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05-17-2007, 07:38 PM
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#1
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Junior Member
Join Date: Jan 2007
Location: Dallas Texas
Posts: 109
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titanium belted radials?
Spur of the moment thought: seems like most tires are "steel belted radials". So I wondered, how much steel is in a tire? Enough that you could save a pound by switching to some other alloy? Maybe aluminum would not be strong enough, but titanium has possibilities.
Could be the term is no longer accurate, and tire manufacturers call everything "steel belted" whether the belts really are steel or not. But I suppose it is still all steel, because they'd surely trumpet such a change in a big marketing campaign.
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05-17-2007, 09:06 PM
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#2
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The Right Lane Rollers!
Join Date: Mar 2007
Posts: 1,274
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Ya, it's really steel. Not sure how much it weighs. Quite a bit, I bet.
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05-17-2007, 09:09 PM
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#3
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ECO-Driver
Join Date: Mar 2006
Location: Pflugerville, Tx
Posts: 1,409
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Quote:
Originally Posted by bzipitidoo
Spur of the moment thought: seems like most tires are "steel belted radials". So I wondered, how much steel is in a tire? Enough that you could save a pound by switching to some other alloy? Maybe aluminum would not be strong enough, but titanium has possibilities.
Could be the term is no longer accurate, and tire manufacturers call everything "steel belted" whether the belts really are steel or not. But I suppose it is still all steel, because they'd surely trumpet such a change in a big marketing campaign.
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I think that would really boost the price of already expensive tires. |
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05-17-2007, 10:16 PM
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#4
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granny just passed me
Join Date: Sep 2005
Location: Pittsburgh, PA
Posts: 1,200
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How about kevlar belts. They are used on bike tires, but I am not sure if it would work for cars.
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2008 EPA adjusted:
Distance traveled by bicycle in 2007= 1,830ish miles
Average commute speed=25mph (yes, that's in a car)
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05-17-2007, 10:25 PM
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#5
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ECO-Driver
Join Date: Mar 2006
Location: Pflugerville, Tx
Posts: 1,409
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Quote:
Originally Posted by kickflipjr
How about kevlar belts. They are used on bike tires, but I am not sure if it would work for cars.
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That would be kinda neat to see if a kevlar contact patch would reduce rolling resistance and provide good traction. I would like to see good quaility lighter inexpensive tires that lasted about 30,000 miles. That way if you got a set of tires you didn't like you would have to use um for 6-7 years before you could try a different one. I rather pay half the price and be able to check out new technology every 2-3 years. |
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05-17-2007, 10:48 PM
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#6
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Junior Member
Join Date: Apr 2007
Posts: 81
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The majority of tire weight is in the rubber.
Here's a pic from my drifting days to give you an idea of what the steel belt looks like:
Steel is cheap, that's why it's used. It also doesn't expand like aluminum does.
I'm not familiar with kevlar, but it comes down to several things. (1) Cost (2) Rigidity (3) Adhesion to the tread and body of the tire.
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I see no reason why fuel economy and power cannot coexist.
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05-18-2007, 10:31 AM
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#7
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Member
Join Date: Oct 2005
Posts: 617
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I always wondered why more tires weren't made with fiber belts rather than steel. After all, the sidewalls of all tires are made from aramid, polyester, and nylon. Fiber is a lot lighter than steel, and it should reduce the tire's moment of inertia.
Steel belts may have to do with marketing than with any performance advantage.
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05-18-2007, 01:23 PM
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#8
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Member
Join Date: Mar 2006
Location: Ventura, CA
Posts: 754
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Their used to be tires which were made with fiberglass belts. They were sort of a step down from steel belts, but a step up from bias ply belts. They did not wear as long and they were not as stable in terms of their shape, as steel belts. My expectation is that steel is the most cost effective material, for the function and mileage.
On one hand it is a drag going 40000 miles if you purchase a set of tires that either doesn't handle as well as you'd like, or makes a lot of noise, or some combination. On the other hand, I hate buying tires or dealing with all of the issues and if I have a tire I am happy with, I'm glad I don't have to bother.
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05-18-2007, 01:56 PM
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#9
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The Right Lane Rollers!
Join Date: Mar 2007
Posts: 1,274
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I think that the Goodyear Fortera tires have Kevlar belts. Aramid is the generic name for Kevlar.
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05-18-2007, 04:54 PM
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#10
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Senior Member
Join Date: Jan 2006
Location: Newport RI USA
Posts: 2,434
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They make tires the other way (without steel belts) but then they are not called steel belted radials and aluminut would stand up to the flexing and titanium is way too expensive and tough to form into a wire.
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05-18-2007, 10:11 PM
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#11
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smart car wacko
Join Date: Dec 2006
Location: Vancouver Island, Canada
Posts: 299
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Michelin invented the radial in 1946 and steel has been the material of choice since then. The steel belts is why it's so important to have punctures sealed properly. Water getting into the belts rusts them, which can lead to tread separations.
The worst radial tire ever made was the Firestone 500 of the 1970s. They blew up REAL good.
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2008 Mercedes-Benz B 200 
2005 smart fortwo cdi pulse cabriolet 
1966 Peugeot 404 Coupe Injection
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05-19-2007, 02:15 AM
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#12
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I am a banana
Join Date: Mar 2006
Location: Western Wisconsin
Posts: 1,481
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my motorcycle tires are nylon belted, they might have steel in the bead, but that's it, it should say the ply raiting on the side wall, but I don't think the ply number is truely how many layers of belting it has, but insted it's "as strong as" that many plys... but they normaly tell the number of nylon, and the number of steel in the tire.
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