Pneumatic tire
To provide a pneumatic tire with which a magnitude of a lateral force can be adjusted without changing the structure of a tread portion. In a pneumatic tire, an outer profile shape of the pneumatic tire is formed in left and right symmetry with respect to a tire equator, and a thickness of the pneumatic tire from an outer surface to an inner surface is set in left and right asymmetry with respect to the tire equator.
1. A pneumatic tire configured such that:
an outer profile shape of the pneumatic tire is symmetrically formed in left and right portions of the tire with respect to a tire equator, and
a thickness of the pneumatic tire from an outer surface of the tire to an inner surface of the tire is asymmetrically formed in positions on the left and right portions of the tire equally distant with respect to the tire equator,
wherein the thickness is a dimension from a ground contact surface of the tire to the inner surface of the tire in a direction normal to the ground contact surface, and
wherein the thickness of the pneumatic tire from the ground contact surface to the inner surface is large on a side toward which a combined lateral force produced by combining a lateral force attributed to a tire internal structure and a lateral force attributed to a design of a tread portion to each other is directed, and the thickness of the pneumatic tire from the ground contact surface to the inner surface is small on a side opposite to the side toward which the combined lateral force is directed.
2. The pneumatic tire according to claim 1 , wherein a design of the tread portion is symmetrically formed in the left and right portions of the tire with respect to the tire equator.
3. The pneumatic tire according to claim 1 , wherein within a range between ground contact edges on left and right sides in a tire width direction, a difference between tire thicknesses of the pneumatic tire at the left and right sides is larger at a ground contact edge side than at a tire equator side.
4. The pneumatic tire according to claim 3 , wherein a maximum value of the difference between tire thicknesses at the left and right portions away from the tire equator by an equal distance is set to 2% or more and 7% or less of the maximum thickness of the tire on a tire radial outside portion.
5. The pneumatic tire according to claim 1 , wherein a difference between tire thicknesses at left and right portions away from the tire equator by an equal distance is maximum when either the left or the right is at a maximum thickness position of the tire on a tire radial outside portion and the other of the two left and right portions is at a position which is in left and right symmetry with the maximum thickness position with respect to the tire equator on the tire radial outside portion.
6. The pneumatic tire according to claim 5 , wherein a maximum value of the difference between tire thicknesses at the left and right portions away from the tire equator by the equal distance is set to 2% or more and 7% or less of the maximum thickness of the tire on the tire radial outside portion.
7. The pneumatic tire according to claim 1 , wherein the pneumatic tire includes at least one belt, and an outermost layer of the at least one belt which covers a width more than a half of and less than or equal to a ground contact width, and is offset with respect to the tire equator.
8. The pneumatic tire according to claim 7 , wherein an offset amount of the outermost layer of the at least one belt is set to 2% or more and 7% or less of a width of the outermost layer of the at least one belt.