A pneumatic tire may include: a carcass; a belt reinforcing structure comprising a plurality of belt layers that include at least one spiral belt layer and at least one zigzag belt layer; and a tread comprising two or more main grooves extending circumferentially continuously around the pneumatic tire and defining a plurality of ribs that include two axially outermost ribs. At 10% to 100% of rated pressure and no load, each of the two axially outermost ribs may be raised (e.g., by a gap of 1 mm to 7 mm) in relation to a respective next nearest rib located axially inward of the respective axially outermost rib.

A crown reinforcement formed of at least two working crown layers of reinforcing elements. The tire additionally comprises, in each shoulder, at least one end of a layer of reinforcing elements that are mutually parallel in the layer and are oriented circumferentially, said end being axially outside said at least two working crown layers, the reinforcing elements of the carcass reinforcement having a diameter less than 0.85 mm, and said reinforcing elements of the carcass reinforcement being made up of threads with a diameter less than 0.16 mm.

In my pneumatic tire, a circumferential belt is formed by a spirally wound band strip, the tread includes at least three circumferential land portions, cords of the inclined belt layer are steel cords, the total cross-sectional area of the steel cords per 25 mm of width perpendicular to the extending direction of the steel cords is from 2.3 to 4.0 mm.sup.2, a gap is present in the tire width direction between each lap of the band strip, and the relational expression W/{(w+2d)+0.3w}1.0 is satisfied, where W is the width in the tire width direction of the circumferential land portion with the smallest width among the circumferential land portions, w is the width of the band strip in the tire width direction, and d is the width of the gap in the tire width direction between each lap of the band strip.

A method for designing a pneumatic tire to have improved vibration characteristics. Dynamic testing of the tire detects a) respective frequencies of a plurality of radial vibration modes of the tire, and b) respective frequencies of a plurality of torsional vibration modes of the tire. The testing may determine that a first interval between the frequency of an even-numbered radial vibration mode and the frequency of an even-numbered torsional vibration mode is less than a first threshold, and/or may determine that a second interval between the frequency of an odd-numbered radial vibration mode and the frequency of an odd-numbered torsional vibration mode is less than a second threshold. One or more design parameter of the tire is/are modified to increase at least one of first interval and the second interval to the respective first or second threshold.

To increase a restraining force to a belt layer and to improve the durability of the tire. A band layer of a spirally wound band-like ply includes: a first ply portion extending from a starting end located between the tire equator and one end in the tire axial direction of a belt layer to the one end in the tire axial direction of the belt layer; a second ply portion extending from the one end in the tire axial direction of the first ply portion to the other end in the tire axial direction of the belt layer; and a third ply portion extending from the other end in the tire axial direction of the second ply portion to a terminal end located between the tire equator and the other end in the tire axial direction of the second ply portion. The band-like ply is continuous from the starting end to the terminal end without interruption.

The invention is directed to a pneumatic vehicle tire having a carcass and a belt built up on the radial outside of the carcass. The tire includes a profiled tread which is built up on the belt on the radial outside of the belt. The belt is formed from at least four belt plies which are arranged one on top of the other from the radial inside to the radial outside. The first belt ply and the second belt ply are crossing working plies. The reinforcing elements of the first and second belt plies are arranged at an angle of 10 to 45 to the circumferential direction. The reinforcing elements of the fourth belt ply are arranged at an angle of 40 to 75 to the circumferential direction and the reinforcing elements of the third belt ply are arranged at an angle of 0 to 5 to the circumferential direction.

A pneumatic tire includes cross belts and one or more protective belts provided in the tire radial direction. A width of a widest protective belt is greater than a width of any of the cross belts. In the tire profile, a maximum projection position of the widest protective belt is A, an end position of the widest protective belt is B, a position at which a straight line a passing through position A extending in the direction normal to a tread surface intersects with the tread surface is A, and a position at which a straight line b passing through position B extending in the direction normal to the tread surface intersects with the tread surface is B. An angle formed between a first straight line that links position A and position B and a second straight line that links position A and position B is from 0? to 15?.

A pneumatic tire excellent in resistance to uneven wear, and crack resistance of a groove is provided. A position, on an equator plane, of a tread surface 20 of a tire 2 is represented as a point Pc. A position, at a maximum width, of an axially outer side surface 6a of a sidewall 6 is represented as a point Pe. A position that is a mid-point, in the radial direction, between the point Pc and the point Pe, and that is on the axially outer side surface 6a, is represented as a point Pd. When an internal pressure is enhanced from an internal pressure that is 0.05 times a normal internal pressure P to the normal internal pressure P, a value Fs of difference in amount of protrusion between an amount of protrusion Dd (mm) at the point Pd and an amount of protrusion De (mm) at the point Pe is calculated according to mathematical expression (1) in which a nominal width is represented as W (mm). The value Fs of difference in amount of protrusion is greater than 0.4 and less than 0.5.
Fs=((DdDe)/W)100(1)

Pneumatic tire for heavy duty vehicles having a crown portion comprising two working plies (114,116) and a breaker ply (120) radially outward of the carcass body ply wherein the breaker ply (120) comprises a plurality of breaker ply reinforcement elements (122) having a length L of no more than 155 mm, at an angle of 5<60.

A tire comprising a crown reinforcement formed of at least two working crown layers of reinforcing elements. The tire additionally comprises, in each shoulder, at least one end of a layer of reinforcing elements that are mutually parallel in the layer and are oriented circumferentially, said end being axially outside said at least two working crown layers, the reinforcing elements of the carcass reinforcement having a diameter less than 1 mm and being made up of threads with a diameter strictly greater than 0.16 mm, and said reinforcing elements of the carcass reinforcement being advantageously non-wrapped metal cords that return a flow rate of less than 20 cm.sup.3/min in what is referred to as the permeability test.