Put Claws on Your Tyres

ph; (03) 5127 6128

mob; 0427 110203

fax; (03) 5127 5339

email; chetcline@hotmail.com

120 Walhalla Rd.

Moe, Vic. 3825,

Australia

Check out our web site at

www.aircti.com April, 6 2006

C T I A I R

The Great ‘Proof of Concept’ Battle at Wail April 5, 2006

On the morning of April 5, on an over-cast cool day, the combatants warily eyed each other, the established leader of the pack, and the upstart new comer, with the fancy hoses hanging down to the tyres. Al-most everyone had their doubts. Several thought the new idea would be a waste of time, that the new one would be left in the sand, embarrassed, and forever, ashamed and hide behind the many sheds of the DSE workshops. The combatants were driven to a general meeting, the tension continued to rise. Eve-ryone stood around, you could feel the ten-sion in the air. Most thought that the new comer would die in the soft sand, including the driver of the new vehicle, Squizzy Taylor. The established leader of the pack stood proudly on Super Single tyres all around. He knew he was good, and had proven his ability over the last few years. His lighter brother, by 1.2 tones, stood quietly, just in case he might have to sprint to his leader‟s side. The New Comer had AIR CTI fitted all around, but still used the standard, road type, skinny tyres, albeit with duals on the rear. Could he possibly match the fat tyred leader? Could he actually beat him? Only a few city-ites had any hopes for this upstart, new fan-gled „imposter‟.

Writtten by a completely unbiased observer with no particular interest. Chet Cline

The new upstart was the first to get bogged in the fine soft sand, to the delight of the leader. The two combatants had driven off to test the high pressure tyres and see how they work. The leader went first, then the new comer, along with a couple of witness-es in standard 4 x 4‟s. On the return leg across the same sand, the new comer bogged. No matter how hard he tried, it wasn‟t going any where, only deeper in the soft sand. The diffs were sitting on the sand, as was the transfer case. A simple twist of the control knobs, down from 90 psi plus to around 45 psi, and still no go. It wasn‟t looking good. A full reduction to the minimum set pressures, and the new comer dug itself out, with obvious relief on Chet‟s face. This test is important to him, as it opens up a large new market, and he hates losing. With the lower pressures, we backed up, then drove straight across our previous bog site, stopped, reversed, stopped, and drove on in triumph. Back at the original meeting place, we wait-ed for the leader to come though. A few minutes later, up comes one of the witness vehicles, with the report, “the leader is bogged.” Chet, trying not to grin too widely, raced back to gloat. Well, may-be not to gloat, but cer-tainly to take pictures for future black mail. The Leader was stuck. This was not good. In fact, he didn‟t even get as far as the New Comer before getting bogged. But, to his credit, the new comer had churned up the sand a little more, making traverse just that little bit harder.

C T I A I R

Air pressure was released from the leader‟s tyres, one at a time. Tyre valves proved difficult to reach, and a fair amount of time ensued. At 48 psi, he tried to move, but it just didn‟t happen. More air was released from each tyre in turn. Finally, the leader caught up with the rest of the team, but only once the tyres were down to only 20 psi in the front and the 16 psi in the rear. This just proves how important tyre pres-sures are. At 16 psi, the super singles were re-ally long crawler tracks, with probably 400 mm length of rubber spread across the sand. The fatter, taller tyres, like the super singles, can be run at a greater percentage of deflec-tion, simply because with more height, there is more room to lower, which means more length of tread on the sand. More area equals more floata-tion and more trac-tion. The new leader crested the test track hills easily, even in third and fourth gear, low range. Various ex-cursions off this track, including multi point U turns proved the traction abili-ties in soft sand with low tyre pres-sure. A simple twist of the dash mounted controls re inflated the tyres for the return trip to the workshop. This test is the first of several to prove the Cityites‟ beliefs in AIR CTI. The old leader now awaits it‟s own AIR CTI system, and then a rematch will be on. Old Bulls don‟t take defeat lightly .

C T I A I R

The 1.2 tonne lighter truck couldn’t get up this hill, proving low tyre pressure is the real secret