Quote:
Originally Posted by jamesqf
You're sure? Has anyone ever tested it?
As I recall, most of the human & solar-powered vehicles use pretty narrow tires.
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The pressure inside of the tire has to be high enough to support the weight of the car with the given foot print of the tire, solar and human powered cars tend to be much lighter weight, my electric car came with 135/80R13 tires stock but it also only has a 1,400 pound curb weight, I weight 250lb and have found that even with 100psi bicycle tires I have to be careful not to go to narrow or I end up creating to long of a foot print with the tire thus increasing rolling resistance.
So tires are getting wider partly because finding a new car that weighs less then 3,000 pounds any more is nearly impossible, but it is also partly for looks.
I would like to see a chart or formula to figure out how wide of a tire you do need for a given weight at a given pressure because if wider was always better then we would all drive around steam rollers.