Bridgestone Corporation

Hiroshi Nishigata

Kazuo Hayashi

Yutaka Naruse

Yutaka Yamaguchi

Kenjiro Yamaya

Takashi Kaneko

The present invention provides a method for adjusting vehicle wheel alignment in which a positional angle of a wheel corresponding to the characteristics of a tire can be set easily, running stability suited for an actual road surface can be obtained, and one-sided wear can be reduced. The method for adjusting vehicle wheel alignment includes the steps of: placing a wheel of a vehicle, which is an object of adjustment, on a tire driving surface on which a step of a predetermined height is formed at at least one place along a rotating direction in which the tire driving surface is driven by a rotational force; measuring variations in forces applied in the rotating direction of the tire driving surface and a rotation axis direction which is orthogonal to the rotating direction at the time the wheel passes over the step while the tire driving surface is being driven/rotated so that the wheel is rotated in a proceeding direction of the vehicle; and adjusting a positional angle of the wheel, on the basis of results of measurement, such that a variation in lateral force generated by a vehicle tire when the wheel passes over the step is a minimum.

Method of adjusting vehicle wheel alignment

A pneumatic radial tire or run flat tire comprises a pair of bead cores, a radial carcass of a rubberized cord ply, a belt comprised of rubberized belt layers, a tread disposed outside the belt in the radial direction, and a side portion reinforcing layer extending along an inner surface of the carcass over a full region of each side portion and having a crescent shape at a radial section thereof, in which when a periphery length of the side portion reinforcing layer is divided into three equal parts along an inner surface of the tire, a thickness of the side portion reinforcing layer at a section in a radial direction of the tire is thickest in the vicinity of the 1/3 point located outward in the radial direction.

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Tokyo, Japan

Hiroshi Nishigata