel I'm taking the pee as they never charge me (I always offer). The guy who does my plating and servicing is quite a lot further away so I don't really want to be running it over to him every couple of months.

I'm also not sure what psi they should be inflated to, although I'm quite a practical person, I do feel a bit pathetic when it comes to this and I'd like to get myself sorted, so if anyone can offer me any help, I would much appreciate it :)
 
Look around the rim of your tyres, the psi will be on there. I generally pump mine to 85 psi as I usually only carry one horse. I find the bigger service stations that have separate lorry diesel pumps, usually have their own inflators that go up to a decent amount.
 
I either pull in to the tyre place I use when I pass it or I pay them to come out and do it and at the same time they check the tractor the trailers and everything else .
They don't charge me as I we get them to do all our tyres .
 
I struck up a nice arrangement with my tyre people that they check the pressures in exchange for cakes :-) Plus they know I'll bring it in / call them out when I need them properly.
 
Generally they need to be between 85 and 95 psi, ask your mechanic for your lorry most normal pumps at garages will not go up to that.
I have a compressor that I use to check mine, cost around £100
 
Brill thanks some good ideas there :) It says up to 90psi on my tyres, but wasn't sure if that's what it should be inflated to or not, so I think I'll go with the 85 suggested by cundlegreen. Also didn't think to check at the bigger service stations with separate HGV diesel pumps. I have no idea where I'd get new (lorry) tyres from, god that sounds so dippy, it's something I'd rely on my mechanic to sort at plating time :o
 
Look in your yellow pages and phone a few places asking if they would supply and fit hgv tyres. Or ask your mechanic for the details of who he uses.
Having a tyre man on side can save you a lot of money! I had what I thought was a slow puncture in one of my tyres. Taking it to my mechanic would have ment time off work, paying for mechanics time (at £75 an hour) and then for him to source new tyre add his profit on top, then fit the tyre. Invariably a mechanic then finds something that absolutely must be fixed!
So bill of around £300.
Took it to my tyre man, they diagnosed a leaky valve, replaced the valve and checked the pressure in all the other tyres for me. Took an hour on a Saturday morning and they charged me £25
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top