At various functions, I get asked the same question: So what is it you do for a living? I’ve responded with various things: “I work for a company that sells tires internationally.” or “We sell heavy equipment tires.” What I want to tell them, is that I sell OTR Tires, but honest to goodness, no one knows what those are.

So, I usually just drop the bomb up front: ” I sell big tires for mining equipment. Some of these tires are as large as 12.5 feet tall (3.81 meters, for those outside of the US).” It sounds impressive, but it is necessary to expand their minds to accept something with a rim size larger than 20″.

Now, the honest truth is, most of the tires my company sells are far smaller than 12.5 feet. In fact, many of them are are merely 4 feet high.

So, what is an OTR Tire? The definitions vary greatly, but we will start with the acronym “OTR”. It stands for “Off the Road”, or in lesser cases “Over the Road”. Generally, the following types of equipment use it, and I’m not going to include every type here, because you would be reading all day.

The basic pieces of equipment that use these tires are: loaders(wheel, front end, and skid steer-this is technically an industrial tire), haul trucks (articulated dump and rigid frame, crash trucks, cranes(the tires are available in both on and off-road flavors), road graders, and scrapers.

Now, some purists may say I am ignoring combines and tractors, but those are generally classified as “agricultural use”, and don’t fall under “OTR”, per se. Others will say that the category is much broader. This is true, however, I am giving you the basics you need to understand, not a doctoral education on the tires.

The tires are available in bias and radial flavors, just like passenger tires are. The main difference is in the size of the rims(20-63″ for the most part), and the heavy duty nature of the lugs, and rubber compounds. These are tires that can take the abuse that gravel, large rocks, and mud throw at them.

As to uses, these tires can be found operating in the most extreme conditions, from the Tar Sands of Canada, to the mines of Novosibirsk, Siberia.

So, what is an OTR Tire? Very simply put, it’s a tire for construction, mining, or industrial purposes, that operates in extreme, off-road, conditions, on very heavy equipment. That is the layman’s version, with many of the details omitted for space.

If you would like more information, please visit our site at http://www.otrtiresupply.com .