WAKEFIELD, Mass. — Alliance Tire Americas Inc. (ATA) has launched a line of Galaxy-branded radial all-steel truck and bus tires covering long-haul, regional and long/short hybrid tires for steer, drive and trailer positions.
The new Galaxy TBR line — produced in Alliance Tire Group's 5-year-old plant in Dahej, India — includes 10 designs and 40-plus sizes of 16-ply, all-steel radials, with plans for continued expansion.
"For generations, the Galaxy brand has represented the best of durability and tire technology in off-road tires," ATA President Dhaval Nanavati said, noting that ATG parent Yokohama Rubber Co. Ltd. was "instrumental" in helping ATG establish a "world-class" truck tire manufacturing program.
"Now we're bringing that performance and reliability to the highway with our Galaxy TBR line. Years of experience selling and servicing medium commercial truck tires have given us a great network and deep understanding of the commercial truck market," Mr. Nanavati said.
"It's very exciting to be able to combine our manufacturing expertise and market knowledge to bring our own truck and bus radials — with their strong margins, great reliability and the backing of ATA — to dealers across the United States," he added.
The Galaxy TBR brand will complement the Aeolus brand ATA has carried in the U.S. for the past 10 years but which is now subject to the elevated import duties levied on Chinese truck tires and therefore is in limited supply.
ATA is backing the Galaxy TBR line with a two-retread casing warranty and said many of the products are verified under the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's SmartWay program for low rolling resistance.
ATA is pitching the Galaxy brand as a "quality value" tier product, offering quality and performance at a reasonable price point. In its sales literature, it compares the Galaxy brand to Tier 2 brands such as Aeolus, Dayton, Double Coin and Roadmaster.
ATA said it has been fleet-testing the Galaxy range on U.S. roads since last summer. Dealers can order the product either in containerloads or from one of ATA's four U.S. warehouses, in Houston; Savannah, Ga.; Parkesburg, Pa.; and Los Angeles.
ATA said the tires in the range are optimized for each application through the use of "carefully formulated" rubber compounds and "sophisticated" tread designs as well as rock ejectors, decoupling grooves and sipes.
Several of the tires feature special chip-resistant compounds for use in construction zones and on/off-road use while others have tread designs engineered to minimize highway wear. All feature bead packages designed for easy mounting and secure contact with rims.
To help dealers maintain a simplified offering of sizes and models, ATA has rationalized the SKU range so fleets won't need to stock several different ply ratings in the same model.
ATA is promoting the line as one that offers truckers with a lot of rubber on the road, great peace of mind and lower total cost of ownership, while also providing tire dealers a profitable, reliable line of tires.
Every Galaxy TBR undergoes rigorous physical, x-ray and RRO (radial run-out) inspection as part of Alliance's quality assurance program.
ATA has set up a dedicated website, GalaxyTruckTires.com, for the new product range.
