Mike Henry, transportation manager for the Royal Valley School District, has a challenge: Keep 17 International IC, 72-passenger school buses running efficiently in a rural area that consists of 70 percent limestone gravel roads. And cover the 160-mile radius — which means some kids have to travel an hour each way to school — with no downtime.

“We service families in Hoyt and Mayetta (Kansas) which has a total population base of around 800,” said Henry. “And, the houses and farms are spread out. So, our buses go quite a distance on roads that really chew up tires. Limestone roads will do that.”

According to Henry, those roads provide a triple challenge for his staff. Not only is tread life about half of what a school bus fleet would typically achieve if it ran on paved roads, but the rural roads can cause rock damage to tires, plus, nails, screws, and other sharp tire-destroying items can mix in with the gravel, causing flats.

“Before we changed our tire program, we were seeing two to three flats per month on our steer tires, and about 40 percent of our tires were coming off early due to rock damage,” recalled Henry. “And, when you consider less mileage due to the gravel roads, our little school district was paying a high number in tire costs as compared to other school districts. And, we weren’t using cheap tires either. We were using a top brand name.”

A switch to Goodyear tires brought immediate paybacks and a 30 percent reduction in the school district’s tire budget. Working with the Wingfoot commercial tire dealer in Topeka, about 15 miles south of Mayetta, the school district began using tires with compounds and tread designs that could hold up better to the grind of limestone. And, puncture-resistant Goodyear tires with DuraSeal Technology has helped put an end to flat tires.

“We started with Goodyear’s G164, but have since gone with newer technology through the G622 in the drive position,” said Henry. “We are also using the G287 with DuraSeal in the steer position of all our buses. We’re paying a little more for the tires with DuraSeal, but they help us avoid flats and they help eliminate the hour or two it used to take us to do a tire replacement on the road. When we did have flats, either the kids would have to wait for us to get the tire changed, or we’d run another school bus out to transfer them. Now, we don’t have that problem.”

Goodyear’s DuraSeal Technology is a gel-like, solvent-free compound built into the inner liner of the tire. It can instantly and consistently seal punctures up to ¼-inch in the tread area, without the need to repair the tire until it is retreaded. This allows drivers to continue operating after a tire is punctured. (It does not seal sidewall punctures.)

While downtime due to flats has all but been eliminated, the district has reduced its costs even further thanks to longer tread life and less premature tire failures due to rock damage.

“The compounding is so much better in the Goodyear tires,” said Henry. “We were averaging 30,000 to 40,000 miles on our tires, but now we’re getting 40,000 to 50,000 with the G622s, and an average of 50,000 miles on the G287s. For us, that’s phenomenal, especially when you factor in we’re no longer having to pull tires early due to rock damage.”

According to Simone Conny, manager for the Wingfoot tire dealership in Topeka, the G287 MSA is not your typical school bus tire, but it was the right choice for the Royal Valley School District in the steer position. “It’s an on/off highway mixed service all-position tire with tough compounding and penetration protectors to help ward off stone issues,” he said. “And, since they were having problems with flats, our DuraSeal Technology really made a great deal of sense for them.

“The G622 RSD, which they use in the drive position, is more of a conventional school bus tire with special compounding to help ward off damage from scrubbing and curbing. The open lug design of the tires means excellent traction in wet and snowy conditions, plus the 28/32-inch tread depth helps increase miles to removal.”

According to Henry, both the G287 MSA and G622 RSD do a great job of fighting irregular wear. “That was another problem we were having with our previous tire,” he said. “But the design of the Goodyears has really allowed us to have uniform wear so we don’t have to rotate tires as often.”

Up until the district began its program with Goodyear, a retread program was not even considered. “We would always trade in the casings for credit,” said Henry. “And some of our casings were shot due to stone drilling. But with the success we were having with the Goodyear tires, we decided to give retreading a try.”

Today, the district retreads its G622 RSD drive tires. It also retreads the G287 MSAs with DuraSeal Technology, with G622 retread patterns to match its other drive tires.

Henry reported that the retreads are getting the same miles to removal as the original tread. When retreading the G287 MSAs, the DuraSeal liner remains in place during the retreading process. This gives the district added flat protection in the “new” retreaded drive tires. “All told, we’ve been getting two to three retreads per tire, which is a huge cost saving for us,” said Henry. “We’ve been very impressed with the performance of the retread program.”

To complete the revamped tire program, Henry and his crew keep inflation levels on the tires at 110 psi. Drivers inspect the tires every day and full inflation checks are conducted every time the buses are in for service. When tread depth gets down to 6- to 8/32nds, the tires are pulled and sent to Goodyear for retreading. “In a normal school bus operation, you could run the tires down a bit more before retreading,” said Henry. “But we like to be more conservative and pull the tires a bit early to ensure we don’t lose a casing due to rock damage.”

As the district enters its seventh year with Goodyear, Henry is all smiles. “We’ve really turned the corner with our tire program,” he said. “We’ve reduced our operating cost by 30 percent and we no longer have to worry about our kids being stranded on a bus waiting for a tire to be changed out. We have our challenges here, but tires are no longer one of them.”