Hacker News Reader

>What effect does tire width have?

probably quite an effect, but reducing damage via width will also decrease vehicle efficiency and increase rolling resistance, so the gains at the road may be lost in an overall loss of efficiency at the vehicle, not to mention manufacturing and materials cost, when finagling the tire-width variable.

I don't have any numbers, though.

View on HN

> will also decrease vehicle efficiency and increase rolling resistance

Not necessarily; one could formulate the tread rubber for such wider tires so they're less grippy per square cm of tread contact-surface, and so exactly as grippy as before per fully-loaded tire. Basically making every change in the opposite direction from what dragster tires do (other than the width.)

That's for peak power. Efficiency is lost in the deformation bending and returning of the walls of each tire as it rolls. i.e. A really highly loaded tire needs to be really well pressurized to prevent overheating and failure due to the losses.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com