Pneumatic Tire Limits

Progress, Volume X, Issue 8, 1 April 1915, Page 276

Pneumatic Tire Limits

During the last two or three years much has been said and written for and against the use of pneumatic tires on commercial vehicles, and as Ave have lately had an opportunity of inspecting the records of tAvo or three firms who have made strenuous efforts to continue the use of pneumatic tires on their vehicles at someAvhere near a reasonable cost, Ave feel that the conclusions arrived at under practical conditions Avill be of value to those Avho are still mentally debating the point. The three firms in question experimented over a period of tAvo to three years with pneumatic tires fitted to one-ton vans, first with all four AAmeels so shod, and later with solid tires on the back Avheels and pneumatic on the front. Despite the fact that tire agents and manufacturers Avere given practically a free hand to fit such tires as would in their judgment stand up to the work at a reasonable cost, all three Avere reluctantly compelled to admit that they had set the Aveight limit of the pneumatic tire too high.

It Avas of course quite possible to keep the vans tired with pneumatics, but only at costs per mile that were absolutely prohibitive.

We have before us a report of Mr. H. G. Burford, one of the most prominent men in the motor industry, who has applied himself to the problem of success-

fully employing pneumatic tires under inanimate loads of one ton net, and this report endorses our own contention that the dividing line between economy and unwarranted expense on the commercial side of the industry is usually found to be a net load of 12 cwt.

There are of course exceptions to this, as to every rule, such for instance as the urgent delivery of daily papers or possibly mail matter that may warrant the expense of perhaps 2d. or 3d. per van mile, but for the ordinary everyday class of work that the average van is called upon to perform, actual experience shows that about 12 cwt. is the load limit.

War conditions which obtain at the moment in England and on the Contenent, will probably give rise to new sets of circumstances in which the pneumatic tire will be admitted to commercial use for loads of over 12 cwt, but they will merely prove the exceptions which will demonstrate the reality of the accepted commercial limit which we have stated.