The biggest tires in the world April 22nd, 2017
If the wheels of a giant mining dump truck are worn out, the “miners” are in for serious expenses: each such tire costs as much as several cars. You can save only on balancing - it is useless for slowly rotating wheels of dump trucks.
Do you know what determines how gigantic the newly created dump trucks will be? Not only from the desires of large customers and marketing research dump truck manufacturers.
The determining link is tire workers.
After Michelin launched the first radial tire in 1959 for mining trucks with a dimension of 18.00R25 (18 is the width of the tire in inches), the entire mining industry began to follow the achievements of French engineers with interest. The larger the tire and the load that it is able to take on, the higher the load capacity of the dump truck and more profitable business. Develop durable tires, capable of withstanding loads of tens of tons, is not easy - this was an obstacle at the beginning of the journey. For real giant machines began to appear only in the 1970s, when suitable "shoes" appeared.
Until 1964, the largest radial tire had landing diameter 39 inches, but by the end of the decade, the tire size limit had reached 51 inches. The real breakthrough in the industry came in 1976 when Michelin introduced the 57-inch 40.00R57 tire. This led to a surge in megalomania in the mining industry. For more than two decades, 57 inches has been the limit. But in the late 1990s Caterpillar decided to develop a mining truck with an unprecedented load capacity (345 tons) - model 797B. It was then that the first 63-inch tire was born - the development of Michelin. This indicator was derived based on the maximum possible total weight of the machine - 624 tons, limited by the capabilities of tires. Maximum load one 63-inch tire - 104 tons, there are six wheels in total, and the weight between the axles of the car is distributed proportionally. As it is easy to calculate, 624 tons is really the limit.
However, in terms of carrying capacity, Caterpillar is now No. 2 in the world. In 2004, the Liebherr T 282 B dump truck debuted with a load capacity of 363 tons, which was dubbed the "eighth wonder of the world" in the press. reach so high rate succeeded by reducing own weight cars: full mass dump truck - 592 t.
On this moment the world's largest dump truck with a carrying capacity of 450 tons is .
The largest tires today are 59/80R63. Only two manufacturers produce them in series - the Michelin and Bridgestone concerns. The Michelin 59/80R63 XDR tire has an extra-deep tread, due to which it stands out for its long service life, but, accordingly, the high price of $60,000 per balloon.
The Michelin 59/80R63 XDR tire weighs over 5 tons! The giant wheel can withstand a load of more than 100 tons, and especially high demands are placed on its strength. In this regard, the composition of the tire includes 890 kg of steel! The main material, of course, is rubber: it contains 3850 kg in a tire - it would be enough to produce about 600 passenger tires.
Are tires coming soon? bigger size? The answer is no. “Producing tires with a larger diameter does not allow transportation,” explains Louis-Gayol Kaineck, marketing director of Michelin's tires for the production of tires for heavy equipment. Every year, the company sends thousands of giant tires to remote areas of the planet - by ships, planes, rail and road trains.
According to an international study, the largest possible tire diameter for transportation using all these methods is 4.3 m, and the outer diameter of the largest Michelin tires is 4.03 m. Theoretically, you can slightly increase the tire, slightly increase the load it can withstand, but this will require large investments, and the effect will be insignificant. So "63 inches" is the limit for today, and a new round of gigantomania is not expected in the near future.
path of least resistance
Although everything cars for many years they have been riding exclusively on radial tires, diagonal tires were installed on some BelAZ dump trucks relatively recently. Such wheels are characterized by a simpler design, cheaper to manufacture, they are distinguished by the strength of the sidewalls, but high rolling resistance (respectively increased consumption fuel) and a shorter service life negate their advantages. Therefore, Michelin stopped producing diagonal tires for mining trucks back in 1980, and the Bobruisk enterprise Belshina, which previously supplied BelAZ diagonal tires, now produces mainly radial (more than 90% of its products). Since the development and production of giant tires is not an easy task, rubber is produced in Bobruisk for a relatively big dump trucks BelAZ, and for the giants they buy tires manufactured by Bridgestone and Michelin.
If someone had a question, what are the largest tires in the arsenal of the American Goodyear, it's a Goodyear RM-4A+ in size 59/80 R63, which is the same size and about the same weight as an elephant. These OTR (Off-The-Road) tires are designed for the largest dump trucks used in the mining industry.
Giant good year tires are sold all over the world and installed on dump trucks working in quarries where coal, gold, copper, etc. are mined. The outer diameter is 4.023 meters, which is more allowable height trucks in most European countries. Basketball hoops are a meter below. The weight is 5.4 tons, the load capacity is 100 tons, and maximum speed- 50 km/h.
63-inch tires have a metal frame and belt. They were created using Newest technologies computer modeling, and the development was carried out in collaboration with manufacturers of mining equipment. The tires are made from a special Cool-Running CycleMax compound that reduces heat generation. Grooves in the center of the tread can interlock for increased stability, and reinforced sidewalls provide additional protection. Goodyear RM-4A+ are available in 53/80 R63 and 59/80 R63. Available in three types rubber compound and different tread depths (E3 and E4).
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Every time the car lets you know it's time to change its "shoes", you sigh and calculate how much it will cost you. Yes, good quality tires are not cheap. But, today we will tell you what is really expensive tires. Look at their prices and breathe a sigh of relief - thank God you don't have to spend that much.
Fifth place. Price$ 5500
Tires are in fifth place in terms of cost. well-known brand Michelin 44.5 x 16.0-21, and they are not automotive, but aircraft, designed for the chassis of the space shuttle shuttle.
The Shuttle chassis has six wheels - four main wheels (located at the back) and two front ones. And these wheels need tires that can handle incredible speeds– up to 420 km/h. Like most aircraft tires, shuttle tires are light in weight and are coated minimum tread, and they themselves are filled with nitrogen to give them endurance in conditions low temperatures and pressure. And due to the fact that they have to withstand the heaviest loads, these multi-layer tires are inflated to a pressure level of 23.4 bar.
But, and this is perhaps not the most surprising. It is striking that the tires for the shuttle are almost disposable. The shuttle can sit on the four main tires only once, and the tires for front wheel used only twice. And this despite the fact that each such tire costs NASA $ 5,500 each.
Michelin 44.5 x 16.0-21 space shuttle tires are made in one place in the world - at production facilities Michelin in Norwood, North Carolina.
Fourth place. Cost $9650
The fourth place in terms of cost is again “saddled” by Michelin brand tires. They are produced specifically for the passenger car model. Bugatti Veyron- a machine that in itself is one of the most expensive and fast cars in the world.
Bugatti Veyron on the autobahn can reach speeds of up to 400 km / h, gaining it in 14 seconds. With such high speeds(larger than the Concorde develops), Veyron needs tires that would provide it with controllability and good grip With pavement. For this, tire manufacturer Michelin has developed special tires - Pilot models Sport Pax System 245-690R520 A for the front wheels and 365-710R540 A for the rear. And each of them costs almost $10,000.
Such a cost confuses even the true rich who were able to pay for the purchase. Bugatti car Veyron in the amount of $ 2.5 million. And when they need to cover long distances, they do not drive their car on the world's tracks on their own, but load it into a private plane in order to save expensive tires.
Third place. Price$ 42500
The top three of our hit parade is again opened by Michelin brand tires, which she creates for a mining truck.
This truck, which is a real mining mastodon, can withstand huge loads, and accordingly, it needs six heavy-duty tires, such as Michelin 59/80R63 XDR. Each such tire, which weighs 5.3 tons and has a diameter of almost 4 meters, holds 47 large steel nuts, because one wheel of this huge car has up to 155 tons of load, including the weight of the dump truck itself and the maximum load it carries.
One such tire contains 907 kg of steel, an amount sufficient to build two small cars, and as much rubber as would be enough to produce 60 car tires.
Second place. Cost $63,000
The largest and most powerful earth-moving wheeled machine in the world is a career frontal.
This yellow titanium "shoes" in the second most expensive tire in the world, the service life of which, due to the loads it can withstand, does not exceed 12 months. Precisely for their safety and prolongation of life, and also in connection with such a huge cost, these tires are always dressed in iron chains.
Their size is 4 meters in diameter and 1.8 meters wide, and they weigh 6.8 tons. They are produced by the North American company FIRESTONE (Tennessee, USA) under the marking 70/70-57 SRG DT, and today these tires are the most expensive tires for special equipment in the world.
First place. Cost $92,000
And finally, the leader is aviation tires for the super airbus A380, the price of which is simply amazing - almost $100,000 apiece! Now imagine that the Airbus A380 has as many as 22 wheels, each of which needs to be put on such a fabulously expensive tire.
In addition, these tires are able to serve the aircraft for no more than six months, making a maximum of 300 landings. How much exactly such tires can be used on an aircraft, no one can say for sure, because their life depends on variables such as weather, landing stiffness, wind loads, technical condition runways and other factors.
All of this can have a significant impact on the condition of the rubber surrounding the valuable core of an aircraft wheel. Yes, modern cars can travel more than 80,000 km on one set of wheels, but unlike liners, these tires do not constantly travel on concrete road at speeds of over 200 kilometers per hour!
Large selection of tires for special equipment and trucks you can find
The article seems to be hinting: it’s already winter, go to the tire fitting shop and quickly change your shoes!
Kumho ECSTA SPT KU31 Series 15
The tire was introduced in 2008. It has a super-low profile and an incredible width ( dimension — 385/15 R22!). Item exclusively for sports cars, wheelbarrows like Dodge Viper SRT10 or Chevrolet Corvette Z06.
The price for such an elastic band is a considerable $1000. And that's just for one!
Source: Jalopnik
Pirelli P Zero Nero
If you forget about the super-low profile and think purely about the width, then the first tire that comes to mind is the Pirelli P Zero Nero tire. Dimension - 405/25 ZR24.
Usually such rubber is used for wheels of show cars. But it can be easily driven and ordinary roads. The price is from $450 apiece.
Source: practicesports.com
Mease's Custom Car Accessories
This tuning studio is from Ohio. Somehow the guys came up with the idea to advertise themselves. The idea is good, but it came to mind " such“. Namely: the engineers made giant 50-inch wheel disks with tires own design. We put it all on the 4th generation Oldsmobile Cutlass.
Several times a car with these wheels was even seen in motion. Today it is quietly rotting at the entrance to the studio. It's a pity: even though such a thing hardly plows sensibly in real life, it looks very exotic, and sometimes even impressively.
Source: Jalopnik
Firestone Tundra
Once these tires were on the LeTourneau TC-497 road train. Today they show off on the monster truck of one of the American racers - Bob Chandler.
Bob bought them on secondary market, since this has never been done anywhere in the series. Firestone Tundra Features:
- overall size - 120 x 48 x 60 inches;
- height - 3 meters.
The rider installed these tires on his already record-breaking BigFoot monster truck. Here he is ( along with miracle wheels):
Michelin XDR
This is the largest serial tire in the world. Installed on mining dump trucks ( like Caterpillar 797B). The unit price is $55,000. Characteristics:
- dimension - 59/80 R63;
- height - 4.3 meters;
- weight - 4.7 tons.
A little about how this rubber looks and what cars they put it on.
In the UK, the first Guinness World Records was published on August 27, 1955. What people don’t do so that their name is included in the list of record holders. We publish a list of records, after which the only question remains - “Why?”
Most snails on the face
This record was set in 2009 by 11-year-old Fin Kehler. A boy from Sandy, Utah has 43 street snails on his face. The child had to hold out for 10 seconds before the record was approved.
The loudest scream
For six years, the "scream queen" was Annalisa Flannagan, a teacher from Northern Ireland who broke a Guinness record in 1994 by shouting "Quiet!" louder than working jet engine. Her record was broken by British teacher Gill Drake in 2000. He screamed at 129 dB.
The most "extensible" mouth in the world
Francisco Domingo Joaquim has the most "rubber" mouth on the planet. Angolan can stretch it to a record 16.9 cm. This "achievement" was recorded in March 2010.
Print numbers in letters
Les Stewart was told that in order for his name to be printed in the Guinness Book of World Records, he needed to do something out of the ordinary... and weird. In 1983, he settled on a task that many described as physically unattainable and extremely time-consuming.
He began typing all the numbers from one to one million in words instead of numbers on a typewriter. It took him over 16 years, but the record was reached.
Bulk teeth cleaning
In Manila, Philippines, at least 10,800 people decided to meet in the city and brush their teeth at the same time in 2006. This went on for 3 minutes. So the Filipinos beat the record set by the Chinese in 2003. Then about 10,200 people took to the streets.
The farthest spitting pea
The farthest spit of a pea is 7 meters 51 centimeters. This record was set by André Ortolf at the Bodyfeeling fitness gym in Augsburg, Bavaria, Germany. Such an unusual entry in the Guinness book appeared in 2014.
Most Stupid World Records
Ashrita Furman has more than 100 Guinness records, among which there are those associated with a risk to life. But most of them are just pretty stupid. Furman, for example, jumped like a grasshopper underwater in the Amazon River for 3 hours and 40 minutes, walked more than 129 km with a bottle of milk on his head. He also owns a record of 130 thousand rope jumps per day. Ashrita himself says that "stupid" records are his favorite, as it makes him happy when people laugh.
Most a large number of marriages
American Linda Lou Taylor in 2009 set a record for the number of their marriages. By her 69 years, the woman married 23 times. She first married in 1957 at the age of 16. The union lasted seven years - according to the woman, it was the longest and happiest of all her marriages.
In the decades that followed, she married a one-eyed prisoner, a preacher, a bartender, a plumber, and a musician. Two of the spouses turned out to be homosexuals, two were homeless, and one of them beat her. Another husband put a lock on his refrigerator.
Biggest weight lifted by a beard
Antanas Kontrimas, a resident of Lithuania, has repeatedly surprised his compatriots with the strength of his beard: either he will lift a weight, or a keg of beer. In 2012, he set a world record by lifting a girl weighing 63.8 kg in this way and holding her for five minutes.
If the wheels of a giant mining dump truck are worn out, the “miners” are in for serious expenses: each such tire costs as much as several cars. You can save only on balancing - it is useless for slowly rotating wheels of dump trucks
Do you know what determines how gigantic the newly created dump trucks will be? Not only from the desires of large customers and marketing research of dump truck manufacturers. The determining link is tire workers.
After Michelin launched the first radial tire for mining trucks in 18.00R25 (18 is the tire width in inches) in 1959, the entire mining industry began to follow the achievements of French engineers with interest. The larger the tire and the load that it is able to take on, the higher the load capacity of the dump truck and the more profitable the business. It is not easy to develop durable tires capable of withstanding loads of tens of tons - this was an obstacle at the beginning of the journey. Truly gigantic cars began to appear only in the 1970s, when the right “shoes” appeared.
Until 1964, the largest radial tire had a 39-inch rim, but by the end of the decade, the rim had reached 51 inches. The real breakthrough in the industry came in 1976 when Michelin introduced the 57-inch 40.00R57 tire. This led to a surge in megalomania in the mining industry. For more than two decades, 57 inches has been the limit. But in the late 1990s, Caterpillar decided to develop a mining truck with an unprecedented payload capacity (345 tons) - the 797B. It was then that the first 63-inch tire was born - the development of Michelin. This indicator was derived based on the maximum possible total weight of the machine - 624 tons, limited by the capabilities of tires. The maximum load of one 63-inch tire is 104 tons, there are six wheels in total, and the weight between the axles of the car is distributed proportionally. As it is easy to calculate, 624 tons is really the limit.
However, in terms of carrying capacity, Caterpillar is now No. 2 in the world. In 2004, the Liebherr T 282 B dump truck debuted with a load capacity of 363 tons, which was dubbed the "eighth wonder of the world" in the press. It was possible to achieve such a high figure by reducing the own weight of the machine: the gross weight of the dump truck is 592 tons.
The largest tires today are 59/80R63. Only two manufacturers produce them in series - the Michelin and Bridgestone concerns. The Michelin 59/80R63 XDR tire has an extra-deep tread, due to which it stands out for its long service life, but, accordingly, the high price ($60,000).
The Michelin 59/80R63 XDR tire weighs over 5 tons! The giant wheel can withstand a load of more than 100 tons, and especially high demands are placed on its strength. In this regard, the composition of the tire includes 890 kg of steel! The main material, of course, is rubber: it contains 3850 kg in a tire - it would be enough to produce about 600 passenger tires.
Will even bigger tires come out soon? The answer is no. “Transportation makes it impossible to produce larger diameter tires,” explains Louis-Gayol Kaineck, Marketing Director of Michelin's Heavy Duty Tire Division. Every year, the company sends thousands of giant tires to remote areas of the planet - by ships, planes, rail and road trains. 
According to an international study, the largest possible tire diameter for transportation using all these methods is 4.3 m, and the outer diameter of the largest Michelin tires at the moment is 4.03 m. Theoretically, you can slightly increase the tire, slightly increase the load it can withstand , but this will require large investments, and the effect will be insignificant. So "63 inches" is the limit for today, and a new round of gigantomania is not expected in the near future.
path of least resistance
Although all passenger cars have been running exclusively on radial tires for many years, bias tires were installed on some BelAZ dump trucks relatively recently. Such wheels are characterized by a simpler design, cheaper to manufacture, and are distinguished by the strength of the sidewalls, but high rolling resistance (respectively, increased fuel consumption) and a shorter service life negate their advantages. Therefore, Michelin stopped producing bias tires for mining trucks back in 1980, and the Bobruisk enterprise Belshina, which previously supplied BelAZ with bias tires, now produces mainly radial tires (more than 90% of its products). Since the development and production of giant tires is not an easy task, tires for relatively small BelAZ dump trucks are produced in Bobruisk, and Bridgestone and Michelin tires are purchased for the giants.
