[Fot] Michelin's new spoked tire

[Jerry Van Vlack]

There is an industrial tire called AirBoss that uses a similar concept but 
with much greater cross sections and individual segmented sections. I know a 
lot about that product as I served as the President of the Division for 
several years until the parent sold the business. In our case the product 
served a specific niche market on equipment used in aggressive environments. 
We did a lot of testing and strictly limited the speed that the tire could 
be used as you build up heat pretty quickly when the rubber is flexing. I'm 
sure that Michelin has done even more testing since their tire is intended 
for highway use. We did experience issues with rocks and debris getting into 
the open air pockets. While I realize that our product and this tire are for 
very different applications the failure modes might be very similar.
The concept was copied by other manufactures eventually and costs became an 
issue as competitors found ways to make similar tires and we did not change 
our design. (Much more to that story). It was a good experience for me 
personally and I learned a lot about the dynamics and chemistry that goes 
into the design of rubber products.
Bill Dentinger and Bob Kramer may remember our tires that were used on 
Skid-Steers and Variable Reach lift trucks. We were an OE option for several 
years on Case, New Holland, John Deere and BobCat equipment.
JVV
----- Original Message ----- 
From: <BillDentin at aol.com>
To: <kaskas at cox.net>; <fot at autox.team.net>; <colordog.1 at earthlink.net>
Sent: Monday, March 08, 2010 2:15 PM
Subject: Re: [Fot] Michelin's new spoked tire


> In a message dated 03/08/2010 12:32:42 PM Central Standard Time,
> kaskas at cox.net writes:
>
>
>> How about snow and ice build up in freezing weather..talk about an out of
>> balance condition..... whoopee.
>>
>
> A couple of years ago someone sent me info on these, and I took it to my
> racing partner Bob Wismer, who was quite familiar with them.  They are not 
> a
> particularly new concept, and Kas is right that snow, ice, mud, debris are
> all prime issues that have prevented them from going further with them at 
> this
> time.  But consideration as an emergency spare strikes me as interesting.
>
> Bill Dentinger
> \
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