THE ELASTIC PLUS

A 3-LAYER, 3-SHIFT WORKHORSE

A 3-LAYER, 3-SHIFT WORKHORSE

SOLID PNEUMATIC FEATURES

TREAD LAYER: ALL-NATURAL RUBBER

Thailand produces more natural rubber than any country on the planet, and we use it throughout our tires, but especially in the tread layer, where you need its tear-resistance, grip and flexibility. While others have cut their tread with more and more additives to cut costs, we haven't touched ours. If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

3-LAYERS TO RUN HOTTER & SOFTER

3 layers, with plenty of natural rubber, absorb shocks and expel heat so your forklift (and your back) can avoid costly downtime. We've competed against top tires for years and won on cost per hour and overall value in very tough conditions - so, while our standard tire is great, we have special compounds for special situations. Just ask! 

SQUARE PROFILE & FLAT TREAD

When customers first get our tires, they're impressed with the square, flat profile and the fact that we didn't gut the sidewall and turn it into a cake mold just to cut costs. That square, flat profile provides strength and stability you need when carrying heavy loads. It also helps avoid cracking and deformation that occur in budget tires.

Talk To The People Who Make The Tires!

We have a very unique setup at TOKAI here in Thailand, with Thai, American and other nationalities all working together at the factory and at the office to get answers to you quickly and clearly - and the people answering you in English aren't hired guns with little contact, they're talking directly to the owners of the company, the engineers, the planners, etc. We're listening, we know our stuff, and we will respond!

QUESTIONS FOR US?

EP TRACTION TREAD TIRES

SIZES ALT NAMES RIM COLORS CLICK
The Eights
4.00-8 2.50 B, W NC & CL
4.00-8 3.00 B, W NC
5.00-8 3.00 B, W NC & CL
5.00-8 3.75 B, W NC & CL
15x4½-8 125/75-8 3.00 B, W NC & CL
16x6-8 150/75-8 4.33 B, W NC & CL
18x7-8 180/70-8 4.33 B, W NC & CL
The Nines
15x5½-9 140/55-9 4.00 B, W NC & CL
6.00-9 4.00 B, W NC & CL
21x8-9 6.00 B, W NC & CL
The Tens
17¾x6½-10 5.00 B NC
200/50-10 6.50 B, W NC & CL
6.50-10 5.00 B, W NC & CL
23x9-10 225/75-10 6.50 B, W NC & CL
The Twelves
4.50-12 3.00 B NC
7.00-12 5.00 B, W NC & CL
23x10-12 250/60-12 8.00 B, W NC & CL
27x10-12 250/75-12 8.00 B, W NC & CL
The Fifteens
22¼x7½-15 5.50 B NC
5.50-15 4.50 B NC
6.00-15 4.50 B NC
7.00-15 29x8-15 5.50 B, W NC & CL
7.00-15 29x8-15 6.00 B NC & CL
7.50-15 6.00 B, W NC
7.50-15 6.50 B, W NC & CL
8.25-15 6.50 B, W NC & CL
8.25-15 7.00 B, W NC & CL
28x9-15 8.15-15 6.50 B, W NC & CL
28x9-15 8.15-15 7.00 B, W NC & CL
28x12.5-15 355/50-15 9.75 B, W NC & CL
250-15 250/70-15 7.00 B, W NC & CL
250-15 250/70-15 7.50 B, W NC & CL
300-15 315/70-15 8.00 B, W NC & CL
355/65-15 350-15, 32x12-15 8.00 B, W NC & CL
355/65-15 350-15, 32x12-15 9.75 B, W NC & CL
The Sixteens
7.50-16 5.50 B, W NC & CL
7.50-16 6.00 B, W NC
The Twenties
8.25-20 6.50 B NC
8.25-20 7.00 B NC
9.00-20 6.50 B NC
9.00-20 7.00 B NC
10.00-20 7.00 B NC
10.00-20 7.50 B NC
10.00-20 8.00 B NC
11.00-20 7.00 B NC
11.00-20 7.50 B NC
11.00-20 8.00 B NC
12.00-20 8.00 B NC
12.00-20 8.50 B NC
12.00-20 10.00 B NC
The Twenty-Fours
12.00-24 8.00 B NC
12.00-24 8.50 B NC
14.00-24 10.00 B NC

EP RIBBED TREAD TIRES

SIZES RIM COLORS CLICK
The Eights
4.00-8 3.00 B, W NC
4.00-8 3.75 B, W NC
The Nines
16x5-9 3.50 B, W NC

EP SMOOTH TREAD TIRES

SIZES RIM COLORS CLICK
The Eights
5.00-8 3.00 B, W NC & CL
The Tens
21x7-10 5.00 B, W CL
The Twelves
7.00-12 5.00 B, W NC
The Fifteens
300-15 8.00 B, W NC & CL
The Twenties
10.00-20 7.00 B NC
10.00-20 7.50 B NC
10.00-20 8.00 B NC
11.00-20 7.00 B NC, CL
11.00-20 7.50 B NC
11.00-20 8.00 B NC
355/50-20 10.00 B NC & CL

EP S TREAD TIRES

SIZES RIM COLORS CLICK
The Eights
4.00-8 3.00 B, W NC
4.00-8 3.75 B, W NC
The Nines
5.00-9 3.00 B, W NC
The Fifteens
5.50-15 4.50 B, W NC

See What You Want? Or Not?

Mouldmate, the maker of TOKAI Solid Tires, is called that for a reason. We have in-house design, fabrication, compounding, R&D and testing capabilities, but also custom solutions for thousands of situations we have encountered over decades of designing and supplying tires (and much more) to companies around the world - from small distributors all the way up to major OEMs and governments.

NEED HELP?

WHY TRUST THE TOKAI EP?

Decades into this, and TOKAI Solid Tire has been supplying solid pneumatics (and more) for decades, there are now a ton of companies pushing solid resilient tires at you. Some of those tires and great and some are junk. The worst part is figuring out which is which before you buy them.

For that reason, we thought we would put together a quick FAQ explaining the advantages of the TOKAI EP Solid Pneumatic. Just tap each blue heading to learn more about why the TOKAI Solid Pneumatic is the right solid resilient forklift tire for almost any application.

When we tell customers that our standard black tread layer is, other than additives needed to make a tire, pretty much made of all-natural rubber they almost don't believe it, until they take a look at the finish when the tire rolls out of the container. 

See, over time, one way a lot of tires have become cheaper (or more profitable for factories) is by taking out natural rubber and putting in other stuff. Sometimes, in some applications that's a good thing - and we do that too, where it makes sense for our customers - but our basic tread layer hasn't been touched in many. many years, except to make minor improvements in the oils and additives that go into any part of a tire.

Thailand produces more natural rubber than any country in the world, look it up, and that's why we can afford to make such a high quality tire with all-natural rubber. It's also why when oil prices skyrocket, we don't need to worry about raising the cost of our tires the way some factories who rely heavily on synthetic rubber might. 

Natural rubber, among other things, provides greater rebound resilience, meaning that every time that lug rolls down under pressure and then rolls back up, the natural rubber takes less of a beating than synthetic rubber would. Additionally, natural rubber holds together better after getting gashed or ripped on. When you see cracks or tears in a synthetic tire you can start the clock on it, while a natural rubber tire taking a beating from cuts and rips is more likely to hold together and not fail.

You just can't beat all-natural Thai rubber, and that's why we use it - you should too.

The first sign that you're dealing with a BS tire is when the factory salesman tells you, "Oh yeah, it'll beat the crap outta the SC18 or the Elite XP." At TOKAI our policy is we don't trash other people's product and, in fact, our engineers and designers think very highly of the SC18, which the TOKAI EP has competed directly against in national markets - and outperformed on a quality at cost-per-hour basis in enough applications to hold entire markets.

Our standard construction, all-purpose compound 3-layer EP runs very well in most applications, and wears better in certain applications than some of the most well-known tires, at a price that's considerably more affordable. The EP is not a budget tire, though, it's a value-priced premium tire. If the top tires are the Maybachs of the solid industrial forklift tire world, the TOKAI EP is the Audi that pleasantly surprises you. Give it a shot, you'll be glad you did.

(If you don't like Audis. oops. Just sub in your favorite performance workhorse.)

At Mouldmate, we have our own R&D, compounding and testing departments - and a number of mixers, large and small. We even have testing mixers about the size of a full size pickup so our compounding nerds can spit out sample after sample in small batches to develop compounds more quickly and accurately. Once developed, we have small batch mixers and really huge mixers, several stories tall all in, which means we're one of the few factories that has no trouble compounding small batches of tires for you. If you're used to being told you need to order a large volume to get a mix of compounds in your container, well, you're dealing with a one-size-fits-all supplier. We very much are not that.

And that's why our list of speciifc compounds and constructions for different situations is so comprehensive that we gave up even publishing it for people. Our tires run, every day, in some of the largest (and hottest) ports and airports in the world, for example, so when a port serviced by a huge customer was having trouble with chewing up tires, our engineers flew out and looked at things in person, like they often do, and realized that the port was running the big old forklifts through water channels between runs to cool the tires - sometimes they were even cracking the rim! Our engineers studied everything in person, took measurements and notes, then came back and solved the problem. 

Airports require highly tested and certified compounds so that the GSE tires don't chunk, end up in an engine and bring down a plane, so we have a special compound for that. It's not just ports and airports, though, it's everything.

Running over sharp odds and ends in a hotter-than-hell foundry? Carrying long steel beams that bow and flex as you ride? Using an oversized truck to carry big, light loads of lumber on rough surfaces? Running in a refrigerated environment? The list of situations we have specifically tested and compoudned for is really, really long and comprehensive.

One visitor to our factory from a very large company commented that he had never seen this level of capability in a factory short of the major international brands. He was surprised, but we weren't. We love what we do, and we take it seriously. If you don't control every aspect of the design and engineering and compounding and production and testing processes then you don't really know what you're making and when problems arise you don't know how to fix the black box you're running. If you can't fix your own problems, how can you fix your customers' problems?

That's never a problem at Mouldmate, maker of TOKAI Solid Tires and tracks (and run-flat inserts and poly wheels and and and...).

Imagine a company with nearly thirty years of constantly traveling to extreme - and sometimes just odd - applications around the world, solving them one by one, and you'll understand why when no one else can, or even cares to solve your problem, TOKAI Solid Tire is not only happy to, but excited to.

Our engineers love solving problems, so if you've got one, get in touch with us at [email protected].

One questions we get asked a lot, especially by dealer-distributor customers, is whether our tires are difficult to press, or if they can only be pressed from one side. Do they tear easily? Require a lot of pressure? 

Good news: Our tires are designed with easy pressing in mind. The inner heel layer isn't made of cheap junk that can't take pressure, because cutting costs to make a tire as cheap as possible results in a cheap piece of junk tire. When you're pressing a TOKAI, you won't need to cross your fingers and close your eyes and hope. It just works, like the rest of the tire.

People often ask us, "What's your warranty?" and the answer is one of those answers that's so simple that it flummoxes a lot of folks:

If we broke it, we'll fix it. Period.

Just like any other company, large or small, we've turned out a bad product here and there over several decades, and when we have - you can ask our customers - we've studied the situation, put our engineers on it, looked up every detail of production for that tire (we keep extensive records on every single tire, what goes into it, how it got made and who made it) and if we did something wrong then we've warrantied the tire. Done deal. 

We know in a world of 12 page warranties citing everything from act of God to international terrorism you're used to seeing a telephone book's worth of language to explain a very simple concept like "we stand behind our products," but we think it's best not to complicate the obvious and just say, you know, we stand behind our product.

Anyone who needs a ten page contract to tell you how they stand behind their product, well, the other 9,000 words in there probably aren't there to explain how they stand behind their product.

Did We Miss Your Question?

If you've got questions that aren't answered that's totally understandable. We can't write everything we know about making solid resilient forklift tires here, it'd take forever and most people would get bored reading a 100,000 question FAQ. Still, we probably can answer your question directly, and are happy to - just ask us.

WE'RE LISTENING...

READY TO ORDER?

At TOKAI Solid Tires, we've done it all. We've supplied OEMs, governments, militaries, distributors, dealers and more - that's not just spitting out cookie cutter tires either (though we can do that). We've desgined, simulated, tested and supplied tires, tracks, wheels, run-flat inserts, spacers - you name it - and we'll be happy to do it for you. 

So, to help smooth the onboarding process, we'll talk a little about how we can work with different kinds of customers, but, first, here are some advantages that TOKAI Solid Tire broadly offers to all its customers - just click or tap the blue header to learn more.

We're a one-stop shop offering access to a wider range of products in one container than you're likely to find outside of the huge multinational manufacturers. That lineup includes solid pneumatics, press on tires, skid steer tires, OTR & telehandler tires, rubber tracks, polyurethane tires, aerial & scissor lift wheels, run-flat inserts, spacer rings and more.

When you're dealing with Mouldmate, maker of TOKAI Solid Tires & tracks, you don't need 3-4 different suppliers to get all your eggs in one container, you can just deal with us.

Because we have our own internal - and very comprehensive - R&D, design, metallurgy, compounding, testing and, of course, manufacturing and logistics departments, we can quite literally do it all for you.

Since Thailand is a popular location for foreign manufacturers and has friendly ties with all major economies (and, in fact, most every country), there's very little risk of your prices or orders being impacted by international politics. For example, when some other countries' customers in the US got hit with a 25% Customs bill every time a container arrived, TOKAI Solid Tire customers didn't.

We've got decades of experience working with different kinds of customers and we'd like to help you work with us. In that light, here are some things that we find in working with different kinds of customers:

READY TO ORDER?

Dealers

You don't have to be a distributor to buy from a factory, and just because you haven't done it before doesn't mean you can't start. On the other hand, if you're already buying a container here and there, we can also represent a competitive advantage, cost savings, supply chain diversity or all of the above. Mouldmate, maker of TOKAI Solid Tires & tracks, can offer you LCL or FCL shipments and the ability to choose from a wide range of different tire, track and other rubber products.

Here are some common advantages we find when working direct with dealers.

  • Cost savings ranging from about 25% to 50% per tire vs. buying domestically, with savings up to 100% or more against luxury brands.
  • The ability to buy LCL, or Less than Container Load, if you prefer. Buying FCL, Full Container Load, means more money in your pocket, but we'll help you start small and build up.
  • You can put whatever you want in there, as long as it fits. In Solid Pneumatics, sure, the top sellers like the 7.00-12 and 6.00-9 represent a lot of an order, but because you're dealing direct with the factory, you can also toss in some tires compounded for airport GSE, a few big tires compounded to run on a Jungheinrich that eats tires, some tracks for that customer that's got the tracked scissor lift and so on. No need to pay huge premiums for rare products, just pay the factory cost and you can mark it up on your end!

If you're a dealer who's interested in getting started, but doesn't know quite how - or doesn't know us - just email us at [email protected] now and let's see if we can work together.

DEALER DIRECT?

Distributors

We sell to distributors in many countries and the first thing they would tell you is that we honor our agreements. 

We don't enter into high volume relationships lightly, so when we do we stick to what we promise. You might have had different experiences with different companies in different countries, but ask around and you'll find that Mouldmate, maker of TOKAI Solid Tires & Rubber Tracks is well thought of. It's worth mentioning this up front, because it's one of the most important things discussed between our teams and any distributor approaching us.

Beyond that, if you're a distributor then you're already buying by the container (or should be), meaning that your concerns are going to be related to volume and competitive differentiability.

  • TOKAI Solid Tires truly do represent a cost per hour benefit for your end users, especially in tough situations where me-too tires are chewed up and spit out, our multiple mixers, both large and small, and company philosophy mean that we can send you specialty tires in every container without a large volume commitment. Even our standard tire, with its premium all-purpose compound, competes very favorably on smooth and rough surfaces, though. When its a three-layer, three-shift situation, our tires have you covered, but when its a hot, heavy port or an airport or a foundry or you name it, we've got the experience - and the compounds and engineering - to help you save your customers time and money.

    If you're getting tired of working with a manufacturer who turns out 1,000,000 of the same thing and doesn't have much flexibility or capability to deal with those odds and ends that represent 20% of the market and 80% of the problems (and the margin that comes with solving problems), we might just be the people you need to talk to, because we love solving problems.
  • If you've gotten large enough and you're looking to white-;label your tire, we're happy to talk. Just bring us an idea of volume and we're open for discussion. We recognize that your brand is important to you, and when you marry it to the TOKAI EP Solid Pneumatic it'll be a honeymoon for sure.
  • Just the same, some distributors have enough market penetration and distribution that they're ready for their own tire, which represents a competitve advantage that no one else can match. Our design team, which has designed everything from polys up through big fat rubber tracks and OTR tires for decades, can help you tackle the job. What's more, you can buy and own the mold, securing your intellectual property and, unlike with some companies in some countries, be sure that your agreement will be honored. We believe in long-term relationships, not short-term, one-time profits.
  • If the commitment is large enough and flexible product flow is a concern, we can work with you to design a stock-on-hand program to accommodate quicker deliveries and last-minute changes. Like any relationship, we both have to work to find the best solution, but we know the pain of being told, "That will be one month to make and one month to ship, but the press is down right now..." so we're happy to accommodate large-volume inventory management needs on our end to help you keep customers happy on your end.

The needs of any large distributor are always pretty specific, so we like to let you start the conversation. Just tell us what you need and what challenges or problems - or just plain old needs - you have and we'll be happy to talk about if, and how we can work together to get things moving in the best direction for you, your dealers and the end users.

TIME TO DIVERSIFY?

Fleet Customers

Whether you're a rental company or an equipment company or are just managing a large fleet inside of a very large company, we've been there and we're interested to help solve not just your tire concerns, but also your logistics and inventory management concerns. Some companies are just getting into managing their tires, tracks and wheels internally, while others have had tire management departments for quite some time. Either way, we're here to support your needs. 

Here are just a few things we run across in our fleet discussions:

  • When it comes to solid pneumatics, the biggest concern is servicing. That's why we start with relationships. Ours first, obviously - we're not going to cross with one of our existing customers - but yours are important, too. If you've got a servicer you trust with a relationship that you like, we don't want to break that up. That said, if you're interested in controlling costs or you're having trouble solving very specific fleet application problems that your servicer is also having trouble with, it might be a good idea to get in touch, or have your servicer get in touch and see if we have a product lineup that's a better fit for you.

    Walmart doesn't wait for Sony or Acer to build the product they want, they bring in their supplier and say, "Hey, we need this to be [cheaper / better /whatever], and you need to go find a way to do that." which is why you'll notice the same laptop on Amazon and at Walmart have a different model number down at the end of the long string of letters and numbers. Looks similar, runs similar, does what the customer wants, but customized to market needs. We're happy to work with you directly, or with your services, to achieve exactly that.
  • Specialty tires, tracks and more are our, well, specialty? As mentioned above, we're one of the few factories in our segment of the market that is vertically integrated and horizontally integrated in terms of product line and internal capacity to the degree that we are. So, if you need white-labeled, non-marking tracks along with 20 pieces of 23x10-12 spaced out for a big truck that's eating up tires - and a few OTR tires and scissor lift tires and tracks for that growing market of machines that lift people and stuff off the ground in wind farms, at dairy farms, in stadiums, on construction sites and more, we're a great partner.

    Especially when it comes to self-fittable, fire and forget commodity products like tracks, scissor lift tires and TWA skid steer tires, we can provide you nearly a packaged solution - oh, and want that container pre-palletized to part out and ship to 10 locations? We've got you covered.
  • We've worked extensively with some very smart people at some very large international companies to design a contractual VMI (Vendor Managed Inventory) program that gives us both serious advantages in terms of providing inventory, handling transfer and fulfilling things financially. Obviously, these arrangements are very specialized and not one-size-fits all, but we've done it for other companies and we can do it for you if you have the volume and the interest.

So, if you're a fleet customer looking to cut costs and increase your control over the supply chain, give us a shout and ask us...

HOW CAN WE HELP?

OEM & Supply Chain Partners

Mouldmate, the maker of TOKAI Solid Tires and tracks has partners with some of the largest companies in the world to provide OEM solid pneumatics, OTR tires, tracks - you name it. Chances are, you've seen or ridden on our tires without even knowing it, which is exactly why we remain OEM and supply chain partners for very large companies. They know they can trust us to keep their product lines running without running our mouths about the deal to anyone.

So, if you're an OEM and you've got that fat stack of papers asking for compound characteristic matching, deflection testing, simulation results, code after code of ASME tests, application test results, competitive test results - whatever you need - our R&D, engineering and technical sales teams will work together to support your program as you make your decision and be there for you once you begin testing and ordering. You bring the need and the volume and we'll bring the solution and the results.

LET'S TALK TECH.

Still Shopping?

If you're interested in Solid Pneumatics, maybe you should check out some of the following TOKAI Solid tire products:

And if you're still just not sure, just drop us a line at [email protected] anytime, we're here to help!