Goodyear's San Angelo Proving Grounds
Goodyear's San Angelo proving grounds was opened in 1944. The 7,000-acre site features 53 different test sites and tests about 20,000 tires each year.
The DuraSeal tire retains its air.
Traction is tested on a wet track with a full brake application. The tires with the better traction stop in a shorter distance. The pylons represent where competitors' tires came to rest.
Coastdown tests are used to verify the rolling resistance of tires. Two identically spec'd trucks are run around an 8-mile track and then kicked into neutral and let coast until they stop ...
Because of the hill, the results of this test were a bit more dramatic than they would have been on flat ground. The Goodyear tires won, but not by as much as it appears.
Goodyear tests all kinds of tires from passengar cars to heavy trucks and even these monster earthmover tires. Each 13-foot tire can support 100,000 pounds.
Goodyear uses two identically spec'd trucks to test two sets of tires, one the control group, the other the tires under evaluation.
The test trucks use both ACI fuel flow meters and portable fuel tanks that can be weighed after completing a test run to compare the fuel used on the test.
To test the effectiveness of DuraSeal, the tires are punctured by three 1/4-inch nails ...
The ture without the DuraSeal liner does not.
For this test, there was a bit of a grade near the end of the coastdown. If the truck makes it over the grade it'll roll quite a bit further ...