Tag Archives: tire

Tire Ripples

I had seen images from drag racing which showed how the tires get distorted as the immense amounts of torque are transferred through them.  A tire is at its most effective when it isn’t sliding but is in static contact with the ground.  You might recognize this from your own experience.  If you push something across a surface, the resistance reduces once the item starts moving.  The same thing happens with tires.  To get the best out of them spinning is not good.  With the tire gripping the surface but the axle rotating, the sidewall is the area that has to compensate which it does by distorting and then unloading as it drives the vehicle forwards.  I wanted to try and catch this so took a bunch of shots focused on trying to catch this moment.

Socks For My Tires

The snow that stopped our trip to Cannon Beach was heavy over the hills and it required traction devices in order to be allowed on the road.  Since we didn’t have winter tires, I went shopping for some chains.  Unfortunately, they weren’t available in the size of my wheels and the clearances were not great.  However, I was introduced to something I had never heard of before.  They had chains, cables and socks.  I knew of chains, of course, and cables are just a version of chains but with (don’t be surprised) cables.  Socks are a more recent addition to the range.

They are a legal alternative and actually provide as good or better traction than chains.  They are a fabric covering for the tire.  One side has straps that go across the outside and an elasticated band is on the inside.  You hook them over the tire and pull down as much as you can and then roll the car forward half a turn to finish pulling them in to place.  Removal is the opposite.

They were actually pretty easy to use and, after a short bit of driving, I stopped to check them and they had actually self-aligned straightening out any unevenness.  They worked a treat.  Traction and braking were not a problem.  I was worried about their durability but maintaining the speed limit of 25mph for the 40 or so miles we drove caused no issues and they look just fine after removal.  I imagine that they don’t have the durability of chains so regular use would suggest chains as a better option but as an occasional requirement, they worked great.

Snowcoach Adventures

For my birthday, Nancy took me on a trip to Jackson Hole.  Part of the trip was a journey in to Yellowstone National park in a snowcoach.  The snowcoaches are modified vehicles to handle to snowy terrain.  They come in two main forms.  One is the tracked vehicle and the other is based on monster truck tires.  The one we took was tracked.  It was a pretty standard van design with four wheel drive but the wheels had been removed and replaced with triangular track arrangements called Mattracks.  These can deal with pretty much any snow.  The only downside is that they are a bit noisy, not too fast and boy do they guzzle fuel.  One our trip we stopped for fuel twice and were pretty low by the time we got back.

We also saw some of the other vehicles out and about.  The monster truck tired vehicles can attain better speeds and efficiency (plus the maintenance is so much lower) but they are not as reliable in dealing with the worst of the conditions.  However, they do seem to be the way that everyone is going.  Our guide told us the tracked vehicles are gradually being replaced.  It should be noted that, after the winter, the tracks are taken off and they revert to normal road use.

Smoke the Tires and Make Them Shiny

I was photographing some evening arrivals at Vancouver and, as I went through the shots afterwards, I got to see some detail on the tires that I had not noticed before.  The tires’ surface has a matt finish as you would expect of rubber.  When they hit the runway they go from zero rotation to very fast rotation extremely quickly.  The friction that causes this rapid run up scrubs a bit from the surface of the tire making the familiar smoke.

What I didn’t know is that the heat changes the appearance of the surface of the tires.  They suddenly become very shiny.  In these shots you can see wheels of a 777 just before and just after contact.  Also there is a shot from an A321 where you can see some of the tires have touched down and others haven’t.  Only with the low sum angle was this obvious.

Smoking the Nosewheel of the A380

Touchdown of an airliner almost always results in a big cloud of smoke as the rubber burns off the tires when they spin up to speed after first contacting the runway.  Lots of tires can mean even more smoke and the 20 main tires on an A380 should mean a lot of smoke.  Less often noticed is that the same thing happens when the nose gear touches down.  As I shot this A380 landing at LAX, I happened to catch the smoke from the nose gear as it hit the ground.

Are New Tires That Expensive?

B11I3641.jpgI was skimming through some shots from Tucson to thin out the shots that I got from that day.  I looked at one of the shots because I thought that there was something wrong with the shot.  When I checked a few of the surrounding shots, I realized that there was nothing wrong.  The shot was real.  The F-16 had a tire that was looking very sad.  I know that budgets are tight but I think they need to change the tires on this jet.