All-season pneumatic tire with improved tread stiffness.

摘要

All-season radial-ply pneumatic tire for passenger and light-truck vehicles. A belt structure is positioned radially outwardly of the radial carcass ply and a rubber tread is positioned radially outwardly of the belt structure. The tread has a road contact surface that includes rows of blocks separated by grooves. Groove segments between the individual blocks in the circumferential rows have reduced depths that increase the stiffnesses of the rows to improve the uniformity of the tread wear characteristics. Depth reductions in groove segments in adjacent rows are dimensionally and geometrically selected to provide increased stiffnesses in proportion to the distribution of load pressures that occur laterally across the tread surface when such tread surface is normally loaded.