Barry's Tire Tech

Force and Moment Tire engineers use the term “Force and Moment” to describe how tires generate cornering forces.

Once again, I am starting off the blog with an entry on the California Energy Commission and their proposed tire regulations.

Euro 7 is the seventh set of regulations involving vehicle emissions – and this time, they’ve included tires as part of the regulation.

Link to EPREL – The EU’s website that lists EVERYTHING rated with an energy label – including washing machines, air conditioners, ovens ……… and tires!

In the process of researching the European Union’s tire label, I stumbled on the fact that the label covers more than passenger car tires.

Update: Aug 1, 2026: On July 17, 2026, the California Energy Commission issued some changes to their proposed tire regulations.

Below is a copy of the letter I sent to the California Energy Commission commenting on their proposed regulation.

Blog – July 1, 2026 In April, 2026, the California Energy Commission (CEC) announced their latest version of their proposed tire regulations.

Please note: Tire Business is a bi-monthly publication of news of interest to those of us in the tire industry.

Update July 15, 2026: The CEC issued a transcript of the comments: https://links-2.govdelivery.com/CL0/https:%2F%2Fefiling.energy.ca.gov%2FGetDocument.aspx%3FDocumentContentId=108977%26tn=271437%26utm_medium=email%26utm_source=govdelivery/1/0101019f62d20f…

Things of interest in the world of tires for the month of May, 2026. ********************* On May 13, 2026, the California Energy Commission announced a public hearing of their new proposed regulations for June 10, 2026.

This is a controversial subject!

I stumbled on a YouTube video where a guy was applying – his words – “14 ply tires” to his travel trailer.

Jalopnik had an article talking about Michelin putting RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) chips in passenger car tires and how they weren’t active, but passive – that is they could not transmit, only respond, because they didn’t have batteries.

I’ve seen this question enough to warrant a webpage.

I’ve been struggling to understand how water vapor affects tire pressure.

Another NASCAR incident: At the Pheonix race, there were a lot of tire …… ah …… disablements.

This is a bit of a departure from my usual stuff.

Yes, I didn’t have a monthly blog for January.

For practical purposes, when people talk about inflation pressure, they mean “cold” inflation pressure – that is: the tire and the air inside it are at the same temperature as the surrounding environment.

The photo above is of a “greige roll” – a roll of tire cord, before it gets a coating of rubber by way of a machine called a calendar.

This time it’s tire sizes that aren’t covered by a tire standardizing organization. 445/50-15 & 515/45-15 I stumbled across 2 tire sizes I was unfamiliar with.

Odd Ducks: This article is the first in a series about unusual things I find – things that don’t fit the narrative I have been preaching – In this case, it’s about interchanging tires of the same type regardless of where they are made.

Wheels, Rims, and Spiders!

The Department of Transportation (DOT) is the US governmental agency that regulates all forms of transportation in the US.

I’m going to divide this into 4 parts: What the USTMA says is the right way to do a tire repair.

Match Mounting: Here’s what you should get from this webpage: While it does no harm to match the red dot on the tire to the valve hole, it might not be doing anything of value.

Racing Tires: There are many kinds of racing.

I’m just posting these because they contain some good information.

I am on a NHTSA email list for recalls.

This article is about Winter and All Weather tires.

This is a special blog post to cover this issue.

RunFlat Tires First, nomenclature: I am going to discuss tires that don’t need internal air pressure to operate.

December 1, 2025: Tire Business, a publication that reports on tire related stories, reports that the Safe Tread Alliance (STA), a coalition of industry leaders and safety advocates, is advocating replacing the “Penny Test” with the “Quarter Test” for tire

Tire failure on a schoolbus leads to the death of an eighth grade student.

Let’s assume for the moment that there is an extra glob (How’s that for a technical term!)

Barry talks about HL tires – tires that were designed with additional load carrying capacity compared to regular passenger car tires.

OK, not “All New”.

This is the first of a series utilizing this new format.

Low Profile vs High Profile Tires: This article was prompted by a YouTube video on the same subject that was ……..ah ……..

Tire Warranties When browsing the internet, I frequently come across folks with a tire problem and wondering if the tire is covered under warranty.

TRX Tires By the late 1970’s, the transition from bias ply tires to radials was more or less complete.

This article is going to compare bias ply tires with radials.

Other Types of Tires: This website has been talking almost exclusively about passenger car tires.

This is the second in a series of articles about the rubber chemistry of tires.

This is the first of several articles about the chemistry of the rubber used in tires.

Key Takeaways EV’s don’t require special tires.

Retreads have an undeservedly bad reputation – partially because early retreads DID deserve it, but they no longer do – and partially because of a huge misunderstanding.

Revised: December, 2024: At the bottom of this page, see the addition of Tyre Reviews Video (Jonathan Benson).

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.