Those who are searching for the best tires for their vehicles are bound to come across the term ‘tire rolling resistance’ sooner rather than later.
Tires are typically subject to various environmental forces such as air resistance, surface adhesion, gravity and many others. For a vehicle to move, these forces must be overcome.
Rolling resistance is one such force and an important contributing factor to your commercial vehicle’s performance, fuel efficiency, tire wear life and more.
This post will be about the basics of tire rolling resistance that vehicle-owners should know.
Understanding tire rolling resistance
Before the tires in your truck can gain momentum to move your automobile, there are different factors like tire rolling resistance that increase tire resistance to forward movement.
Tire rolling resistance is the energy needed by a vehicle to maintain tire movement at a consistent speed. Hysteresis is the main process through which energy loss occurs to keep tires rolling. Your vehicle’s engine must consume fuel to overcome this energy loss.
Rolling resistance can be minimized
Although tire rolling resistance is inevitable, it can be minimized with low rolling resistance
tires. Look for commercial tires that are engineered with specially formulated tread compounds which are resistant to heat generation. This decreases tire deflection and the consequent energy loss.
Fuel efficiency can be increased with low rolling resistance
If you’re interested in optimizing your truck’s fuel efficiency, low resistance tires are the ideal choice. As per the U.S Department of Energy, approximately 15-30% fuel is consumed by heavy-duty trucks to overcome tire rolling resistance.
Owners who utilize low rolling resistance tires save as much as 10% in fuel costs as compared to conventional tire users who only save about 3%. When the numbers add up, this results in substantial fuel expense savings.
Low Rolling Resistance Might Cause Tire Wear
This is the trade-off between fuel efficiency and tire life. Unless new technology is developed or tire manufacturers reduce tread depth to improve tire rolling resistance, tire wear life will be compromised when using low rolling resistance tires.
New vs. Replacement Tires
To meet the Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards, most new cars are equipped with low rolling resistance tires. However, there is no such requirement for replacement tires. Those looking for fuel efficient replacement tires should do their own research to find ones with low rolling resistance.
At the end of the day, benefits like fuel efficiency and prolonged tire life are only provided by
purchasing tires from reputable manufacturing companies like HakaTires.