B arry's T ire T ech

This is a series of articles on the technical aspects of tires, their care and usage.

My primary purpose in these articles is to help people understand tires and thereby reduce the risks we all face every day.

..........and since tires is just about the only thing I know about..........

Please drop me a note if you have a topic you want to see:

Barry@BarrysTireTech.com
Main Page:

I hope you enjoy my website, but more importantly, I hope you learn something as well.

I am not going to pretend that this website is going to cover everything. In fact, I'm only going to cover subjects that either need clarification or have not been covered somewhere else. That means this is going to be fairly advanced - not for the beginner!

If you ARE a beginner - or don't find what you are looking for, may I suggest you visit:

Tire Rack's Tire Tech Area.

But before going much further, I want to make a few things clear:

  • The information published here is the best information I have available. Like a great many things, it is not absolute.

  • Some of what is here is my opinion and I have tried to make it clear when I am expressing my opinion and when I am presenting facts.

  • I've tried to confine my discussions to Passenger and Light Truck Tires but most of the information applies to tires regardless of the vehicle they are designed for.

  • I have copied some copyrighted material onto these pages. If I understand the laws correctly, I am allowed to do this so long as I didn't copy it in its entirety (which I didn't), and it is for educational (I sure hope this is educational!!) or entertainment (That would be a plus!) and not for commercial purposes (OK, if I make a few bucks off this site, I'll share it. I doubt that will happen!!).


BTW, I want to publicly point out how much work it is to put one of these web sites together. Hats off to those of you who do this every day!!

Tire Standardizing Organizations

Load Tables

Dimension Tables

Tire Aging and Weather Cracking (New June, 2022)

Winter and All Weather Tires (New May, 2022)

Rolling Resistance and Fuel Economy

Followup on Rolling Resistance and Fuel Economy

Original Equipment (OE) tires

Vintage Tire Exchange

Nitrogen Inflation

Speed Ratings

16.5" Tires

Footprint / Contact Patch (Updated July, 2022)

Vibration: Balance, Runout, and Uniformity

Directional and Asymmetrical Tires

Serial Number / DOT Codes (Updated June, 2022)

Idealized Alignment Recommendation

The Ford / Firestone Controversy (Updated May, 2022)

ST Tires (Updated May, 2022)

SAE Paper 800087 - The Effect of Inflation Pressure on Bias, Bias-Belted, and Radial Tire Performance - by B. L. Collier and J. T. Warchol, B. F. Goodrich, February, 1980

My Credentials