Effect of Wheel Nonuniformities on the Tire-Wheel Assembly and the Vehicle

One cause of vehicle disturbance is smooth road shake. Manufacturers are attempting to reduce vehicle sensitivity to shake input forces from tire-wheel assemblies by changing suspensions and body-frame structure, stiffness, by tuning engines on rubber mounts, relocating body mounts, and so forth.

The similarity of tire nonuniformity and wheel radial runout, and the laboratory and production techniques for matching tire and wheel are described.

The conclusions reached are that matching tires to wheels would be an effective stop-gap measure; that the ultimate goal is improvement in tire uniformity and wheel runout to the point where matching would be unnecessary; that tire lateral force variation and lateral wheel runout are not related to smooth road shake.