Airless Tires

[Jim Koepke]

This article is a couple years old > https://www.freethink.com/hard-tech/...lic-test-drive

Airless Tires.jpg

Anyone know how it is going?

jtk

[Bruce Page]

I remember reading about it a couple of years ago. I haven't seen anything good or bad since.

[Edward Weber]

I've seen them used on lots of industrial and landscape equipment, which operate at low speeds. Michelin calls them Tweels, https://tweel.michelinman.com/tweel-fitment-guide.html

https://www.michelin.com/en/innovati...ncept/airless/

I think it may be that people aren't ready to accept them on their own cars. Wait until a racing series like F1 or Nascar starts using them, then people would get on board.

[Bill Dufour]

Solid rubber tires were outlawed around 1920. They cause too much pounding and destroy the road. Makers will have to get the laws changed in all 50 states before they can sell any.
Bill D

[Bruce Wrenn]

Almost all the commercial lawn mowers use them on the drive wheels, but not the steer wheels. No down time due to a flat tire

[Dwayne Watt]

The Michelin tires are not solid. They function more like a bicycle wheel where the direct vehicle support comes from the spokes in tension, not compression. The torque is transmitted through all the spokes going into tension against the tread face. However, the tread face is pliable enough to flex over undulations in its path. The really cool thing about the tweel is it not dependent on air pressure so it cannot go flat.

[Tom M King]

Tires like that for lawnmowers are Really expensive. I looked at them when I ordered the last mower, but no way would they be worth that much of a premium for me. I forget how much the premium was, but it was more than even a few hundred dollars per tire. I wouldn't say most commercial mowers run them. I've only seen a few around here with them. When I bought my commercial mower, a whole extra set of drive wheels and tires was much less than even the premium of getting those put on the mower to start with.

I don't like the airless tires on wheelbarrows. A pneumatic wheelbarrow tire will roll over a small rock without noticing it. The airless wheel barrow tire is stopped by small things a pneumatic tire doesn't notice. I gave away the only wheelbarrow I ever bought with an airless tire.

https://www.gallaghertire.com/26x12n...waAlQbEALw_wcB

I would need two of them for my mower. An extra set of rear wheels and extra traction tires for my mower was less than $300. I can fix more than a couple of flat tires, which I have never had to fix the first one on any lawnmower, for $1200.

[Bill Dufour]

The Michelin tires are not solid.

That may be but I bet the laws have not been changed in 100 years so they probably are not legal today. It would not surprise me if the law says the tires have to be air filled. Just because a law is 100 years old does not mean it is not enforcable.
My father was in New Orleans in WW2 and he said some cars had solid wooden tires due to rubber shortages and rationing.
Bill Î

[Bill Dufour]

Those tires look like they can get packed with snow/rocks/ice/mud and turn into solid lumps that may be out of round by several inches. Can you say flat spot?
Bill D

[Edward Weber]

If anyone bothered to read from the link I posted, they've been using them on certain fleet vehicles for testing. They claim to have over 3 million kilometers driven so far.

"More than 3 million kilometers on the road

Currently, Michelin is the only manufacturer in the world to run an airless tire on open roads under real-world conditions as part of commercial contracts.

Beyond the placement on DHL's light vehicles in Singapore, UPTIS prototypes have been fitted on a fleet of vehicles in Las Vegas and Thailand to be tested under intensive use in real-life conditions. To date, these UPTIS prototypes have accumulated more than 3 million kilometers on the road."

I'm not saying they're perfect but they are definitely viable in certain applications. I would simply dismiss them out of hand.

Forgot to mention, Goodyear has their own version that they call DuraWeb technology.

[Bill Dufour]

I think the moon rover cart used something similar. Out of this world technology.
Bill D

[Tom M King]

The guy that welded those Moon tires was a very good friend and my welding instructor.