Old Museum Skinny Tires

[Redline]

I was visiting our state museum today and there were two front-clips from a couple of cars. I believe the first was a Model-T and I didn't recognize the second.

I know comparing modern vehicles and very old cars is 'apples and orange' but I couldn't help but look at the very skinny tires on the rigs, which actually looked taller than they were because of their very narrow width.

The first (Model-T) were 30 x 3 1/2 (Yep, thirty inches tall by 3.5 inches wide).

The other vehicle had 28 x 3" tires.

These were the numbers/sizes printed on the sides of the tires.

 

[DaveInDenver]

I seem to remember there was a reason for that. Something about the roads being pretty horrible, not paved and all that. So they needed very tall tires for clearance and the width was narrow width so that the relatively light vehicles could cut through the muck on top to firm material under the mud. I dunno, just seemed to make sense at the time.

 

[Grim Reaper]

I seem to remember there was a reason for that. Something about the roads being pretty horrible, not paved and all that. So they needed very tall tires for clearance and the width was narrow width so that the relatively light vehicles could cut through the muck on top to firm material under the mud. I dunno, just seemed to make sense at the time.

Same thing I have heard. It is also easier to roll over things like rocks and roots with a larger diameter. Same reason that the wheels are so large on horse drawn coaches. Takes less to overcome a 4 inch obstacle with a 4ft diameter wheel then it does a 12 inch diameter wheel.

The problem is the leverage needed to turn an axle on a wheel 4ft tall was more then the motors and metals of the day could handle so they settled down around 25-30 inch range to help with the gearing.

 

[paulj]

Would it have been possible to produce wider, low profile tires, with the technology they had? Cotton and natural rubber? I bet those tires were 100% profile, i.e. nearly circular in cross section. Very much like bicycle tires.

paulj

 

[Grim Reaper]

Would it have been possible to produce wider, low profile tires, with the technology they had? Cotton and natural rubber? I bet those tires were 100% profile, i.e. nearly circular in cross section. Very much like bicycle tires.

paulj

They were still making rims out of wood. Horses as transportation was still the norm and the wheel still shard the wagon wheel technology. It was a hybrid of a wooden wagon wheel and a Pneumatic bicycle tire. The motors had no power. It takes less to spin a skinny tire then a wide tire as well.
The fact is a wide tire is not needed if the mud has a bottom and the load doesn't justify it.

In the grand scheme of things...cars are a pretty new invention.

 

[teotwaki]

Last time at Zion National Park Visitor Center I was reading about the early tunnel building efforts. They had dump trucks with solid rubber "tyres" that had a tough time trying to drive over the rocks and rubble in the tunnel. Fortunately it was 1927 and the first dump trucks with 32" x 6" pneumatic tires were introduced and easily handled the uneven surfaces.