ATLANTA—Cooper Tire & Rubber Co. is reintroducing a Cooper-brand truck and bus tire line to its portfolio 11 years after phasing it out in favor of the Roadmaster brand as its sole truck/bus product line.
The SmartWay-verified Cooper truck/bus radial line debuted at the Technology & Maintenance Council Annual Meeting and Transportation Technology Exhibition in Atlanta.
The tires, produced at Cooper's Qingdao Ge Rui Da Rubber Co. Ltd. venture in Qingdao, will go on sale May 1 in the U.S. in application-specific series—Pro Series for long-haul; Work Series for regional-haul, pick-up and delivery; and Severe Series for mixed service.
The two brands are designed for different channels, Cooper said.
The Cooper line brand is developed for fleets, original equipment accounts and commercial servicing dealers, while the Roadmaster brand serves the replacement channel and the owner-operator primarily through wholesale as well as standard fitment to trailer original equipment manufacturers.
The line will be available in Canada and Mexico this summer.
The Cooper TBR tires feature a full width, four steel-belt package for casing integrity and are backed by a seven-year, two-retread warranty with full replacement value on the first 50 percent of tread life on all Pro and Work Series tires, Cooper said.
"Fleets are continually faced with the pressure of lowering their operating costs, and tires are an area that can have a big impact on meeting those targets," Gary Schroeder, director of Cooper's global truck and bus tire business, said.
"Our North American team of engineers developed the Cooper-brand truck tires with a focus on lowering the total cost of ownership for fleets, making these tires an attractive choice."
Cooper said the Pro Series tires are designed to offer balance of fuel efficiency and original tread life, while the Work Series balance fuel efficiency and tread life with scrub-resistant properties. The Severe Series is engineered to withstand heavy scrub and cut/chip environments.
Cooper's decision a decade ago to suspend the use of the Cooper brand for truck tires coincided with the phase-out of domestic truck tire production.