Tracey:

Tires generate heat by flexing while rolling down the road.

In general, maximum heat in generated inside the tire at two locations:
		- At the edges of the tread
		- In the tire's lower sidewall, just above where the tire mounts to the rim

Ambient temperature and road conditions tend to determine the amount of heat generated in 
the tread.

Load and tire inflation pressure tend to determine the amount of heat generated in the 
tire's lower sidewall.  This is our area of concern.

Take a look at the sides of your tires.  At the bottom of the tire, where the tire contacts 
the road, the sides bulge out.  You can imagine how many times your tire's sidewalls flex 
per minute when running at 65 mph because of this bulging.

A reinforced tire has stiffer sidewalls, and will flex less for a give load.  Also, 
reinforced tires can be inflated at higher pressures, which also results in less sidewall 
flexing.

My recommendation to run Blizzaks at maximum inflation pressure, as labeled, is to simply to 
reduce sidewall flexing and thereby reduce heat build-up.

I hope that I was not too long-winded on this.  I worked as a tire engineer for 10 years and 
sold tire testing equipment to all of the major tire companies for another 10.  I tend to 
get carried away on this subject.

--- On Tue, 21 Jan 1997 21:31:47 -0600  Tracey Choulat <tchoul@osprey.unf.edu> wrote:

>On Tue, 21 Jan 1997, mdstockr wrote:
>
>> I strongly recommend that if you run standard load tires, such as Blizzaks, on your vans, 

>> inflate the tires to the maximum pressure listed on the sidewalls.
>> 
>> This will allow the tires to more easily support the load and to run at lower 
temperatures.
>> 
>> 
>If these are for driving on snow, are high temperatures a problem?   :)

-----------------End of Original Message-----------------

___________________________________________

  Michael Stocker <mdstockr@neo.lrun.com>
  North Canton, Ohio, USA
  Date: 1/22/97
  Time: 9:17:37 AM
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