Commercial vehicle tyre adhesion

Tyre adhesion is critical to primary safety and it is therefore very important that current levels of tyre adhesion are maintained or improved. The UK Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions contracted the Transport Research Laboratory (TRL) to look at the adhesion levels of current generation commercial vehicle tyres and to consider the feasibility of an adhesion test procedure. The results indicate that it would be inappropriate to measure tyre adhesion by using any one test procedure. The tyres generally gave different rank orderings with the braking tests on the various surfaces tested. Another different rank ordering was produced from the cornering tests. There are various factors which influence tyre adhesion. The substantial international pressure to reduce tyre noise levels is likely to result in legislation in the very near future. Such legislation might well adversely affect tyre adhesion levels. It is therefore the author's opinion that there is a need to develop a legislative test for commercial vehicle tyre adhesion with some urgency. (A)