Are Our Tires REALLY that sensitive?
I know I will roust the ire of many a tire aficionado, as well as those who will claim expert knowledge from years of traveling and RV'ing and quasi-engineering or actual engineering status/certificat...
Forum Discussion
Raymon wrote:
To Bikeboy57,
You stated "Moisture is the enemy of the steel belts." How does the steel belts become exposed to moisture when the belts are vulcanized between layers of rubber? In my opinion the steel belts only become exposed to moisture due to tire wear. If the belts become exposed they will rust which is not good. Also, steel belts exposed to brine created from applying salt to the roads during winter, not only rust, but corrode very quickly.
You also stated "Driving the tire and getting it up to temperature dissipates the moisture,..." What moisture are you referring to?
Ray
Ray, good questions. We are not talking about cups of water in the tires. We are talking trace amounts of moisture in the air and in the rubber in the tires. You know compressed air contains moisture, but the source of the moisture that I was referring is that the rubber actually allows parts per million transfer of water through the rubber. Given enough time a spot on a tire sitting on wet ground will allow trace water to penetrate to the steel belts. Driving the tire heats the rubber. The heat helps to "evaporate" the moisture from the rubber.
Can I quantify this? No. Is it the major factor one should be concerned about? No. Should you listen to snake oil salesmen and fill your tires with Nitrogen to avoid the moisture in compressed air? No.
Certainly the mechanism you described of worn to the belts would result in extremely quick degradation of the belts.
The best thing one can do to preserve tires is to drive them.
