Truck Tyre Basics

The good old pneumatic tyre is now well over a hundred years old, and has not really changed much from its original concept. John Boyd Dunlop registered this pneumatic tyre with the British Patent Office in 1888 and is therefore generally considered to be its inventor. The pneumatic tyre is now an indispensable feature of our motorized society. Complex tyre behavior is a direct result of the tyre construction. The two main functions of the tyre, is force generation in the road plane and suspension of the vehicle mass. The force generation is made possible by the rubber tread, causing a high friction coefficient with the road surface. Naturally, there are more areas to take into account when the combination of components for the tyre is to be selected and calculated. Areas such as comfort, traction and cornering are covered. Market surveys carried out in Europe reveal that nowadays more than three quarters of all freight is transported by truck. In comparison, the next most popular mode of transport, the railway, carries only an eighth of the total.