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Traction Products that Keep You on the Road

Learn how Peerless Industrial Group continues to innovate their traction products to ensure the safety of all on the road, and to keep fleets moving.

Episode 233: With winter fast approaching, the time is coming where chains and other traction products are necessary for fleets to continue carrying loads safely, and on time. In this episode, we dive into the many traction products that Peerless offer, as well as how these can keep fleets moving during inclement weather.

My guest today is Tony Tyron the Traction Product Manager at Peerless Industrial Group.  

My guest today is Tony Tyron the Traction Product Manager at Peerless Industrial Group.  In this episode, learn Learn how Peerless continue to innovate their traction products to ensure safety of all on the road, and to keep fleets moving.

Tony has over 15 years of experience working with RV and HD Truck OEMs.  

Guest Website: PeerlessChain.com

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Transcript of Episode:

Jamie Irvine:

You’re listening to The Heavy-Duty Parts Report. I’m your host, Jamie Irvine, and this is the show where you get expert advice about heavy-duty parts that keeps trucks and trailers on the road longer while lowering cost-per-mile.

My guest today is Tony Tyron, the Traction Product Manager at Peerless Industrial Group. Tony has 15 years of experience working with RV and heavy-duty truck OEMs. Tony, welcome to The Heavy-Duty Parts Report. So glad to have you here.

Tony Tyron:

Thank you. Thank you for having me, Jamie.

Jamie Irvine:

Well, I’ve been looking forward to our conversation. We look to the next few months, and sadly, winter’s coming back to us in the North, but that makes me think of traction control and safety chains and things like that. And that’s something that your company is a real expert in. And you’ve got great expertise.

So I’m super excited to talk a little later in the show about your specific products, but before we do that, could you just kind of give us an update on what the trends are right now that you’re seeing in the industry?

Tony Tyron:

Sure. Basically what we’re seeing is kind of a shift from, you know, traditional tire chain and cable products. Maybe not so much the cable, because those are evolving as well, but basically we’re seeing a lot of new products that are focusing more on, you know, weight issues, having a lightweight product, something that’s easy to install but yet that’s still durable and it’s gonna provide the traction and have the necessary approvals for state regulations.

Jamie Irvine:

Right. So what do you think is driving that trend?

Tony Tyron:

You know, I think basically some of it’s coming maybe from the consumer side of the business and just, you know, the regular passenger car traction products where people just don’t wanna deal with the chains and go into a chain up area and take forever and, you know, have the snow coming down on them in the cold weather. You know, it’s a safety issue too, right? You don’t want to be on the side of the road forever, think of changing a tire and all the unfortunate reports that you see of that where someone gets hit or there’s an accident while they’re changing a tire or helping someone else.

So people just want a product that’s convenient, easy to install, lightweight, especially for truckers, and then something that’s gonna do the job that you’re hiring that product to do, you need to get over that pass. You need to maneuver around corners and slick areas, get through icy conditions, so, you know, basically fulfill all those needs while being easier to install and lightweight.

Jamie Irvine:

Are you finding that, like, I know when I talk to a lot of manufacturers, they’re doing everything they can to remove weight, right? Make things lighter but keep them strong. Do you think that some of those shifts in those other systems on the truck are affecting why there’s a need for innovation in your area of expertise?

Tony Tyron:

I believe so. When you look at fuel economy and then just, you know, looking at the overall EV industry, electric vehicles, if you know much about Tesla, and I know we’re jumping back into passenger cars here again, but weight aerodynamics, all those things are such an issue because you’re trying to get every, you know, miles per gallon or EMPG out of those vehicles as you can.

So everything has to be taken into account. You know, even my experience in the RV industry from before, we had a lot of weight restrictions on items, you know? Yeah. They might want to have that say fancy kitchen sink for their customers didn’t meet the weight requirements or that TV or that extra appliance or whatever. So I think it’s just a broad spectrum right now spanning, you know, HD, RV and then getting into EVs as well.

Jamie Irvine:

I often wonder too, you know, there’s always the technology side, there’s the actual products. But I also have to think that just the attitudes of people towards their workplace and those kinds of demographic shifts that we’re going through, that’s kind of play a role too, because companies, they want to meet people where they are. And especially for commercial drivers, they’re such a shortage. So you gotta try to keep your drivers as happy as possible.

So when I hear you talk about making things more convenient, not having to be out in the weather as much, especially in a commercial truck where you might be chaining up and chaining off multiple times a week in the wintertime, that’s gotta play a role in it too, just in driver satisfaction, Fleet’s want products that work, but also that are gonna help them keep their drivers a little happier if at all possible, right?

Tony Tyron:

Absolutely. And it kind of feeds into the, you know, problems we’re having with the supply chain in this country and globally that, you know, if we can’t keep the truckers happy, if we can’t keep product moving, that’s just gonna exacerbate those issues.

So, you know, for the concerns of safety and efficiency and you know, then getting back into weight and performance of the vehicle itself, all those things really tie into the need to, you know, have more innovation in the traction segment, looking for lighter weight products and products that are just a lot more user friendly than what they have been in the past.

Jamie Irvine:

We’re gonna take a quick break. We’ll be right back.

Commercial Break:

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Jamie Irvine:

Okay, so we’re back and I’m excited to continue our conversation with Tony. Tony, you are here to talk about the products that your company specifically is, has a lot of expertise in. Could you give our audience just a brief overview of your product category?

Tony Tyron:

Sure. So basically it’s everything revolving around traction, whether it be for passenger light, truck heavy duty, OTR, which is off the road. And we provide, you know, numerous solutions including just traditional tire chains, tire cables.

We also have some alternative traction devices that we’re working on and improving as well, like our Super Sox product, which is a tire sock, which, you know, I’m sure some of your listeners have seen out in the marketplace recently. And then we also offer a full lineup of accessories like tensioners and different tools to configure your chains the way you see fit on your tires.

Jamie Irvine:

And you’re manufacturing and innovating these products as a company. So you’re relying on distributors to get those products to end users, is that correct?

Tony Tyron:

Correct, yes. We have a network of distributors, especially within the HD market that have been worked out great for us and that we count on to get those products into the market and into the hands of those consumers.

Jamie Irvine:

Fantastic. Okay. So I always like to talk to people about like who their ideal customer is. I know, and let’s just, this is The Heavy-Duty Parts Report, so let’s focus on heavy-duty. If you were to describe the typical customers who get the best use out of your products, like who are they, where are they? What’s the situation with their fleets?

Tony Tyron:

You know, typically it’s pretty simple for our customer base. On the HD side, it’s government fleets, it’s private fleets, and it’s owner operators. And, you know, we have a lot of government customers that have strict requirements and, you know, they have in mind what products that they need and what they need those products to do. And we found that with our offering, we’re able to serve them very well. And then that kind of spills over into private fleets. And then as I mentioned before, the just the regular owner operators.

Jamie Irvine:

So if you live in the North, like I do, I mean, I’m in northern Canada, but even if you’re in the northern states of the U.S., you know that winter driving is just a reality. Do you also work, because I would assume then with private fleets, some of them, they travel a lot of different states, or they might be going coast to coast, so it’s not just necessarily fleets in the north, would it be?

Tony Tyron:

No, actually it’s mainly where the, you know, I’d say traction HQs, so to speak. It’s in the Pacific Northwest and then some of the other Western mountain states. So think of, you know, Colorado, Montana, Northern California, Oregon and Washington. You know, those are some of the states that have the strictest chain laws out there and where they have the most treacherous terrain that they need to cross, whether it be a mountain pass or switch switchbacks or whatnot. That’s really where the traction industry is focused.

Jamie Irvine:

Yeah, not all products that get manufactured for heavy-duty are as critical as a product like yours. So a lot of times, you know, I remember when I was a sales account manager, we would, I was, was selling spring breaks and, you know, we would do this analysis of like buying cheap versus buying, uh, high quality and, and what the total cost of that is. But it, but for your category, I mean, lives are at risk. The equipment is at risk, like the economic impact of not getting this right is huge, but the impact on people is potentially deadly.

Tony Tyron:

That’s correct. And that’s why we really pride ourselves on our quality. There are some of our competitors out there and some other products that might, you know, be at a lower price, but we really focus on product development, innovation, and quality and leverage our, you know, a hundred years of experience in the traction industry to deliver the best possible quality product and the product that’s gonna work and that people can count on.

I think that’s the main thing is that they can count on our products, we back our products up, we stand behind them, we have a wonderful customer service department that’s there to help. And then the tools on our website as well. So all that combined, we try and offer our customers the total package.

Jamie Irvine:

Right. And that total package is so important because I think about like, there is innovation in tires, there’s innovation in rims, there’s innovation and suspension. Things are dynamic in the technology side, in the trucking industry. So if you go and buy kind of like try to buy a one size fits all application or you go the cheapest thing possible, what’s some of the, the bad impact of making that choice of going cheap? Like what are some of the things you’ve seen happen on the road with other products?

Tony Tyron:

You know, I’ve seen a lot of things. You knows if you have one set of chains in your truck and then all of a sudden you have, you know, say a cheaper product that’s, you know, a smaller diameter, you could have things like, you know, snap links or cross members that come off and then, you know, that not only reduces your traction capabilities, but it also can cause damage to your vehicle.

I know that’s also important to owner operators today with inflation, gas prices, you know, the last thing you need is a chain that comes loose and starts flapping around and starts tearing your truck up. You know, not only are you not gonna get the traction, you’re gonna be sidelined, you’re gonna cause damage to your vehicle. There’s just a lot of consequences for using a product that you can’t count on.

Jamie Irvine:

Right, right, right. So you talked about your great customer service department. If somebody was a little unsure of the application for them and what product they should be buying, how would your company help them walk through that kind of decision tree?

Tony Tyron:

Well, the best way to do it is we, we have our website, peerlesschain.com, and then you could go to the product section and click on traction, and from there you can view our complete offering. You can also go into what’s called our tire chain finder, which will help you select the right set of chains for your tire and then also for the application that you need the most, whether it’s cornering, going up or down hills, starting power, whatever you need, that’s gonna give you the best suggestion.

And then our customer service department as well, you know, they’re always standing by along with our, our sales reps and our distributors that have, you know, many, many years of experience and just talking through and finding out what your exact needs are. Our product offering is so diverse that, you know, generally we always have something that can fit the customer’s needs.

Jamie Irvine:

Right. So go to peerlesschain.com. You can check that out. And then of course, if you need help from the customer service department, you can get access to it. I got one question. So I live in a community where there’s a lot of logging, mining, and oil and gas work, kind of a very similar, like I always tell people the province of Alberta here in Canada is like the cousin to Texas. Is there a difference in how you would choose traction products if you are working in an environment where there’s a lot of snow and ice versus like a lot of mud and that kind of environment where you’re gonna be off road?

Tony Tyron:

Absolutely. You know, typically when you’re dealing with ice specifically, you know what you’re gonna want is that starting power. So for those instances, we offer our VBar products, which basically has, you know, v-like that on the chain lengths that kind of gave you that edge over the ice. We also have studded chain, which you know, also works very well, especially Canadian CTO spec.

So it’s a very good chain for starting and stopping power on ice. And then when you’re getting into mud, it’s, you know, we have wide base chains and some other products that are more specific for mud, but you know, basically what’s happening is you’re trying to increase, you know, the friction between the tire and the road. And when those logs or threads get filled up with slush or snow or ice or mud or whatever the case might be, that’s really when the tire chains come into play and, you know, help you dig in and either start or stop or corner effectively.

Jamie Irvine:

Right. So that’s for the ice, but what’s the product then, if you’re in a lot like offroad in a lot of mud and that kind of thing? Is it similar?

Tony Tyron:

Yeah, it’s similar. You know, I wouldn’t suggest like a VBar or stud, I’d just use our standard, you know, quick grip mud service tire chains for that. Those have been great. A lot of people with Jeeps or different offroad vehicles would use those. I’m sure you’ve seen the videos of the, you know, kitted out for runners and whatnot that use them. But on the HD side as well, you know, we do offer products for mud service.

Jamie Irvine:

Okay. Awesome. Well, it’s been so great to talk to you and learn about the products that you bring to the market and how you guys are very different in the way that you focus on the quality side of it. I think that’s been great. I really appreciate you sharing your expertise.

Tony Tyron:

Absolutely. Anytime. I had a great time and look forward to coming back on your show.

Jamie Irvine:

You’ve been listening to The Heavy-Duty Parts Report. I’m your host, Jamie Irvine. We’ve been speaking with Tony Tyron, the Traction Product Manager at Peerless Industrial Group. To learn more about Peerless Industrial Group, visit peerlesschain.com. Links will be in the show notes. Tony, thanks again for being on The Heavy-Duty Parts Report. I hope to have you back.

Tony Tyron:

Sounds good. Thanks, Jamie.

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