How do truck tires handle heavy cargoes without them popping because of the weight?
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Tires are reinforced with steel cables impregnated in the rubber. Tires are designed specifically to safely contain enough pressure to support the truck and its load. Trucks which must carry heavier loads have more wheels which spreads the load among more tires.
It uses flexable tires and a strong type of metal to hold the cargoes using the benting of the tires that can’t pop easily.
The tires use hard types of flexable rubber made from latex and polyisoprene, strong types.
Tires all have ratings for multiple things, the main two are their ability to shed heat(speed rating) their load capacity.
Load capacity is the weight each tire can handle at proper tire inflation. You can make a tire stronger to handle more weight just like you can make a wall stonger by adding more wood or steel to it, also steel belts are inside the tires kinda like rebar in concrete and truck tires just have more and stronger belts. Truck tires are made much stronger compared to a tire meant for an economy or even a light pickup truck. They also have more tires so the entire load is spread across more tires. An 18 wheeler truck has, you guessed it…. 18 wheels so the load is spread across 18 wheels instead of the 4 on a Honda civic.
Tire guy here… truck tires have more layers of rubber/Kevlar, steel belts etc.. also known as plys. These plys are what add structure and strength, allowing a higher air pressure (which increases load capacity) normal passenger tires are 4 ply heavy pickups are typically 10 ply. Semi truck, bus, heavy equipment etc are 14ply or more. Passenger tires max pressure is typically 40-50 psi. Heavy pickups are around 85psi and heavy trucks, busses, equipment are well over 100psi.
Tldr, the heavier the load requirements the more air pressure you need, resulting in the need for more plys.
Edit to add.. obviously the more tires you have, the more capacity you have as well.
In addition to the kevlar and steel reinforcements, truck tires can have several inches of rubber between the road and the airtight inner layer. We’re looking at over 100 pounds of material keeping the air inside per tire.
The tire doesn’t hold the weight. It’s really the air. The tire just contains the air and grips the road. Truck tires contain a LOT of air, as mentioned above. 100 psi or more.
If you look up your tire type it actually has a weight limit. Every tire does. Also there are more tires on an 18 wheeler to distribute the weight better
Imagine sitting on a single balloon and popping it.
Now imagine laying on a bed made up of 18 balloons. It would be hard to pop any of them.
This is basically the same idea, and truck tires are super thick and hold over 120psi which in ELI5 terms means that for every square inch of contact with the ground the air in the tire can support that much weight.
So as a thought experiment, a single tire with a theoretical 10” x 5” contact patch has enough air pressure to support 6000lb. Multiply that by 18 wheels and you get 108,000lb, with only 120psi in each tire.
Truck tires are built so well they can be re-capped up to three times.
That means putting new tread on them when the old tread wears out.
Alot of good answers, but also there is more tyres.
What everyone is saying about a single tyre is 100% correct, but the fact that trucks have SO many more tyres is a big factor in spreading the load also
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