FOOTPRINTS FOR NONROTATABLE AUTOMOBILE AND LIGHT TRUCK TIRES

摘要

A pneumatic radial tire combination for four-wheeled automobile or light truck vehicles. The tire combination has a pair of front steer position tires and a pair of rear position tires. The front steer position tire has a footprint when the tire is normally inflated for normal load that has a footprint shape factor of greater than 1.00 at a 50 % load, and about 1.00 at both 85 % load and 100 % load, the footprint shape factor being defined as the maximum circumferential extent of the tire's footprint at the centerplane of the tire's footprint width divided by the average of the circumferential extent of the tire's footprint width as measured at 40 % of the footprint from both sides of the central plane of the footprint. The rear position tire footprint, when the tire is normally inflated for normal load, has a footprint shape factor of about 1.00 at 50 % load, and 1.00 or less than 1.00 at 85 % load and 100 % load when measured similar to the method described for the front position tires.