Why aren’t solid tires used on military vehicles like humvees? What are the negatives?
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Those things are shit to ride around in at 80+ miles trying to run back to base to get chairforce chow. Can’t even imagine the hell it would be on ass cheeks with no cushion hard tires. Ugg my taint is chaffing just thinking about that shit.
Well, no service member driving one more than once is probably a bad thing.
Seriously, solid tires would be a nightmare for the occupants of the vehicle, and not that much of an improvement on mobility, as they already utilize run flat technology.
Army Vet here, spent lots of time in HMMWV and the ride ***sucks***.
Even if you are the driver (the seat has more cushion) it still sucks because it doesn’t recline.
The tires have metal inserts for “run flat” performance – if the tire gets punctured by a branch or weapons fire, you can still drive (more like limp back to base).
The result of a vehicle that’s built for cargo not comfort is the worst ride evar. My back always hurt from riding in them but it sure beat walking. So while HMMWV tires give like regular civie tires, they are more solid than their civie counterparts – so the ride is stiffer than a civie Hummer H1 without run-flats.
Solid tires have been tried but the ride on them is worse as they can’t handle bumps or uneven roads. A HMMWV is going where the road is too bumpy even for most 4 wheel drive vehicles.
The HMMWV also needs to be loaded on aircraft – solid tires it’s size would be very heavy.
Lastly, air filled tires allow the drive to deflate them for better traction in sand or mud – you lose that with solid tires.
Air Filled Tires do two things. They add ride comfort and add traction. Both are accomplished by allowing the tire to deform as it goes over terrain. By making a tire solid, you are removing the ability of the tire absorbing impacts and making it impossible to spread the weight across a larger area of the tire.
Huge increase in weight, leading to an even shittier ride, longer stopping distances, more frequent breakage of suspension and steering parts, more likely to get stuck, increased fuel usage, and poetically a few more things I’m to done to remember.
The long and short is making the wheel and tire combo a light as possible is always the right thing to do on everything.
they have a serious wear problem. tires have to deform. in solid material, that deformation degrades the material. at the speed a tire spins, it also creates a lot of heat with nowhere to go. air doesn’t really care if it gets crushed and it helps distribute the heat from the tires better.
Ive driven a fuel truck with solid tires in an underground minr, thing also has no suspension so I guess that makes it worse but still it tops out at like 25-30km/h going down ramp flooring it on the steep parts, up ramp probably closer to 15 so nowhere near humvee speeds and fuck me was that ride rough even with decent seats on airbags, couldn’t imagine going faster than that over potentially worse terrain on solid tires, anyone in the vehicle would be too sore to do anything after the ride
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