OTR tyres can kill people. Hot tyres can explode under pressure. Mismatched tyres on a haul truck can cause a rollover. We take that seriously. This is what we believe, and how we trade.
An OTR tyre at full inflation pressure stores a serious amount of energy. A failed bead-seat, a heat-separated tread departure, or a side blowout can – and does – kill or maim people. Every site we deal with knows this. Most have first-hand stories.
The basics that matter at every site, every day:
Safety isn't a tick-box. It's the underlying constraint on everything we do. If a tyre we're being asked to source or sell is going onto a machine where the safety story doesn't add up, we won't do the deal.
AS4457:2019 – full title Earth-moving machinery – Off-the-road wheels and tyres – Maintenance and safety – is the Australian Standard that governs OTR tyre handling on Australian mine and civil sites. Tier-one mining contracts require compliance with it. Insurance, work-health-and-safety regulators, and procurement teams all reference it.
The standard covers:
The standard runs about 90 pages in the formal text. Buy it from SAI Global or Standards Australia if you need the authoritative document. For day-to-day reference, the OTR Earthmover Tyre site has the section-by-section summary →.
Jewell Tyres trades within AS4457 compliance. Tyres sold include documented condition assessment, age, and provenance where known. Tyres that don't meet the standard aren't sold – they're scrapped through compliant disposal channels.
The mixing rules are the single most common cause of preventable OTR tyre failure. Get them wrong and you create a safety incident waiting to happen. Get them right and most other things you do on a tyre programme are recoverable.
For the full reference on mixing rules – including the soft rules where guidance varies – see the OTR Earthmover Tyre mixing rules page →.
An honest sales position is also about what isn't on the table. There are tyres we won't sell, period. Not because we're being precious about it – because the trade isn't worth the safety risk and the reputational risk that comes with it.
A tyre that's shown signs of heat separation has been close to failure. Even if the visible damage looks survivable, the casing integrity is compromised. Scrap it through compliant disposal.
Sidewall damage means scrap, unless it's a documented section repair from a certified facility. We don't on-sell tyres with cosmetic-only repairs to sidewall damage.
If we can't trace where a tyre came from and how old it is, it doesn't go on a primary production haul truck or a heavy wheel loader. Lighter civil and ag applications may be acceptable with appropriate disclosure.
If a deal is materially below market on a tyre that should be at market price, something's wrong with the tyre or the seller. We've passed on stock at half the going rate when we couldn't get the story to add up.
If a buyer asks for a tyre that doesn't suit their machine – wrong load index, wrong speed symbol, wrong construction, mixing problem – we'll tell them. Sometimes we lose the sale. That's fine.
Trading tyres isn't trading cars. The safety case matters more than the margin on the deal.
Jewell Tyres position – 50 years of doing it this way
For TRA codes, failure modes, and full AS4457 reference – see the OTR Earthmover Tyre Reference Library.