The name Tweel is teh ghey..

 

Pretty interesting.
I'm surprised though, that they're not already using this on military or security vehicles.

 

Its not ugly, they can just put rubber on the sides, and it'll look like a normal tire. I wonder how the support structure would stand up to everyday use and abuse. Or perhaps they can produce a hybrid of gas inflated/tweel tire. That would make a very very good run flat tire.
________
DEPAKOTE SETTLEMENT UPDATE

 

i saw that last night as well ... seems there is no plan for a sidewall, just the open ugliness

 

uglyness is right!

 

I saw these on the "Futurecar" series on the Discovery Channel, with some footage of actual cars running on them. These look like they are far enough in development to go into mass production sooner than you think. The deflection of the sidewebbing used to support the tread on bumps and turns merely looks like what you might think a normal tire does anyway without the fully covered sidewall.

The product looks very plausible. And imagine if everyone got rid of their spare tire. That has a lot of design and performance implications.

 

If I remember correctly from when I first saw these last year, they have the sidewalls off for demonstration purposes (to show they're not needed), but will put sidewalls on for production wheels.

Personally, I cannot see them leaving them open like that. Aside from the obvious asthetic issues, they'll create unneccesary drag, and be a magnet for debris or snow and water. Can you imagine the effects on the balance of a wheel which has one side filled up with snow?

Just doesn't make sense to leave them off.

 

i have to say, those tires look very JDM.

 

haha, cops gotta be hating this idea. So much for Spike Strips!

 

So would it make the contact patch of the tire larger? More tire on the road? And how about sidewall strength? would they be decent as a performance tire?

 

I saw that too. Imagine the windup drag racers would induce.

 

gawd i hope so ... and that they give options for the wheel part too!

 

i saw these some time ago maybe a year at least at an autoshow.

 

This looks retarded..

 

science isn't always pretty, makes sense though.

 

Even if they cover it up with rubber the wheels (rims) will be very small. Right now it looks like they be runninz 10s y0 and u kn0w i g0tz to haV 27s!1!!! They may change it completely and make it so the "sidewall" height and wheel radius are in better proportion, but perhaps not. I can only hope that they'd spend extra time/money to engineer them to look more like current wheels for marketing reasons.

 

^ Maybe different is the point. If you're trying to affect a paradigm shift.....

As a matter of pure function the lateral strength of those bands is probably incredible compared to a air-filled tire. As long as the verticle deflection of the bands is equal to the vertical deflection of a thinner air-based tire running on larger wheels than you would be equal or even better. Normal thinking would say that this would be even more competetive because smaller wheels = less weight. However, those bands probably add a lot of weight to the tire so the equation is probably changed drastically.

I think the biggest application here is not for performance. I think treadwear (run it to the bottom!) and potential ability to easily retread are the biggest assets.

Here's a thought: Offroaders removing the outer rim and just running on the bands?!?

 

Wow, I had a dream about this.. I was driving my 8 with these tires.. Hmm.. I was riding pretty smooth too.. Weird..

 

These would be awsome and save some lifes I bet. I have a feeling the demonstration wheel on Future Cars was made on a smaller rim to make sure people are able to see the cavities between the wheel and rim. Should be interesting to see how much these tires will cost if ever actually made though.

 

Anybody know from a perfermance stand point if these could behave better then a pneumatic (sp.) tire?

 

I made a guess about it 3 posts up. Weight probably heavier.