My brother-in-law is an engineer for Michelin, and while he used to work at the automobile-tire factory, he switched to a new job at the large-tires factory next door. Though the latter factory produces about half the tonnage, per day, of tires as the automobile tire factory, it produces somewhere between 25-30 tires per day at most.
The largest tires they make weigh several tons by themselves and are so heavy and bulky that you can only put 3 of them on a flatbed truck at once. These tires are for the same sort of mining trucks. He tells me the whole truck is so large, it is assembled and disassembled onsite.
In related news, I am currently in South Carolina visiting said bro-in-law along with my sister and their adorable kid. There air's a little chewier here than in Seattle, but I'm having fun!
Every once in a while there's this giant loader parked outside of work, I took a picture next to its giant tire back in 2002: http://kisrael.com/viewblog/?date=2002.08.17
Testing with https -- https://alienbill.com
LAN3 ... my Father-In-Law worked in the IT department at Michelin, Greenville SC. I get to hear a lot about tires too ... though my ultra conservative nature made it tough to support Michelin over the last several years, kept informed for family sake. He recently got outsorced to IBM Global Services and so pretty much his whole department are now IBM employees. I spend much time in Greenville myself, a little hot in the June-August months but otherwise enjoyable weather. Check out Miyabi Japanese Steakhouse when you're there ... good food ... good price.