The Effect of Lowered Tire Pressure on a Log Truck Driver Seat

Abstract

Adjusting truck tire inflation to changing road and load conditions has been demonstrated to improve road conditions and is thought to decrease truck maintenance costs. Good roads will minimize the future cost of utilizing forest resources. In this study, the various effects of both low-pressure and high-pressure truck tires on the transportation vehicle were examined in terms of seat vibration. The data collected by the US Army Corps of Engineers, Waterways Experiment Station (WES), for the USDA Forest Service in 1989, were used to perform the analyses. Analysis of the data pertaining to road failure is fairly complete. However, a significant portion of the truck data still needs to be analyzed. Vibration levels were higher in the truck with high tire-inflation pressure, but the differences in vibration levels between low- and high-pressure trucks were not as high as expected. Although vibration levels were higher in 10 out of 15 road sections in the high-pressure truck, two sections had significantly reversed results.