Tag Archives: Tires

Crazy Wheels Let Car Do the Electric Slide

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You may have never heard of omni-directional car wheels. I certainly hadn’t. What that means are wheels and tires that allow the vehicle to move in any direction you need it to within the length of its body. Just watch the bitchin’ Toyota Echo in this video equipped with omni-directional wheels and tires invented by William Liddiard.

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The special wheels allow the car to spin, slide, and move in ways that no normal car can match. The builder doesn’t let on just how he created these wheels, but says the tires use the same materials normal tires do, and the tires are subject to an incredible 24,000 pounds of torque.

The video show the tires moving in a rolling fashion, moving the car around like it’s on the shoulders of millions of ants who want to eat the car or dinner. Check it out, and watch these cool wheels in action. I rather need these for parallel parking.

Perfect for your paper route!

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Here’s a DIY crafts project that’s worthy of being on a design blog. The Paper Push is a scooter made out of easily procurable materials, primarily newspaper, PVC pipes and fittings, and metal fasteners. The design boasts of being sturdy enough to rival scooters made of metal. The most interesting parts of the scooter (and what really caught my eye) are however, the tires. Made from a paper rolling and folding technique known as Tutki, the tires look beautifully rustic, but at the same time manage to take on a great deal of stress, resisting wear and tear to quite an extent. I’d love to see the application of this in more green design or rural design scenarios! What do you know, maybe NASA may even engineer something using this technique that may be fit for space travel! Thoughts, Yanko family?

Designer: Arjun Agarwal

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The Trac-Grabber Sets Your Car Free

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Winter is allegedly upon us. Looking around, it sure doesn’t look that way… but we wouldn’t bet on Global Warming to deprive us of a snowy winter; we think it’s just a matter of time until you have to deal with slippery, nearly impassable roads. If you want to put all the chances on your side and never get stuck, you might want to carry a pair of Trac-Grabbers. They’re simple blocks of what looks like rubber that easily attach around your tire and give you the grip you might be lacking to extract yourself from a snow bank. There are tons of products like this on the market, but we like how simple these look and how easy to attach they appear to be. Best part is they’re only $49.

[ Product Page ] VIA [ BlessThisStuff ]

PumpTube Uses A Wheels Rolling Motion To Inflate, Stay At The Right Pressure

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We like ideas that use clever ingenuity to accomplish something that hasn’t been done before. At least, we think something like the PumpTube hasn’t hit the market, but we could be wrong. It’s a system that uses a special valve and an inner tube to inflate your tire at the exact pressure just by using the rolling motion of your wheel.

Air is drawn in from the atmosphere through a one-way valve, which sits in the valve stem. Instead of going directly into the inner tube, however, the air goes into one end of the tube-like pumping mechanism, which runs along the outside perimeter of the main inner tube. As the tire rolls against the ground, the pumping mechanism is compressed, forcing air into the inner tube. The resulting absence of air in the pumping mechanism creates a vacuum effect, drawing more air in through the valve.

That said, if the inner tube is already at its desired pressure (which can be set on a dial on the valve stem), no additional air is pulled in.

It’s a smart idea, and the better feature is that it can be used with your current tires. It is compatible with third-party 700c and 26-inch tires, and plans are for it to retail for US$30 to $55 per unit. You’ll have to wait for their Kickstarter to launch next year though, once they’ve perfected the design.

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[ Product Page ] VIA [ Gizmag ]

The Tannus Solid Tires Never Go Flat

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Getting a flat tire while riding your bike is a massive pain in the ass. But if you outfit them with a set of Tannus tires, this concern may become a thing of the past. These tires require no inflation since they’re a solid block made of a special foamy resin called “Aither”.

Made from a very special Micro Closed Cell Polymer Resin “Aither”, Tannus tire uses a foaming technology. And, it may look similar to that used in many lightweight sports shoes, but it is totally different from any other foaming technology both in terms of its process or the condition. It is made from the one-and-only material “Aithercompound” with a very unique foaming process.

They’ll allegedly withstand puncture, and never go flat, while suffering from very little rolling resistance. The tires come in 12 different colors, and 3 different hardness types (soft, regular, and hard). They’ll set you back between $50 and $70, and there are different types and sizes to accommodate bikes of all sorts.

[ Product Page ] VIA [ TheAwesomer ]

Goodyear Is Developing An Electricity-Generating Tire

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Think for a minute about how much energy is wasted in a car. All that gas it burns to get it rolling is almost entirely dissipated and lost as heat in the brakes as it slows back down, while the rest goes to combatting air resistance and drivetrain inefficiencies. By some accounts “only about 14%–30% of the energy from the fuel you put in a conventional vehicle is used to move it down the road.” Newer electric vehicles have started harvesting some of that energy back through regenerative braking, but Goodyear is taking things a couple of steps further by developing a special tire that itself generates power. The concept is called BHO3, and it takes both the friction heat as well as the deformations the tire undergoes while driving to generate an electric current, which is then presumably fed back into the car’s batteries.

To do this, the BHO3 is lined with a fishnet pattern of thermo/piezoelectric material. This net turns the heat into electrical current, and its piezoelectric properties also allow it to harvest energy from the tire as it deforms during driving. To keep the tire from overheating, there’s also a cooling system in the sidewalls.

It’s only a concept at the moment so don’t expect to see it on the road any time soon. But it’s nice to know people are constantly working to wean us off fossil fuels.

[ Press Release ] VIA [ Gizmag ]

Mazda finds Defect in Tire Pressure Sensor, recalls 100,000 Cars

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The Japanese automaker Mazda has recalled 100,000 of its Mazda 6 sedans from the 2014-15 model years because the federally mandated low-tire pressure warning system may have a defect. This is what...

RightPSI is a Tire Valve Cap that Visually Shows Your Tire Pressure

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right psi tire pressure 650x433 RightPSI is a Tire Valve Cap that Visually Shows Your Tire Pressure
This is something that should be standard on every car! Keeping tires properly inflated keeps you safer, improves gas mileage and is better for the environment. RightPSI replaces your tire’s existing valve cap and indicates if your tire pressure is low, overfilled, or just right. If it turns orange, your pressure is too low; yellow is for too high.
right psi chart RightPSI is a Tire Valve Cap that Visually Shows Your Tire Pressure
The bright indicators can be seen from up to 15 feet away. You don’t even need to bend down, just glance at your tires to know. The other neat feature is that it’s a fill-through design so you can fill your tires up with air without removing the caps. And while you’re filling up, just look at the color of the RightPSI to know if you’ve filled it up enough (or too much). Check out this demo video to see how it works:

This is great. It works with TPMS systems, so when you get that annoying TPMS indicator light on your dashboard you can see exactly which tire needs air without having to the do the ol’ guessing game in the freezing cold. The RightPSI is sold in various PSI levels from 28-40, so you just buy the one that’s the same PSI as what your car requires. Also fits bicycles and motorcycles. Expect it in stores this September.

RightPSI is a Tire Valve Cap that Visually Shows Your Tire Pressure
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RightPSI Tire Cap Lets You Check Pressure At A Glance

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If your car is not equipped with a fancy Tire Pressure Monitoring System (TPMS), then you have to do manual checks now and then. Having the right air pressure in your tires is essential for safety and mileage, but checking manually is a pain in the posterior, especially if it’s really cold outside. The RightPSI tire caps change colour depending on whether you’re right on target, or have fallen off. A simple glance at your wheel can tell you if it needs attention. Heck, even if you have TPMS, RightPSI can be useful since it’ll tell you which of your tires is going flat, without you having to test them one by one. The way it works is you purchase a PSI specific set, which you cannot change if ever you change cars or tires. At $25 for a set of 4 though, you won’t be breaking the bank.

[ Project Page ]

Winter Tires With Retractable Studs Possibly On The Horizon

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With the snowy Apocalypse having fallen hard on much of the south over the last few weeks, there’s no doubt some people’s minds have been on the topic of winter tires. They are, after all, made to perform drastically better in icy and snowy conditions, though there is one step above that: winter tires with studs. That’s the ultimate in grip in ice, but it’s also a noisy, abrasive pain between snowfalls so few people opt for them. Now, Nokian Tyres has announced the development of a winter tire with retractable studs. You notice it’s really slippery? Press a button on your dashboard and the studs extend, only to retract again once you’ve made it out of the ice and snow. It’s really the best of both worlds, and it’s not available for purchase. Unfortunately. There aren’t even concrete plans to bring these to market, but the fact that the technology now exists mean that’s missing is enough demand. A few more of the store we’ve seen lately and the market just might change…

[ Press Release ] VIA [ Gizmodo ]