Report on failure testing of thirty tires

Abstract

UMTRI has completed an experimental program to determine the inflation pressure required to fail a sample of thirty individual 16 inch light truck tires when those tires are mounted on 16.5 inch wheels. It is possible to improperly installed a 16 inch tire (metric 215/85, in this case) on a 16.5 inch tire wheel. When this is the case, the tire bead may make and air tight seal against the wheel, even though the bead is not properly seated. If inflation pressure is than elevated, the improper seating of the tire can generate excessive stresses in the bead wire, eventually resulting in failure of the wire and explosive deflation of the tire as the integrity of the bead seat is lost. Such a failure was obtained for each of thirty tires tested.