OK, not “All New”. Just the look is new. A special thanks to Michael Staake of Wag Websites for designing this and for his help in teaching me how to use WordPress. FYI: It is going to take some time to migrate everything from the old website – and even then, I am not going […]

Tire failure on a schoolbus leads to the death of an eighth grade student. Revision: The link below is to a more up-to=date news article Page A1 | Post and Courier Columbia E-Paper /end revision The news reported that back in April, 2025, a schoolbus suffered a front tire failure, flipped and killed an 8th […]

Let’s assume for the moment that there is an extra glob (How’s that for a technical term!) of rubber on the edge of the tread of a tire – and that the tire is mounted on a rim and inflated. If this glob has significant weight, it could cause a vibration in the vehicle. Let’s […]

These are charts showing the various kinds and configurations of balance weights for wheels.

Barry talks about HL tires – tires that were designed with additional load carrying capacity compared to regular passenger car tires. The intention was to provide a way for car manufacturers to avoid tire packaging issues on EV’s. HL Tires This article is being written in July, 2022. The first HL tires just came on […]

This is the first of a series utilizing this new format. This one is about how much can be revealed simply by reading recall documents. 19 October, 2025: Yesterday, I got a notice from NHTSA about a tire recall. The company is not important, but they were recalling several sizes of tires, all from the […]

Low Profile vs High Profile Tires: This article was prompted by a YouTube video on the same subject that was ……..ah …….. Let’s just say I thought I could do a better job. But let me start by saying, the variability within a given size is quite large – so large that tires on the extremes could be the reverse […]

Tire Warranties When browsing the internet, I frequently come across folks with a tire problem and wondering if the tire is covered under warranty. This article is an attempt to answer that question. Pro Tip Call the tire manufacturer if you have a warranty situation. Not only will they guide you to a tire dealer […]

TRX Tires By the late 1970’s, the transition from bias ply tires to radials was more or less complete. The typical aspect ratios were 80, 78, and 75, with 70 series considered low profile. It was known that the lower the aspect ratio, the better the handling, but the worse the ride. The TRX was […]

This article is going to compare bias ply tires with radials. While I will be referencing passenger car tires, the comparison would apply to any type of tire. There’s a summary at the bottom of the page, but read the introductory paragraphs first. They explain how I am organizing this. Everyone needs to be aware […]

Other Types of Tires: This website has been talking almost exclusively about passenger car tires. Occasionally, I will talk about Light Truck tires. In this article, I am going to address the other kinds of tires. Just for reference, I am going to follow the order tire standardizing organizations follow (and – YES! – they […]

This is the second in a series of articles about the rubber chemistry of tires. I am NOT a rubber chemist and my knowledge is rather limited, so I could use some help. If you are a rubber chemist, please contact me. Mills: One of the most fundamental pieces of machinery involved in rubber processing is a […]

This is the first of several articles about the chemistry of the rubber used in tires. Obligatory: I am not a rubber chemist and my knowledge is severely limited. I could use some help writing these articles, so if you are a rubber chemist, please contact me. This first article is about the kinds of […]

Key Takeaways Definitions When I use the term “EV”, I mean “BEV”—Battery Electric Vehicle—that is, vehicles which only have an electric motor for propulsion. Peculiarities of EVs There are a number of things peculiar about EVs: I’m going to take each of these individually. Range Where tires play a role here is in rolling resistance. […]

DOT Codes are also known as the Serial Number or the TIN (Tire Identification Number) I get a lot of questions about how old a tire is. You can tell that – and a lot of other things – by reading (and decoding) the DOT code. Update Dec, 2024: Tire Business, a newspaper of interest to tire dealers, published […]

What you should get from this page: You will hear various recommendations about tire aging: How many years, how bad are the cracks, from date of production or date of install, etc. This page will give you MY recommendations and the justification behind them. They may not be perfect, but at least you will know where they […]

In the article on weather cracking and tire aging – here!– I stated I couldn’t figure out why the tire return pattern didn’t change – it should have changed timing and shifted to a later return pattern, indicating the failures were occurring later in life. Instead, it only dropped in magnitude.I now have an explanation. […]

Want to know if your tires are overloaded? Below I present a test procedure to figure that out and a spreadsheet to help with the calculations. Enjoy! Test Procedure: Before starting out on an extended trip (at least an hour!), measure and record both the inflation pressures and the ambient temperature. It’s also a good […]

Uniform Tire Quality Grading (UTQG) is a US system for passenger car tires to allow consumers to make better choices when buying tires. This article is about the details. What you should get from this page: UTQG ratings were a long time in gestation. The tire manufacturers resisted the regulation quite strongly. Their principal argument […]

From Top Tire Review: Top Tire Review – Bringing tire knowledge to everyone, one tire at a time

This article is about travel trailers (RV’s) that have ST type tires. Other kinds of trailers or other types of tires on RV trailers are not specifically addressed here. HOWEVER, if you have a trailer of any sort you may find the information of value Tips for ST tires: When I originally published this webpage, […]

In this page, I am going to talk about how tire brands work. I am not going to talk about quality or compare tire brands in any way. It’s really important to realize that for every statement I make below, there are exceptions—so many in fact, I may not remember to point them all out. […]

This article is about how you can’t calculate the size of a tire’s footprint. That is, the inflation pressure is not equal to the average foot pressure and you can’t calculate the size of the footprint even if you know the load and the inflation pressure. Included are a ton of examples gleaned from the […]

What you should get from this page: To aid in this, I’ve created the chart below. Right click on the chart.Open image in new tab, and once the new tab is open, print it out and take it with you.Please note that it is possible that after this was written, the tolerances might be changed […]

This article is about tire noise – what causes it, how tire manufacturers reduce it, and how the consumer can reduce it. Tire Noise and Noise Testing: I am going to talk about how tire manufacturers try to reduce the noise that tires generate. That may help you select a tire that doesn’t generate as […]

Original Equipment tires are tires that are supplied to the vehicle manufacturer’s assembly plant. These tires would be the ones on the vehicle when it comes off the end of the assembly line. This would include the spare – whether it is a minispare, donut, fullsized temporary, or regular tire. Throughout the rest of this […]

From time to time, I will get questions concerning the use of modern tires in place of the tires that came originally on a vintage vehicle. By vintage, I mean any vehicle that was produced before the advent of the current tire sizing system. If you don’t have a good grasp of how tire sizing […]

There are several tire standardizing organizations throughout the world, but I am going to concentrate on just three of them: The Tire and Rim Association (TRA) – The US organization (The cover of the 2005 Yearbook is at the top of this page) The European Tyre and Rim Technical Organization (ETRTO) – Europe (The cover […]

This article is about how tire dimensions work. – how they are specified by the tire standardizing organizations. If you haven’t read up on Tire Standardizing Organizations, I suggest you do so. It will help you understand this page better: Barry’s Tire Tech – Tire Standardizing Organizations Also, Tire Rack has done such a good […]

This article explains how tire load tables work. They define the relationship between inflation pressure and load carrying capacity. If you haven’t read up on Tire Standardizing Organizations, I suggest you do so. It will help you understand this page better: Barry’s Tire Tech – Tire Standardizing Organizations Below is a scan from the 2005 […]

WASHINGTON, DC, Aug. 9, 2000 — Saying the safety of consumers is the company’s first concern, today Bridgestone/Firestone, Inc., announced a voluntary recall of all Firestone Radial ATX and Radial ATX II tires in size P235/75R15 produced in North America, including Mexico, and Wilderness AT tires in size P235/75R15 produced at the Decatur, Illinois plant. […]

One of the fundamentals about tires is sizing. There is a lot of confusion concerning tire sizing and this is going to explain it in general terms and basically how it works. As a general rule, tire sizing describes the physical dimensions of a tire – but that is only part of the story. It […]

There aren’t any real advantages to using nitrogen in a street tire. Enough time has gone by, and enough research has been done, to be able to back up what effect using nitrogen has as an inflation medium. Rather than repeat the myths surrounding nitrogen as an inflation medium – thereby reinforcing the myth – […]

Useful Lists and Such: Tyre Reviews.com – Jonathan Benson, a UK based journalist (now living in Salt Lake City), does tire testing and publishes them on YouTube. This link takes you to his website, which has links to the YouTube videos. This guy is excellent!! Wheel-Size.com – A listing of the tire and wheel specifications of many […]

As published by Tire Business, December 16, 2024

1950-51 TRA Cover Page: 1950-51 TRA Page 1-01: 1950-51 TRA Page 1-02: 1950-51 TRA Page 1-03: 1950-51 TRA Page 1-04: 1950-51 TRA Page 1-05: 1950-51 TRA Page 1-06: 1950-51 TRA Page 2-01: 1950-51 TRA Page 2-02: 1950-51 TRA Page 2-03: 1950-51 TRA Page 2-04: 1950-51 TRA Page 2-05: 1950-51 TRA Page 2-06: 1950-51 TRA Page […]

1960 TRA Cover Page: 1960 TRA Page 1-01: 1960 TRA Page 1-02: 1960 TRA Page 1-03: 1960 TRA Page 1-04: 1960 TRA Page 1-05: 1960 TRA Page 1-06: 1960 TRA Page 1-07: 1960 TRA Page 2-01: 1960 TRA Page 2-02: 1960 TRA Page 2-03: 1960 TRA Page 2-04: 1960 TRA Page 2-05: 1960 TRA Page […]