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Just to follow up on 3500 mile LLV tires, everything is used much harder on these things. It is possible one truck will do 800 start and stops and steering maneuvers in just 15 miles of travel a day. Another may start and stop the motor 200 times only traveling 10 miles. My particular truck I figured is started 75 times, and does about 400 braking, maneuvering into a box, and accelerating away in 18 miles total a day. The tires are rotated every 6 months but the newest trucks are 1994s (mine is) and alignment has become something of an eyeball thing at this point. I help manage the fleet of 50 of them and haven't seen an alignment authorized on any of them in over 2 years, even after replacing every part imaginable in the front end. I personally get 1.5 years on my tires before they go to 4/32 which is considered unsafe for winter which is about 7,000 miles so better than average but I do have the LT Goodyear Wanglers which might be the 8 ply the article spoke of back in 1995.
I have read each LLV costs about $4000/yr each in maintenance to keep them running at this point. I know we spend $2000 each in contractor labor alone not counting any parts or labor done by postal employees.
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