Patent ID: 6681823
Filing Date: 2004-01-27
Classification: B60C

Abstract:
A heavy load pneumatic radial tire having a carcass, a pair of sidewalls, a tread portion which covers the crown region of the said carcass, a belt which comprises plural belt cords between the tread portion and the said crown region of the said carcass, plural main grooves running circumferentially on the tread surface of the said tread portion and plural ribs divided by these main grooves, wherein the heavy load pneumatic tire has the following characteristics;a circular fine groove running in the tire circumferential direction and provided with an aperture at which one end is open to the external region in the tire diameter direction of the side wall is provided in a shoulder portion of the tread portion, the said fine groove has a narrowed area with the central axis of the sectional view of the fine groove sloping inward in the tire diameter direction from the said aperture in the tire width direction and the groove width of the fine groove gets narrower as it goes from the said aperture to a back of the fine groove and an expanded area following thereafter whose groove width expands with a curvature, the wall surface in the external diameter side of the narrowed area from the narrowest area of the said narrowed area to the said aperture slopes outward in the tire diameter direction with respect to the central axis of the said sectional view of the fine groove and the wall surface in the internal diameter side of the said fine groove is provided with a convex part contacting the said wall surface in the external diameter side with pressure at the time of tire grounding, and wherein the outer sloping wall surface in the external diameter side of the narrowed area is linear and directly connects the external region in the tire diameter direction of the sidewall and the expanded area, when d represents the depth of the main groove nearest to the shoulder portion of the tread portion among the main grooves, and B represents the largest width of the groove width of the said expanded area, the bottom end of the fine groove at the innermost side in the tire diameter direction of the expanded area of the said fine groove is set nearer to the external side in the tire diameter direction than the position with the distance of (dÂ½B) from the tread surface of the tread portion to the internal side in the tire diameter direction, and the bottom end of the fine groove at the innermost side in the tire width direction of the expanded area of the said fine groove is set nearer to the external side in the tire width direction than the position with the distance of d from a side of the shoulder portion at the external region to the internal side in the tire width direction.