It is well known that military wheeled vehicles have to be able to operate in both the on- and off-road environment. It is usually expected that they perform both missions equally well. Vehicle specifications permit on-road payloads to be greater with higher tire pressures than for off-road use. Obviously, it is to be expected that, within a mission, a vehicle will routinely encounter at least a mix of paved and dirt or gravel roads. Experience shows that drivers do not re-adjust their cargo and only very rarely their tire pressures, as they pass from one terrain to another. Many times, some of the operational situations that may arise during the mission are not anticipated when the vehicle is initially loaded. Thus, compromises are made, and, as a result, vehicle conditions are not proper for some of the operating conditions to be encountered. While the resulting mobility problems are aggravating and time consuming, the safety problems that can be caused by such mismatches are much more serious. Over the years, in the conduct of various investigations into the handling of military vehicles there has always been a lack of good off-highway tire performance data, a vital part of the analysis. To provide the data necessary we have generated some very interesting tire performance data concerning the steering characteristics of the vehicle. It is considered worthwhile to pass these on to the technical community, if for no other reason than to emphasize the consequences of the potential misuses easily possible in the field.
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