Eli5: Why are car tires filled with air and not just made completely of rubber?
In: Engineering
Your tire is an air spring that softens the ride and allows the tire to deflect – to bend to the shape of the road, increasing surface contact and thus traction. By being solid, deflection would be minimized and traction would be greatly reduced, and the rid would become very uncomfortable.
Further, the weight. Not only would such a tire be outrageously heavy, but it would put additional strain on the materials used to hold the tire together, as well as on the suspension. Just keeping that much rotating mass attached to the car would require much, and I mean much larger structural suspension components, which would make the car heavier. You’d need larger springs, larger shocks, and they’d all take on WAY more load and wear. You’d need MUCH larger brakes, and they’d be drum brakes like you’d see on a semi, just to stop your car, which comes with more weight and greater maintenance and material costs. It would take a lot more energy to accelerate the vehicle, you’d generate a lot more heat just trying to stop it, and you’d have lots of problems with inertia, not just within the wheel itself, but also in suspension travel, and the whole car. Your fuel economy would tank.
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