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.
At the moment, the world's largest dump truck with a carrying capacity of 450 tons is BelAZ-75710.
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.
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, 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.
If someone had a question, what are the largest tires in the arsenal of the American company Goodyear, then this is the Goodyear RM-4A + size 59/80 R63, which are 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 Goodyear 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 than the allowed height of trucks in most European countries. Basketball hoops are a meter below. The weight is 5.4 tons, the carrying capacity is 100 tons, and the maximum speed is 50 km/h.
63-inch tires have a metal frame and belt. They were created using the latest computer modeling technologies, and the development was carried out in cooperation 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, while reinforced sidewalls provide additional protection. Goodyear RM-4A+ are available in 53/80 R63 and 59/80 R63. Versions are offered with three types of 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 really expensive tires are. Look at their prices and breathe a sigh of relief - thank God you don't have to spend that much.
Fifth place. Price$ 5500
In fifth place in terms of cost are tires of the famous brand Michelin 44.5 x 16.0-21, and they are not automobile, but aviation, 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 those wheels need tires that can handle incredible speeds of up to 420 km/h. Like most aircraft tires, the shuttle tires are light in weight, have minimal tread, and are nitrogen-filled for endurance in low temperatures and pressures. 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 four main tires can only be used once by the shuttle, while the tires for the front wheel are 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 manufactured in one place in the world, at Michelin's Norwood, North Carolina facility.
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 car that in itself is one of the most expensive and fastest cars in the world.
Bugatti Veyron on the autobahn can reach speeds of up to 400 km / h, gaining it in 14 seconds. At such high speeds (higher than the Concorde aircraft), the Veyron needs tires that give it control and good grip. To do this, tire manufacturer Michelin has developed special tires - Pilot 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 of a Bugatti Veyron the amount of $ 2.5 million. And when they need to overcome 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, enough to build two small cars, and enough rubber to make 60 passenger 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. No one can say exactly how long such tires can be used on an aircraft, because their life depends on variables such as weather conditions, landing hardness, wind loads, the technical condition of 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 over 80,000 km on one set of wheels, but unlike liners, these tires do not constantly drive on a concrete road at a speed of more than 200 kilometers per hour!
You can find a large selection of tires for special equipment and trucks
Width 315 mm. Frightened ... We remembered other mass-produced cars, whose tires will also be wider. And among them are not only thoroughbred sports cars.
But first you need to make a little clarification and explain why the emphasis is on the rear wheels. The fact is that in powerful supercars during acceleration, due to the redistribution of weight, the main load falls on the rear wheels. And if there is a whole car under the hood, then the wider the tire, the higher the “hook” and the more efficient the transformation of this power into acceleration. This is why the rear wheels of sports cars are generally wider than the front ones.
Tires of the same width (315 mm) as those of the future Dodge Challenger SRT Demon are now worn, for example, by the Ferrari F12tdf, built in a limited edition (799 pieces) in honor of the Tour de France. It is based on the ferocious F12 Berlinetta itself. But the special version of tdf is even meaner.
It is noteworthy that for the rear-wheel drive F12tdf, Ferrari also offers winter wheels. They are narrower than summer ones, and the rear tires with a width of “only” 305 mm are allowed by the manufacturer to be used with chains.
The Italians boosted the standard atmospheric 6.2-liter V12 engine for the F12tdf from 740 to 780 hp, and the torque increased from 690 to 705 Nm. And all this traction has to be taken over by the rear wheels through a "robot", which has been "shortened" by 6% gear ratios. After all these alterations, the F12tdf picks up 100 km / h in 2.9 seconds, accelerates to 200 km / h in 7.9 seconds, and the maximum speed is 340 km / h.
Didn't expect to see an SUV in this review? But this G 500 4x4² is already equipped with such rubber from the factory that you will not find it on every sports car. At Mercedes-Benz, this "super Gelendvagen" came off in full. They put portal bridges on it, bringing the clearance to 46 cm (!), “harnessed” a 422-horsepower V8 gasoline bi-turbo engine, with which acceleration to 100 km / h takes 7.4 seconds ... And so that all this crazy economy tenaciously clings to the asphalt and drowned less off-road, equipped the “square” with 325/55 R22 tires - the largest ever put on a serial 4-wheel G-class.
For background, tires of the same width (albeit only at the rear) are placed, for example, on the hybrid Porsche 918 Spyder, which is three-engine and no less crazy for its part. The “heart” of the most-very Porsche in the history of the company is a 4.6-liter naturally aspirated V8 with a return of 608 horsepower and a “cut-off” at 9,150 rpm. And each axle here additionally turns its own electric motor. In total, it turned out 887 hp. and 1,280 Nm of thrust (more than the more powerful LaFerrari), acceleration to 100 km/h in 2.5 seconds and a top speed of 351 km/h.
Another "American" in our review is the "hot" Chevrolet Corvette Z06 of the current generation. And at the back, he has seemingly solid tires with a width of 335 mm. But if you remember what kind of monster lives under the hood of the Z06, then this value no longer seems so impressive.
The current Corvette is the last to have the engine in the front. The next Corvette will be central-engined and even more powerful. Apparently, the wheels will become even wider.
And under the hood, the Z06 has a hefty 6.2-liter V8 equipped with a mechanical supercharger. It was with the help of this compressor that 650 hp was squeezed out of the engine. and 881 Nm of torque, which are capable of turning rubber into a rapidly burning “consumable” without much stress. But the upcoming version of the ZR1, which will be a farewell to the current generation of Corvette, will develop 750-800 “forces”. Poor tires...
Another unexpected SUV in our review is the famous Lamborghini LM002, nicknamed the Rambo Lambo, which has long passed into the category of collectible rarities. The car was born after the failure of Lamborghini in the US Army tender, which was eventually won by the equally famous Humvee. But the Italians did not throw away the developments and eventually "grew" from them a luxurious civilian LM002 with a 450-horsepower V12 from the Countach sports car. And especially for this monster, Pirelli created huge high-profile tires Pirelli Scorpio n dimension 345/60 R17. They perfectly kept a heavy car not only on asphalt, but also on sand, which is not surprising: LM002 was made with an eye on Arab sheikhs ...
The LM002 is Lamborghini's first production SUV. True, from 1986 to 1993, only 328 vehicles were produced, 140 of which were military versions for Libya and Saudi Arabia. On request, the LM002 was also equipped with a 7.2-liter V12 from a sea boat.
In contrast to the insane SUV from Lamborghini, let's recall the no less crazy hypercar Koenigsegg One: 1 weighing only 1.36 tons. The essence of this device is in the name One: 1, which meant a ratio of 1 hp. /1 kg of weight. Due to two turbochargers, 1,360 hp were squeezed out of a 5-liter V8 in Koenigsegg. and 1,371 Nm of torque. And all this - on the rear wheel drive. To "convert" this into an acceleration of up to 100 km / h in 2.8 s, the rear tires were called upon. Michelin Pilot Sport Cup 2 345 mm wide. By the way, for One:1 tires, a “maximum speed” of 440 km / h was declared.
A shelf of oversized supercars has recently arrived. In early 2016, Bugatti launched the new Chiron hypercar, even more ferocious than its Veyron predecessor. The W16 engine with 4 turbines and a volume of 8 liters was boosted from the previous maximum 1,200 to 1,500 “forces”. So all-wheel drive, which helps to realize this power during acceleration, is more than welcome here. But even without the appropriate rubber - nowhere. That's why the Chiron got new super-fast tires. Michelin Pilot Sport Cup 2 dimension 285/30 R20 front and 355/25 R21 rear.
Having mentioned Bugatti and Dodge, let's not forget the Lamborghini Aventador, whose 6.5-liter V12 produces from 700 to 750 hp, and the rear tires also have a maximum width of 355 mm. In the photo - the latest Aventador S with a fully controlled chassis.
Chiron, of course, is cool, but he is not alone in this club “who has wider”. For example, the American Dodge Viper with a 645-horsepower V10 has 355 mm rear tires, while the front tires (295 mm) are even wider than the Chiron. The only pity is that 2017 will be the last year for the current Viper.
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.
The very first tires ever appeared before the creation of the car! In 1845, the Englishman Thompson patented an amazing invention - leather wheel covers to soften the shaking of the carriage. Inside, they were stuffed with elastic rubber belts and attached to the rims with 70 ties each.
The Thompson tires were shown and tested in action at the London Industrial Exhibition of 1846 - those who tested the invention found that driving on a cobblestone pavement became much more comfortable.
The very first pneumatic tires on a car- This Michelin tires, installed on Peugeot 1884 with a 4 hp engine. This car took part in the Paris-Bordeaux race, during which the tires had to be changed 22 times. Nevertheless, Peugeot on "pneumatics" out of 19 participants took 9th place.
The biggest tires in the world- it's tires Bridgestone 59/80 R63 V-Steel E-Lug S and Michelin 59/80 R63 XDR designed for mining dump trucks with a carrying capacity of 380-400 tons. The dimensions of the tires are impressive - so, each Bridgestone giant reaches 4.02 meters in height, 1.47 meters in diameter, and weighs 5.1 tons.
The smallest tires at micromodels from "Nippondenso"- A working copy of a 1936 Toyota AA sedan. The tiny machine equipped with an electric motor is about 4.8 mm long, while the diameter of the baby's wheel is about 0.8 mm.
The most expensive serial tires - Pirelli Scorpion Zero size 345/60R17 speed category V (up to 240 km / h), they were originally developed for the Lamborghini LM002 SUV. Their estimated price is about $900 per tire. Among the more popular tires for ordinary passenger cars, the first line of the price list is occupied by Michelin Pilot Sport tires in size 225 / 45R18 of the high-speed category Y (up to 300 km / h), which cost about $600.
The fastest tires, certified for driving on public roads - these are tires Continental ContiSport Contact 2Vmax designed for driving at speeds up to 360 km / h. The basis for the production of this crown of modern technologies was the already proven ContiSport Contact 2 model, improving the speed capabilities of which Continental engineers created this racing miracle.
The quietest tires, according to experts and show various measurements and tests, these are tires Yokohama AVS series. Tires also have high levels of acoustic comfort. Pirelli P6 And Goodyear Eagle NCT-5.
The most environmentally friendly tires releases Nokian Tires. As part of the rubber compound of its tires, the company completely eliminated such a typical “tire” chemical element as polyaromatic compounds recognized as harmful to the environment. Instead, Nokian uses a mixture based on environmentally friendly rapeseed oil. However, environmental friendliness does not reduce the driving performance of the tire at all, but on the contrary, thanks to the new mixture, a lower coefficient of rolling resistance and improved traction are achieved.
Lowest profile tires demonstrated Dunlop, who equipped the Opel Astra Coupe OPC X-treme with 305/25-ZR20 tires on the rear axle and 265/30-ZR20 tires on the front wheels. Continental argues with him with his "atomic" 2Vmax, whose tires, measuring 235/30 ZR 20 and 305/25 ZR 20, the tuning studio Techart equipped its charged Porsche Boxster. Pirelli is not inferior either, offering such sizes as 355/25 R19 and 345/25 R20 in the range of Pzero Direzionale and Pirelli Pzero Assimetrico models.
Most customized tires offers to put on your car the company Matador. This manufacturer provides Europeans with an unusual service - industrially applying any inscriptions on the tire sidewall at the request of the customer: the name of the corporation, the name of the owner of the car, the name of his wife (mother-in-law), a wise aphorism - in short, everything that fits, except for obscene expressions. In this case, the inscription is applied instead of its own matador name. So you can easily play a friend: show him your name on the tires, saying that, they say, “I opened my own small tire factory here” ...
The most futuristic tires offered Michelin. Named Tweel these concept wheels of the future have nothing to do with conventional tires. In profile, they resemble bicycle wheels and are a spatial structure made entirely of rubber, in which flexible "spokes" are connected to a flexible "rim". The designers have already tested Tweel on Audi A4 vehicles and found that the tests gave the most promising results.
