Every brand we trade. No allegiances.

More than 20. The established majors are Bridgestone, Michelin, Goodyear and Yokohama. The mid-tier brands are Continental, BKT, Aeolus, Techking, Triangle, Double Coin, Galaxy, Alliance, Mitas, MRF and Solideal / Camso. The specialty and Asian tier covers Titan, Trelleborg, Firestone and Yokohama OTR, plus emerging makers including Belshina, Linglong, Tianli, Petlas, Hercules, Maxam, Magna and Nokian. We hold no brand allegiances.

Tier-one means the four global majors, Bridgestone, Michelin, Goodyear and Yokohama, which set the benchmark for OTR performance, application data and availability, and which hold most primary production mining contracts. Mid-tier means proven secondary brands that deliver real value across earthmoving, civil, quarry and agriculture. In our view the gap is narrower than it was, but it's still real in the hardest duties. That's a trader's opinion, not engineering advice.

In our view it depends entirely on the position. Secondary fleet, ancillary equipment, civil and quarry duty run mid-tier brands successfully every day in Australia. Primary production fleet in hard rock, long cycles and high heat is where tier-one compounds and application data still earn their money. We'd lean to matching the brand to the duty rather than the badge, and it's worth confirming any change against the manufacturer's application data and your own site records.

No. We're not tied to a manufacturer and we have no brand allegiances, which is the whole point of trading independently. That means the brand and pattern we point to is the one we think fits the duty, the ground and the budget. It's our opinion as a trader with 50 years in the OTR market, offered as general reference rather than professional or engineering advice.