A heavy-duty tire includes a tread part formed such that the tread part includes a crown profile including tire equator, and a pair of shoulder profiles extending from outer sides of the crown profile to tread edges. In a tire cross section including tire rotation axis in 5% internal pressure state in which the tire is mounted to a normal rim, filled with air at internal pressure of 5% of normal internal pressure and loaded with no load, each of the crown and shoulder profiles has an arc shape convex toward tire radial direction outer side such that ratio Rc/Rs of curvature radius Re of the crown profile to curvature radius Rs of each shoulder profile is 7.0 or more, and a tire axial direction distance from the equator to a connecting point between the crown profile and each shoulder profile is 0.70 or more times a tread half width.

The invention provides for a heavy truck tire having a sub-casing, a belt package and a rubber tread, the tread comprising a center zone separating two shoulder zones. The upper shoulder layer consisting of an upper shoulder rubber compound being different from a lower shoulder rubber compound, wherein: the upper shoulder rubber compound has a G*50 of at least 1.3 Mpa and a max tan(δ) of at least 0.12; the lower shoulder rubber compound has a max tan(δ) not greater than the max tan(δ) of a center rubber compound in the center zone being intended to come into contact with the ground; and the center rubber compound has a max tan(δ) of at most 0.09.

A first belt layer includes a cord extending at an inclination angle of greater than 45° with respect to the tire circumferential direction, a second belt layer includes a cord extending in the tire circumferential direction, and a third belt layer includes a cord extending at an inclination angle of 30° or less in the opposite direction from the cord of the first belt layer with respect to the tire circumferential direction. The belt layers are arranged in order, with the first belt layer furthest inward in the tire radial direction, on the outer circumferential side of a crown region of a carcass extending toroidally between a pair of bead portions. The third belt layer width w.sub.3 is 80% or more of the tread width w, and w.sub.2<w.sub.1<w.sub.3, where w.sub.1 is the first belt layer width, and w.sub.2 is the second belt layer width.

The invention relates to vehicle tires for utility vehicles, comprising a belt (9) and a tread profile that extends in the axial direction A of the vehicle tire between two tire shoulders, in each of which a profiled shoulder strip (19) is formed that extends over the circumference of the vehicle tire. The profiled shoulder strip is delimited in the axial direction A towards the equatorial plane Ä of the tire by a groove (20), which extends over the circumference of the vehicle tire, and on the profiled strip face facing away from the equatorial plane Ä by a respective surface of the tire lateral wall (2), which forms the profiled shoulder strip (19) flank facing away from the equatorial plane Ä. The tread profile is delimited by a surface which forms the road contact surface on the sectional planes containing the tire axis, said surface forming a surface contour line K which is curved towards the tire between the profiled shoulder strips (19). In at least one profiled shoulder strip (19), the surface which forms the road contact surface is formed as the extension of the curved surface contour line K into the profiled shoulder strip (19) in an axial first extension section (21) of the width a, said extension section adjoining the circumferential groove (20), and the radial position of the surface which forms the road contact surface constantly decreases outwards along the axial extension in a second extension section (22) of the width c, said extension section adjoining the first extension section (21) and extending to the surface of the tire lateral wall. The surface which forms the road contact surface is formed by a first sub-portion (23), which extends to a point P, and a second sub-portion (24), which extends from the point P to the surface of the tire lateral wall (2), in the second extension section (22) such that the surface which forms the road contact surface has a concave contour progression in the first sub-portion (23) and a convex contour progression in the second sub-portion (24) with a turning point of the contour progression in the point P, said point P being arranged outside of the belt (9) in the axial direction A.

A tread (12) for a tire (10) which has a tread surface intended to contact a road surface during running. The tread (12) has at least one cavity opening onto the tread surface when new, called external cavity (14), which has length L, width W and central plane P. The external cavity (14) has bottom (16) and at least two opposite lateral walls (18a, 18b) extending from bottom (16) and a mechanism (20) for ejecting stones during running, which has two protuberances (22a, 22b) from bottom (16) of external cavity, which are disposed at least partially opposite one another at a distance d. Each protuberance (22a, 22b) is inclined respectively from a lateral wall (18a, 18b) of the external cavity (14) towards the central plane P. The distance d between the two protuberances (22a, 22b) is less than or equal to 10% of width W of external cavity (14).

Tread (1) for a tire of a heavy-duty vehicle, having a tread surface (10), this tread (1) comprising, near to each of its edges (11), a plurality of open wells (2) on the tread surface when new, these open wells (2) of depth Pmax being arranged circumferentially with a mean distance D between two consecutive open wells; each open well (2) being delimited by two main faces (21, 22) facing one another, this tread being such that each open well (2) is connected to at least one hidden cavity (32) formed within the tread, this hidden cavity (32) opening into a main face (21, 22) of said well.

A heavy truck tire tread (12) is provided that has a partially hidden longitudinal groove (22) with an undersurface channel (24) engaged by a longitudinal sipe (26). The partially hidden longitudinal groove (22) has a surface opening (28) that extends from a surface of the tread to the undersurface channel (24). The tread (12) has at least one of two features. The first feature is that the surface opening (28) extends from the surface to the undersurface channel (24) at an angle to the thickness direction such that the surface opening (28) at the surface is forward of the surface opening (28) at the undersurface channel (24) in the rolling direction (20). The second feature is that a lateral sipe (32) engages the surface opening (28) so that the first end is at the surface opening (28), and the second end is forward of the first end in the rolling direction (20).

The pneumatic tire has an annular carcass formed by using a carcass treat in which a carcass cord arranged along the tire width direction is covered with a rubber material, and a belt layer formed by arranging a resin covered cord outside the tire radial direction of the carcass and covered with a resin material along the tire circumferential direction. The treat strength of the carcass treat along the tire width direction is 10 kN/25 mm or more.

Disclosed herein is an example of a tire, and arrangements of multiple tires for a heavy goods vehicle having a tread provided on one side of the equatorial median plane with a sculpture of a first kind and on the other side of the equatorial median plane with a sculpture of a second kind, the first kind of sculpture comprising at least three grooves of generally circumferential orientation. The tired disclosed herein is provided to avoid having to change tires at the change of season, notably of the arrival of winter, on a heavy goods vehicle and more particularly on the drive axles of the said vehicle for which these changes require additional work.

A tire having uniform inflation growth is provided. The tire includes a body ply that is displaced from the conventional equilibrium curve along the bead, sidewall, and shoulder portions of the tire in a manner that provides more uniform inflation growth from bead portion to bead portion. Such construction reduces load sensitivity, reduces or eliminates the tire break-in period, and/or decreases the propensity for cracking—particularly along a groove bottom of the tread in the shoulder.