Posted by Charlie on Saturday, April 14, 2001 at 3:35AM :
In Reply to: New 10 ply Super Swamper Radial!!! posted by Drew Rogers on Saturday, April 14, 2001 at 1:33AM :
There's usually very little difference between radials same size, same mfg., same tire except for load rating. I would be (pleasantly) surprised if the tire ahd even 3 (instead of two) nylon body plys, and I'd be surprised if you could easily measure the thicker sidewall. All it really means is that the tire safely can hold about 80 psi instead of 50. When you really think about it, it's the air that supports the load and all the tire does is contain the air and of course deliver traction.
Which brings up another point: until sidewalls start to bear a significant proportion of the load, the footprint of a tire is merely the load divided by the pressure. This is not absolutely correct only to the extent that the sidewall itself is bearing the load. Do uninflated tires bear loads well? Even a still true 8 nylon ply ND will be pretty squashed at 0 psi when the weight of the vehicle is on it. I'll bet that for radials the sidewalls bear roughly 1-2% of the load under normal conditions.
This is the theoretical reason why we obtain more flotation by partially deflating tires.
Charlie
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