Australians rely heavily on road transport. Therefore, every vehicle on the road must adhere to strict safety standards, making commercial vehicle safety a prominent topic of discussion. Faithful compliance with safety regulations helps save precious lives and valuable cargo.
Keeping your truck in peak operating condition entails maintaining a regular service schedule. You must also source only quality aftermarket parts for trucks. For example, this article discusses the Stemco Platinum Performance System. It is one of the products available in the aftermarket truck parts industry that offers innovative, safe driving solutions.
Who is Stemco?
Stemco is an acronym for ‘Specialised Truck Equipment Manufacturing Company’. The company is an OEM- Original Equipment Manufacturer that supplies high-quality, original-fit aftermarket parts for European and American trucks. It has its origins in St. Charles, Missouri, where it was established in 1951. After its founding, Stemco moved its operations to Longview, Texas, in 1958, where it remains until today.
Stemco’s current operations boast over 820 employees whose focus lies in solving crucial reliability and safety challenges in the commercial vehicle industry.
What is The Platinum Performance System?
The Stemco Platinum Performance System (also known as PPS) is a collection of solutions that work in tandem to enhance the efficiency and reliability of Stemco’s high-performance wheel end systems. In addition, the PPS provides numerous aftermarket and OEM applications that help boost both fleet operator and truck driver confidence throughout the world.
What Are the Distinguishing Features of the Stemco Platinum Performance System?
Unrivalled Warranties
Stemco PPS solutions come accompanied by industry-leading warranties. The warranties Stemco attaches to its aftermarket PPS extend to five years. Conversely, their OEM warranties provide seven years of trailer and truck parts coverage.
Stemco warranties include replacement components with Original Equipment Manufacturer certification, aftermarket parts for trucks and labour. In addition, the Platinum Performance System provides warranty coverage for one hour per wheel-end labour.
Less Downtime
Any extended periods where your vehicle remains off the road can significantly negatively impact your operation. The Stemco PPS solutions mitigate this occurrence through optimisation for exceptional reliability. Their high-performance capabilities and durability help reduce the need for constant repairs and service. In addition, the PPS features quick wheel-end replacement protocols that significantly minimise downtime.
Improved Profits
Commercial transportation industry norms dictate that profits rely on your overhead expense management abilities. Therefore, you can significantly lower your truck operating costs with Stemco PPS’s combination of extended service life, low maintenance requirements and warranty coverage. In turn, these reduced operating costs will boost your company’s profits.
PPS Compatible Components
The Stemco PPS products consist of a specific collection of wheel-end parts. Stemco boasts the development of some of the most lightweight and best-performing wheel-end components globally. Some of the Stemco wheel-end components featured in the PPS solutions include:
- Stemco Hub Cap (with Plug).
- Pro-Torq® and Zip-Torq® Axle Spindle Nuts.
- Stemco Heavy-Duty bearings.
- Guardian® HP and Discover® Hub Seals.
You know what they say in the trucking industry – if the wheels aren’t turning, there’s trouble on the way. A platinum system like this, as we mentioned above covers multiple different products that complement each other, all in order to improve three of t most critical areas, which are lubricant integrity, sealing, as well as bearing life.
We’ve also mentioned that it gives a limited five-year parts warranty, but it’s also important to state out that it is designed in such a way that covers all most significant failure models.
Why Is a System Like This Important?
Before one begins to understand why having a quality performance system is important, it’s even more important to understand what it consists of, and how problems with its functioning occur.
These systems consist of different elements, such as a hub, a spindle, and a wheel, with the addition of the bearings and fasteners. All of them have the same goal – to keep the truck wheel in one place, while the tires run straight. Since it’s a system, every component needs to run smoothly, otherwise if one is out of whack the tires will suffer.
Here’s where the confusion may occur. Even though it’s the tires that are out of function, the cause of the problem has nothing to do with them.
Negative camber on the trailer axel causes irregular wear of the tires. And as we said, even though it’s the tires that suffer, the main cause for this is in majority of the cases in the chassis and the way it was maintained along with the wheel-ends. At times it is also about how tires have been installed that has a lot of impact on the tire wear. Of course, poor tire quality can also be the cause of wear, but when it comes to irregular wear, they are not to be blamed.
Finally, consider that the Australian truck industry is one of the most competitive worldwide. Therefore, you must have efficient trucks with minimal downtime to maintain a competitive edge. After all, it is a country with the longest trucks in the world. Some are even as long as trains, which automatically makes one think about how many wheels and tires these trucks have. They have to be able to endure a very harsh environment and terrain, and the distance they have to endure is often very long. Drivers on the other hand cannot rely on pit stop accessibility, so quality parts that are maintained on time are of great importance. Not to mention the importance of installing quality performance systems. The Stemco aftermarket Platinum Performance System provides crucial solutions to boost your fleet’s output while reducing your operational costs. In addition, ready access to high-quality aftermarket parts for European and American trucks is vital for maintaining your trucking business’s reliability and success potential.
