TYRES FIT FOR KIWIS
DELIVERING PERFORMANCE, DURABILITY, AND LOW COST-PER-KILOMETER
THE KIWI DIFFERENCE
Designed & engineered for New Zealand
CHIP SEAL
Kiwi roading has the most course chip seal used on the planet due to the weather conditions. This is to ensure traction for vehicles in challenging conditions. For transport this means a greater rate of rubber tearing and tyre wear.
ROAD MATERIALS
Materials on Kiwi roads are similar to international metropolitan conditions commonly found in Europe with chip, cobblestones, concrete and natural stone. The exception is that the speeds across these surfaces in New Zealand are much higher with freight traffic turning and braking resulting in higher wear and tear on the tyres
ROAD CAMBER
Population and topography challenges results in New Zealand being unable to afford the expense of laying 1 – 2 m of base course rock for drainage. Kiwi roading engineers faced with this challenge designed a drainage camber of 12 - 13° to ensure run off of surface water. As a consequence, the roading camber causes rapid shoulder wear on the left side of the trucks or the inside tyres of trailers.
WHAT PEOPLE SAY
Alf Williamson
Forest Freighters
Over 90,000kms and only two thirds worn. Kiwi’s perform, less down time and are value for money.
Ian Spedding
“I had Kiwi Truck Tyres from the start and won’t have anything else due to the value/km and less down time. Kiwi’s cut our tyre maintenance in half”
Jamie McDonald
Bennett Fertilisers
“My investment in Kiwi Truck Tyres steerer, driver and trailer tyres not only paid for itself in more mileage and better durability from casings but also from greater traction that has been hugely beneficial to my drivers when delivering fertiliser and other bulk goods to rural properties”
about us
After 40 years of global experience in the tyre industry John O’Donnell was frustrated with the poor quality that was creeping into the market he was so passionate about. John wanted to strive for excellence and quickly identified a gap in the market to supply high quality truck tyres to dealers across New Zealand.
John drew on his experience to design tyres which would have superior performance characteristics and identified 18 potential manufacturers and after personally visiting these factories appointed only one that met his rigorous standards. Six tyre molds were originally forged over two tyre patterns and Kiwi Truck Tyres was born in 2010.
Kiwi Truck Tyres now proudly represents 22 tyre models over 3 brands with international acceptance and with warehouse hubs in Auckland and Christchurch. We have made many improvements over the years to compound and structure of the tyres and more innovations will continue to meet New Zealand’s unique roading conditions.
Quality and performance, however, was only one part of Johns strategy to return excellence back to his industry. John built a business to business platform which would not cannibalise market share for valued clients and he rigorously defended not selling to end users unless they had their own fleet service. This became the Kiwi Truck Tyre founding philosophy and continues to this day.
Kiwi Truck Tyres experienced challenges and substantial growth over the next 5 years and in 2015 John quickly realised to do the company’s growth potential justice he required assistance. John has been involved with the Jones family businesses from start up and worked with the family to enable them to become a major shareholder in Kiwi Truck Tyres. John remains a shareholder and active within all aspects of the larger business opportunity.