Experimental Assessment of the Effect of Different Tires on Comfort of Construction Truck Operators

Operators of construction trucks (such as wheel loaders, excavators, etc.) are often exposed to severe whole body vibrations induced by road/soil unevenness. Most of construction trucks are not equipped with any cabin suspensions unless seat and tires. Especially these latter are of paramount importance since they also govern the natural frequencies and the modes of vibration of the vehicle. Specific care has thus been paid to tires during the years and different technologies were adopted for their construction. The present paper compares different methodologies to assess comfort of construction truck operators. In particular, outdoor tests prescribed by the standards to evaluate whole body vibrations experienced by operators are compared with ad hoc designed indoor tests carried out using a four-post test rig. Four sets of tires having the same dimensions but differing for type of construction are considered to evaluate potential differences, advantages and drawbacks of applied methodologies.