Central Tire Inflation: USDA Forest Service Implementation Plans and Their Impact

For the past decade, the Forest Service's San Dimas Technology and Development Center (SDTDC) has been investigating the use of central tire inflation (CTI) to reduce the cost of road construction and maintenance. These on-board tire inflation/deflation systems enable the driver of a vehicle to vary tire pressure from the cab of the vehicle. Structured test results indicate savings of over 25 percent are possible for the reduction of aggregate base course thickness when operating vehicles equipped with CTI systems. Impacts of implementing this technology involve everything from consideration of how to design road networks for varying tire pressure to furthering CTI use on State, county, and local roads.