The time Goodyear built custom buses to show off 12-foot-tall tires.

"Jim Spanfeller" (awesomeaustinv) 07/02/2020 at 11:59 • Filed to: publicity stunts, Planelopnik

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Yep, that’s a custom bus built for the specific purpose of pulling around a twelve-foot-tall, four-foot-wide tire. Why?

Well, why does it need a reason? If it wants to pull a twelve-foot tire around, let it pull a twelve-foot tire around. IT CAN DO WHAT IT WANTS, LEAVE IT ALONE!

Okay, but really, in 1929 Goodyear developed a new tire they called the Airwheel. The idea was that a giant balloon tire with a small rim and massive sidewall would be able to carry a massive load and eliminate the need for costly shock absorbers. A guy named Alvin J. Musselman designed it, and Goodyear referred to it as the “Musselman Type” in press releases. They were quite proud of it, so they mounted it to a tractor-trailer and paraded it around Akron, Ohio.

But they wanted everybody to know about it, so they had Flxible Co. build them two custom three-door buses on lengthened 1929 Buick chassis with a recessed panel in the back so the giant swingarm holding the Airwheel could connect to a fifth wheel.

The first bus built went on a tour of half the states in the country for a couple years, and then the second bus was built and the pair toured the country throughout the early thirties. Goodyear also developed tires like this for passenger cars, and they can be seen mounted on the giant swingarm so you can compare them to the Airwheel. As fun of a publicity stunt as it was though, neither of the new tires caught on at the time. The passenger car tires were too expensive in the depression era, and the Airwheels were not only expensive but also ginormous. Nobody wanted them. However, Goodyear would later put ten-foot-tall tires on the B-36 Peacemaker bomber in the fifties, so they still got to make the largest tires ever fitted to a plane.

If only EssExTee could be so grossly incandescent > Jim Spanfeller 07/02/2020 at 12:20

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“I don’t think it’ll fit my Honda.”

That's what fender rolling is for.

Jim Spanfeller > If only EssExTee could be so grossly incandescent 07/02/2020 at 12:27

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Um... um...

benn454 > Jim Spanfeller 07/02/2020 at 12:29

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 Those things are monster enough to give Bigfoot tire envy.

user314 > Jim Spanfeller 07/02/2020 at 12:32

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Unfortunately, the single wheel design generated so much ground pressure that the XB-36 was able to land on only three runways in the world . Hap Arnold suggested switching to a four-wheeled b ogie instead, which was used on the production Peacemakers, thought Convair also investigated a tracked main gear, but it was quickly abandoned as too noisy and complex.

Brickman > Jim Spanfeller 07/02/2020 at 12:37

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That’s one hell of a wheelie bar :P

Who is the Leader - 404 / Blog No Longer Available > Jim Spanfeller 07/02/2020 at 12:44

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But is it the biggest tire ever?

vondon302 > Jim Spanfeller 07/02/2020 at 12:46

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Uniroyal says hold my beer.

Jim Spanfeller > user314 07/02/2020 at 12:48

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... Caterpillar tracks on a plane!?  

Jim Spanfeller > benn454 07/02/2020 at 12:50

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Indeed. IIRC, the largest tires used on a Bigfoot truck were 11 feet tall.

Galileo Humpkins (aka MC Clap Yo Handz) > Jim Spanfeller 07/02/2020 at 12:59

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Okay, for whatever reason, I stared at the pics for like 30 seconds in the way a senior citizen stares at their electronics screens as if they’re the sun, but I’m totally digging these things.

What ever did happen to those two vehicles, I wonder?

Jim Spanfeller > Galileo Humpkins (aka MC Clap Yo Handz) 07/02/2020 at 13:02

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I’m guessing they were probably scrapped after they had served their purpose. After all, what would you do with them afterwards? 

Galileo Humpkins (aka MC Clap Yo Handz) > Jim Spanfeller 07/02/2020 at 13:08

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Probably so, but you never know. But...companies often have warehouses full of old shit they forget about, right? RIGHT?

Seriously, the only thing they’d be good for now are conversation pieces or if Goodyear wanted to display them in some kind of museum setup or something. Still really like ‘em though.

Jim Spanfeller > Galileo Humpkins (aka MC Clap Yo Handz) 07/02/2020 at 13:10

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Indeed, they are very cool. I wish companies did more publicity stunts like this.

Only Vespas... > Jim Spanfeller 07/02/2020 at 13:12

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Those huge meats were first used on the X B-19 in 1941 but with a different tread pattern.  One can be astonished by it’s huge size to this day by an example at the USAF Museum in Dayton.  I do love those buses!  Parking one, not so much...

Just Jeepin' > Galileo Humpkins (aka MC Clap Yo Handz) 07/02/2020 at 13:17

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Decades ago I worked for BBN, one of the companies that helped found the Internet. Their warehouse was filled with crazy cool old computer equipment, including some of the world’s first network routers (called “IMPs” at the time)  and a pallet of Macintosh Plu s computers for no obvious reason.

user314 > Jim Spanfeller 07/02/2020 at 13:26

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It’s been tried a few times over the years, but never with enough success to make it in to regular use.

Wide scale use of j et engines, which are decidedly ill-suited for rough field use, put an end to the experiments with cat tracks in the 50s. Nowadays, rough field aircraft like bush planes just go with comically over- sized tires.

Jim Spanfeller > user314 07/02/2020 at 15:08

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Wow. It’s almost surreal looking at those p hotos because it seems like that shouldn’t exist. The over-sized tires on bush planes look cute, IMO.

Jim Spanfeller > Only Vespas... 07/02/2020 at 15:14

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You sure? Unless the men in that photo are 7-8 feet tall, I don’t think those tires are quite the same size. Th e ones on that plane are still freaking huge for sure, but not quite 12' huge. Plus, the ten-foot tires of the prototype Peacemaker bomber seem to be most commonly quoted as the largest installed on a plane.

Taylor Martin > Jim Spanfeller 07/02/2020 at 16:45

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I miss marketing campaigns like this... not that I was around to see them but that doesn’t mean I wouldn’t want to see a bus with a giant tires rolling behind it.

benn454 > Jim Spanfeller 07/02/2020 at 23:16

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You’re talking about the floaties that they used to “drive” down the river, right?

Jim Spanfeller > benn454 07/02/2020 at 23:48

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Nope. The tires I’m talking about were designed for use on Letourneau’s giant creations and when those creations were retired, the tires were repurposed for Bigfoot.

benn454 > Jim Spanfeller 07/02/2020 at 23:59

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Oh, god I remember those things. So ridiculous. But so cool.

Jim Spanfeller > benn454 07/03/2020 at 00:06

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Yup. Speaking of floaties, though, in my research on giant airplane tires I read that military families after WWII used to buy surplus inner tubes from bomber tires. Those inner tubes would be six feet or more in diameter with a relatively small opening in the center and therefore made excellent giant floaties on a trip to the lake. Not to mention they’d be super durable. And now I want an airplane inner tube...

Spanfeller is a twat > Jim Spanfeller 07/04/2020 at 12:54

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I’m not very experienced with car design, but it seems like having tires do the job of shock absorbers would require that the tires be very flexible, and thus would have a bigger contact patch, which would generate more friction meaning worse fuel economy and possibly more tire wear. I don’t know if the benefits of not having shock absorbers would be superior to the fuel economy loss (I doubt it, however) or the increased tire wear but... It certainly seems counterintuitive.

Now, it’s undeniable you would be reducing your unsprung weight to the bare minimum.