We Keep The Transportation Industry Rolling and Safe. Home Locations About Us Services Welcome to the STO Blog! Winter is Coming! Be Prepared! Nov. 10, 2021 — Like it or not, winter is coming. In fact, this week is Winter Weather Preparedness Week in Michigan and Indiana and next week in Ohio. At Shrader Tire & Oil, we believe in being prepared and ready for all types of weather – fog, freezing rain, snow, ice, extreme cold, high winds and, yes, blizzard conditions. Storms and icy conditions can create a higher risk of vehicle accidents, hypothermia, and frostbite. Know what to do before winter weather threatens: Ensure your vehicles are prepped and conditioned before the severe weather hits. Ask your Shrader representative about the winter chemicals you need. Pay attention to weather reports and warnings of freezing weather and winter storms. Create an emergency supply kit for your vehicle. And stay informed about potential weather changes. We can’t avoid Winter, especially here in the Midwest. But, we can all take necessary steps to stay safe! November Sales & Promotions Click here for a look at November sales and promotions by STO! National Teen Driver Safety Week October 18, 2021 – October 17-23 is National Teen Driver Safety Week. At Shrader Tire and Oil, we support efforts that encourage parents to have important conversations with their teenage drivers about distracted driving, drinking and driving, wearing seat belts and being aware of speeding. The right to drive comes with responsibility and STO supports National Teen Driver Safety Week! Road to Zero: A Plan to Eliminate Roadway Deaths October 18, 2021 — The Road to Zero Coalition, managed by the National Safety Council, released a comprehensive report laying out strategies to end roadway deaths in the U.S. by 2050. It is the first time so many organizations have collaborated to put forth a plan to address motor vehicle fatalities, which recently increased after years of decline. The Coalition, in a report written by the RAND Corporation, a nonprofit, nonpartisan research institution, identified three main initiatives to reduce roadway fatalities: Double down on what works through proven, evidence-based strategies Advance life-saving technology in vehicles and infrastructure Prioritize safety by adopting a safe systems approach and creating a positive safety culture In the short term, the report stresses enforcing and strengthening current traffic safety laws, providing new resources for traffic safety researchers and practitioners, and supporting those who design and build roads and vehicles. While widespread use of fully automated vehicles is still decades away, the Coalition proposes accelerating the benefits of new technologies by creating partnerships between public safety and health groups, and industry professionals. The report encourages fostering a safety culture and adopting a Safe Systems approach. Many businesses have improved fatality and injury rates by adopting a safety culture, and a number of cities have adopted a Vision Zero strategy incorporating the Safe Systems approach that accommodates human error. But to be fully effective, these ideas need to spread across the country. “The safe systems approach has saved lives in other countries. Sweden reduced the number of traffic deaths by more than half since the approach was introduced,” said Liisa Ecola, a senior policy analyst at RAND and lead author of the report. “This shows that we in the U.S. can make large strides in traffic safety with existing technologies and policies.” October Sales & Promotions Click here for a link to October’s specials and promotions! September Fleet Sheet is Here! The September, 2021, issue of Fleet Sheet is here. Click here for the link and to learn how to sign up for it monthly and have it delivered directly to your e-mail. Brake Safety Week Offers Important Reminders for Commercial Vehicle Operators Aug. 24, 2021 – Properly functioning brake systems are crucial to safe commercial motor vehicle operation. To bring more awareness to the importance of brake safety, the Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance (CVSA) has declared this week Brake Safety Week. Throughout the week, inspectors will conduct North American Standard Inspections of commercial motor vehicles, focusing on the vehicle’s brake systems and components. In addition, inspectors will compile data on brake hoses/tubing, the focus area for this year’s Brake Safety Week, to submit to the Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance (CVSA). CVSA will report its findings later this year. There’s no denying the importance of brake safety: During the 2020 International Roadcheck, brake adjustment violations accounted for 38.6 percent of all vehicle out-of-service violations, more than any other category. A look at the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s “Large Truck and Bus Crash Facts” shows brake systems rank as the third most cited vehicle factor in fatal crashes. In 2020, brake-related problems occupied eight of FMCSA’s top 20 vehicle violations. When CVSA conducted Brake Safety Week last year, 12% of 43,565 inspected CMVs were placed out-of-service due to braking issues. Commercial motor vehicle brakes are designed to hold up under tough conditions; however, they must be inspected and maintained carefully and consistently so they operate and perform properly throughout the vehicle’s life. Improperly installed or poorly maintained brake systems can reduce the braking capacity and stopping distance of trucks and buses, which poses a serious risk to driver and public safety. Brake Safety Week is the perfect time to remind motor carriers, drivers and commercial motor vehicle mechanics and technicians to proactively check and service their vehicles to ensure every commercial motor vehicle traveling on our roadways is safe, mechanically fit, and compliant. August, the month of CVSA’s Brake Safety Week, is also Brake Safety Awareness Month. Law enforcement agencies will work to educate commercial motor vehicle drivers, motor carriers, mechanics, owner-operators, and others on the importance of proper brake maintenance, operation and performance through outreach, education, and awareness campaigns. This month, Shrader Tire and Oil is offering a free DOT inspection with any preventive maintenance work at its fleet store locations. Shrader Truck Has ISOCLEAN look A truck in the Shrader Tire & Oil fleet has a new look (above)! STO hits the road for customer July 28, 2021 – Shrader Tire & Oil has 14 locations throughout Michigan, Ohio and Indiana, but occasionally work requires our teams to go on the road. This month, for example, a team of five STO employees went to Georgetown, Kentucky, to change nearly 50 tires on nine trailers for a customer. Displaying great teamwork and extreme customer service is what we are all about at Shrader Tire & Oil. Our 24-Hour Emergency Tire and Road Service is available by calling 800-589-6589. Be wary of Sizzling Summer tire temps July 22, 2021 — There are signs that the nation’s highways and roadways will be as busy as ever this summer. There are also signs that summer temperatures will be sizzling across the Midwest and much of the country. What does high temperatures mean for tires? Plenty, says Peggy Fisher of Tirebusiness.com. “Heat is a tire’s worst enemy when it comes to removal miles, irregular wear and service life,” Fisher wrote. With road temperatures reaching nearly 200 degrees, combined with the fact that tires absorb heat from the hot pavement, tread compounds can become soft and the prospects for tire failure increases. Fortunately, Fisher says, there are steps you can take. If you are performing yard checks for a fleet customer, for example, be more vigilant and thoroughly examine every compound. Check and re-check tire pressures and look for punctures or tire wear. Make the proper repairs and make sure the right valve caps are put on the tire. Do your part in keeping roadways safe this summer! Shrader Tire & Oil driver Ed Loar Operation Safe Driver Week This week (July 11-17) is Operation Safe Driver Week across the nation. The Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance created Operation Safe Driver Week and the Operation Safe Driver Program to help reduce the number of crashes involving commercial motor vehicles and passenger vehicles. This year’s Safe Driver Week emphasis is on speeding as well as reckless and aggressive driving. At Shrader Tire & Oil, we are committed to safety first, with our own commercial vehicles as well as with your fleet. Visit our Web site or call us today to find out why Shrader Tire & Oil is your trusted truck tire and lubricant specialist. During Operation Safe Driver Week, law enforcement personnel will be on the lookout for commercial motor vehicle drivers and passenger vehicle drivers engaging in risky driving behaviors in or around a commercial motor vehicle. Identified unsafe drivers will be pulled over and issued a citation or warning. “Data shows that traffic stops and interactions with law enforcement help reduce problematic driving behaviors,” said Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance (CVSA) President Sgt. John Samis with the Delaware State Police. “By making contact with drivers during Operation Safe Driver Week, law enforcement personnel aim to make our roadways safer by targeting high-risk driving behaviors.” CVSA selected speeding as its focus this year because despite a drop in roadway travel last year due to the pandemic, nationally, traffic fatalities increased. According to the National Safety Council’s (NSC) preliminary estimates, the estimated rate of death on roads last year increased 24% over the previous 12-month period, despite miles driven dropping 13%. The increase in the rate of death is the highest estimated year-over-year jump NSC has calculated in 96 years. In addition to speeding, law enforcement personnel will be tracking other dangerous driver behaviors throughout Operation Safe Driver Week, such as reckless or aggressive driving, distracted driving, following too closely, improper lane change, failure to obey traffic control devices, failure to use a seat belt, evidence of drunk or drugged driving, etc. CVSA’s Operation Safe Driver Program was created to help to reduce the number of crashes involving commercial motor vehicles and passenger vehicles due to unsafe driving behaviors. Operation Safe Driver Week is sponsored by CVSA, in partnership with the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration and with support from the motor carrier industry and transportation safety organizations. This initiative aims to improve the behavior of all drivers operating in an unsafe manner – either in or around commercial motor vehicles – through educational and traffic enforcement strategies. STO Purchases Macomb Tire For Immediate Release July 6, 2021 WARREN, Mich. – Macomb Tire, a 15-year-old commercial tire business in Roseville, Mich., is now a part of Shrader Tire & Oil. “We are excited to expand our business in the metro Detroit area and bring Macomb Tire into our family,” said Shrader Tire & Oil President and CEO Joe Shrader. “The business that Cliff McCoy and Jim Collier started together in 2005 is a perfect fit for our customers in that area and we look forward to servicing them as part of Shrader Tire & Oil.” McCoy and Collier began working in the tire business in the 1990s at the former Oakland Tire. In 2005, they opened Macomb Tire in Roseville and have operated the business in that city since. The firm has been located at its current site off Hayes Road for nearly four years. Both men will continue in the business as part of Shrader Tire & Oil. The Warren Shrader Tire & Oil location offers customers truck and trailer repair, truck alignments and 24-hour truck service through the Michelin Commercial Services Network. Shrader Tire & Oil is a regional firm with locations in Michigan, Ohio and Indiana. Shrader Tire & Oil will be consolidating the Macomb operation into a full-service fleet store in that area, offering expanded service to the Macomb Tire customers. Shrader Tire & Oil is a family business founded in Toledo, Ohio, in 1948. The trusted truck tire and lubricant specialist has 14 fleet store locations in Michigan, Ohio and Indiana and four bulk oil locations. Shrader offers 24-hour emergency road service with a 20-minute guarantee from the stated arrival time. For more information, contact Jim Miller, marketing manager, Shrader Tire & Oil, 419.471-2530 ext. 0125. Proper Coolant Maintenance Matters Check your coolant when you check your oil (June 3, 2021) – Heavy duty engine coolants are one of those things you might not think about as long as they’re working properly – until you have an overheating problem. By then, it’s probably too late to take the measures necessary to prevent the problem in the first place. Of course, you should follow the OEM’s recommendations in the choice of coolants for the vehicles in your fleet, as well as its maintenance requirements. But best practices in coolant system management suggest going above and beyond the basics. Fleet maintenance managers are usually diligent about preventive maintenance with their engine oils – for example, pulling samples and running analyses for particle contamination or degradation. But coolants don’t always get that level of attention. They should. One way to implement a routine coolant preventive maintenance program is to schedule checks at the same time as your regular oil checks. Use a refractometer to check the coolant’s freeze point and check the pH levels as well to make sure both are within acceptable limits. If they are not, it could be an indicator of a deeper problem that requires pulling a sample and doing a thorough analysis. Also check to see if the coolant needs topping off. Some evaporation is to be expected, but a big drop in the coolant level may be an indication of a leak in the cooling system. Finally, pressure test the system to make sure the radiator cap is functioning properly. It’s not uncommon for fleet shops to have several coolants in stock, especially if the fleet has a mix of engine types from different OEMs. One OEM may require coolants containing nitrites while another may specify nitrite-free products. This adds to the complexity of managing coolants and is another reason to have an ongoing and robust preventive maintenance program. Coolants have become quite sophisticated in their chemistry as they have evolved. In the early days of trucking, just air and water were used to try and keep engines cool. But air cooling alone required too much power to run fans to prevent overheating. And water was problematic in areas where the winter temperatures dropped below water’s freezing point, not to mention the risk of rust and corrosion. Adding glycol to water enabled coolants to operate in a wider range of temperatures, while inhibitors were added to help prevent problems with rust. Over the years, inorganic additives such as phosphates and silicates were introduced to help prevent corrosion by adding a protective layer over all metal surfaces. However, these additives tended to deplete quickly, leading to a relatively short service life for the coolant. That led to the development of organic acid technology inhibitors, or OATs, which target only those areas where corrosion is beginning to occur. Today, the life of a coolant with OATs can be as much as one million miles, or even more when treated with an extender. Coolants today also do much more than simply prevent overheating. For instance, modern engines have been designed to meet strict emission standards with exhaust after-treatment systems that include exhaust gas recirculating (EGR). In order to do its job, the EGR has to reduce the exhaust temperature, which contributes to more efficient combustion in the engine, and that in turn reduces nitrogen oxide and particulate matter in the exhaust. In order for the EGR to do that, it needs to be able to cool the exhaust gases. Diesel engine coolant is generally used to cool the EGR before it recirculates the exhaust back into the engine. This simply underscores the need to make sure your coolants are maintaining the proper chemical balance and not degrading. Routine preventive maintenance checks will help prevent problems not only with cooling systems, but with all the engine and exhaust system components that rely on coolants for proper functioning. Contact your Shrader Tire and Oil sales representative today to ask about engine coolants we have available for your fleet! The ISOCLEAN System is Right for You! May 13, 2021 — How important is the cleanliness of oil when it comes to your equipment? Considering that 82 percent of mechanical wear is caused by particle contamination, it means everything. The two leading types of contamination in oil are particulates and water. Dirt and contaminants are the leading cause of hydraulic system failures. Often, these contaminates are microscopic – they cannot be seen with the naked eye. Still, they can be quite harmful, causing abrasive wear, erosion, and fatigue of equipment. As little as one teaspoon of dirt in 55 gallons of oil equates to about a billion particles 4 microns and larger. To maximize productivity and component life, equipment manufacturers machine component parts to precision levels. Oil needs a cleanliness level to protect the tightest machine clearance on your equipment. Using clean oil that meets your equipment manufacturer’s requirements has multiple benefits to the component with the No. 1 benefit being an increased component life. The best way to reduce contaminate-caused wear is to start clean, monitor lubricants and stay clean. At Shrader Tire & Oil, we believe in starting clean. There is no need to worry about the hassle, expense, and risk of pre-filtering new oil. Trust Chevron ISOCLEAN Certified Lubricants. Our ISOCLEAN program uses different testing methods to ensure the cleanliness level is where it needs to be at delivery. Once you have ISOCLEAN Certified Lubricants in your system, the next step is to ensure your equipment is protected while in production. To do that, utilize the Chevron LubeWatch program. Finally, STO encourages staying clean with effective lubricant management. Contact your Shrader Tire & Oil representative today and ask about the Chevron ISOCLEAN Certified Lubricants and keep your machines humming at maximum potential! Earth Day 2021: An Inside Look at Tire Retreads Truck tire retreads are not just part of the story at Shrader Tire & Oil, they deliver huge savings to fleet managers and owner/operators and have a massive impact on the environment. Today, April 22, is Earth Day, but in the truck tire retread industry, we do not wait for a special day to think about the impact we are having on the environment. Every day, in every way, our retread plants are having an impact on our surroundings. For example, retreading conserves oil. The synthetic rubber components in a new medium truck tire require approximately 22 gallons of oil, but it takes only seven gallons to retread the same tire. It is also estimated that nearly 300 million tires from cars and trucks are thrown away by Americans each year, but the use of retreads saves hundreds of millions of gallons of oil, and millions of tires continue a useful life rather than being consigned to a tire pile or landfill. Retreading truck tires in the U.S. reduces carbon emissions by 396,000 tons, or 70 percent annually. Finally, nearly 40 pounds of raw material including rubber, steel and carbon black is saved for every retreaded tire manufactured. Shrader Tire & Oil is the premier tire and lubricant distributor in the Midwest. With locations in Ohio, Michigan and Indiana, Shrader has 15 truck tire and fleet service centers, two state-of-the-art Michelin retread plants and a bulk lubricant operation and a 24-hour emergency road service network. For more on retreading: https://wordpress.com/page/shradertireandoil.com/60 By Doug Donnelly, April 22, 2021 It’s a Birthday Celebration at STO – 73 years and Counting! APRIL 19, 2021 – In the spring of 1948, Jim and Bernie Shrader founded Shrader Tire & Oil in Toledo, Ohio. A true family business, Jim and Bernie’s children Jim Jr., Gerri, and Patti filled roles in the company after school. In the evenings, Jim Sr. would instill the importance of values like honesty, integrity and commitment as the family sat around the dinner table. The business has progressed over the years. Now with 15 truck tire and fleet service centers, two state-of-the-art Michelin retread plants, and bulk lubricant operations larger than ever, Shrader Tire & Oil has become the premier tire and lubricant distributor in the Midwest. Happy Birthday STO! Posted MARCH 16, 2021 What Causes Truck Tire Misalignment? Wondering what causes your truck tires to misalign? Tire misalignment can be caused by anything from: Road conditions — Since trucks often drive through rugged terrain, rough road conditions can make the wheels especially susceptible to misalignments Potholes and bumps — Events like hitting potholes and bumps in the road can immediately knock your truck out of alignment. General wear and tear — Every time you drive your truck, you are subjecting it to massive amounts of torque and friction, which results in slow and gradual degradation of its components. Over time, pressure on shocks, springs, and tires, can cause them to slowly slip out of alignment. No matter the cause, when your truck starts pulling to either side or you feel a vibration in your steering wheel, Shrader Tire & Oil can set your truck back on track. We provide alignments in seven convenient locations, including: Cincinnati, OH; Columbus, OH; Newark, OH; Toledo, OH; Detroit, MI; Warren, MI, and South Bend, IN. Contact us today to schedule your appointment! Call (800) 589-6589 today! The Benefits of Computerized Laser Alignments Is your truck out of alignment? Our trained technicians can get you on the straight and narrow with our state-of-the-art, computerized, laser alignment service, which is more accurate than manual or infrared sensors. What can I expect with a computerized laser alignment? Our advanced computerized wheel alignment system adjusts the angles of your wheels so that they are perpendicular to the ground and parallel to each other. A good wheel adjustment will maximize tire life and make your trip safer by having your truck track true and straight. What are the benefits of computerized laser alignments? The major benefit of our laser technology is the ability to achieve the most accurate wheel alignment measurements possible. With laser measurement to 1/1000 of an inch, the system will produce the results you demand. With Shrader Tire & Oils wheel alignment service, you can trust that you’ll save money on tires and fuel with the most accurate laser alignment available. We provide alignments in seven convenient locations, including: Cincinnati, OH; Columbus, OH; Newark, OH; Toledo, OH; Detroit, MI; Warren, MI, and South Bend, IN. Contact us today to schedule your appointment! Contact us today to schedule your appointment! Call (800) 589-6589 today! Share this: TwitterFacebook Loading... Home Locations About Us Services We Keep The Transportation Industry Rolling and Safe., Blog at WordPress.com.