Truck tyre replacement, tyre repair in Germany. Mobile tyre fitting
service anywhere in Germany.
The most frequent calls to the international road assistance service
AWHelp24 is when they call for help to replace a defective tyre on a
truck or trailer.
A truck or trailer tyre is a rather expensive item. If you take the
most common size 315 /70 R 22.5 from the brand Michelin X Multi Z, the price
in Germany is over 560 euros per wheel. Slightly less expensive
are the same wheels from Bridgestone, Goodyear, Conti, Fulda. Where
to buy cheap wheels at home in Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Ukraine or
Belarus, is something almost all of the local carriers know. It is possible to leisurely
inquire about offers from sellers and tyre shops, bargain, get a good
discount for the number of purchased wheels and even to defer payment for a while.
It is quite the different matter however, when you need a wheel for your truck abroad.
It can always happen outside the business hours, in the evening,
at night, and right on the highway, just a few meters away from vehicles
rushing by.
What to do in such a case? The owner of a truck is in Warsaw, Krakow,
Riga or Minsk. The truck driver, in most cases, can't remove a wheel
himself and change it for a spare one. A truck is not a car. You need
a compressor with a powerful nutrunner, a special hydraulic press or
at least a big sledgehammer to loosen a "glued" wheel from a hub.
Moreover, the weight of a whole wheel with a 385/65 R 22.5 tyre for
semi trailers is about 120 kg. And this is not even the limit. As a
reference, a wheel from a BelAZ dump truck weighs more than 5.5 tons.
It often happens that the spare tyre on a truck or trailer is also
empty. Either the driver forgot the jack in the garage, or it is
there, but it doesn't work. Or dozens of other reasons. There's only
one solution, call a tyre service. They have all the equipment needed for
mounting and dismounting tires. They know how to secure the place of
the forced repair of the truck on the German highway. And they are
highly skilled at working on the road.
But here, other problems immediately arise. In Germany, if you would
like to call a tow truck, an emergency service or a tyre fitting
service, you have to know where to call and who to call.
Germany has around 13,100 km of motorways. Plus 39,600 km of federal
roads. And they're all divided up between towing and tyre services.
To order a tow truck or tyre fitting service, you not only need to be able to
speak German or English, but must also have some kind of guarantee for payment,
otherwise no one will come to the road even during the day, not to
mention at night or on holidays. The driver is almost always out of
cash. And changing a wheel on the road costs more than 1,000 euros.
That is why AWHelp 24 has been a great help for international
transport companies for 20 years. They speak German, English, Polish,
Russian, Lithuanian, Latvian, Ukrainian, Romanian, French and Spanish.
They have extensive practical experience in repairing trucks of all
brands in Germany, Austria and Switzerland.
If the wheel is out of order, has burst or just blown
out, it is important to determine what else might be broken. Electrical cables, turn
signals and air brake hoses are often damaged as well. We ask the driver to take
a look at it, take a photo with his mobile phone and send it to us. It
helps to avoid additional costs and the hassle of having to come back to
fix the damaged parts.
When a tyre fitting service is called to the place of a breakdown, our
operators make anything between 5 to 10 calls to nearby tyre stations that have
their own mobile services and find out who has the right brand and
size of wheels at the moment, plus if they have the capacity to come out for a wheel
replacement on the motorway. We compare their prices, negotiate with
the truck owner and place the order.
In the case of a broken tyre, it is possible to save a lot of money if
the truck is not loaded and the driver can drive to the
nearest stationary tyre fitting shop himself. In this case, the operator of
AWHelp asks for the location of the damaged vehicle and finds out
which stationary tyre fitting shops are nearby. They are usually
between 2 to 10 km away. It is also possible to arrange for the tyre to
be repaired there. The price range is from about 100€ to 150€
depending on the size, condition and brand. Whether it is a 445/45
R 19,5 tyre from Goodyear, Matador, Conti for a mega trailer or 455/40 R22,5.
The most difficult to assist, are owners of older vans like Sprinter, VW-LT,
Renault, Citroen.
From our experience. We received a call from a driver of a 2002
Sprinter truck from Romania. The question is where and how to buy a
second-hand 225/75 R16 Fulda wheel in Germany. He had one of these
broken off, put the spare on himself and drove 200 meters before the spare
wheel also failed. The price of 600 euro for a mobile tyre service
drew him out of his mind. After much discussion and suggestions, the
operator of AWHelp24 found a tyre service two kilometres away from
the breakdown place. Two necessary second hand wheels were available
there. The driver went there on foot, haggled the price down to 50
euros for both wheels, plus as a free bonus, they took him back to the
truck with the wheels.
Is there a problem with the wheels? Call us!
AWHelp24: Help is closer than you think!