Why are tubeless tyres not popular among indian cars?

Why is that tubeless tyres are not popular among indian cars?

Dear Madhusudhan, Who says tubeless tyres are not popular in India? They are extremely popular, every midsize and above car seems to have tubeless tyres. Some small cars are having them as well. But since they are a bit costly and sophisticated, some cars still prefer tubed ones.


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how do you repair puntures in tubeless tyres

http://www.indiacar.com/infobank/tlt_repair.htm
Rgds
Narayan

tubeless tyres are getting more Popular in INDIA and now even the small cars like Spark , i10 , palio , swift , uva have it as standrd.

Rgrds,

SRI

~LiKe.No.oTheR~

Hey who says Indian cars with tubeless tyres are not popular.I believe I can add one more car to sri's list: The new Sumo Grande

I think tubeless tyres in India is popular, but our road conditions are not favour them well. But user expectation are increasing day by day. Now they want more luxury in their vehicle. We are in the introductory stage and in future we will notice some more things in our cars.

Sorry, I beg to differ slightly.  Our road conditions on the contrary favour Tubeless Tyres....

Tubeless tyres are resistant to impacts from potholes or hitting of curbs – resultantly minimizing the chances of tyre damage.  Even if the tyre gets pierced, less air escapes compared to a tube tyre. The air escapes slowly rather than explosively. The penetrating object is sealed-off immediately reducing the number of punctures. The tyres are relatively harder and perform well even in case of some loss of air.  Besides, unlike tube-tyres, heat is not a cause of worry in tubeless tyres.

Tubeless tyres are, in fact, forward in terms of safety, comfort, handling and reliability. The tyre and the rim of the wheel form an air container. Rim container and air tight membrane lined against the inner wall of the tyre seal the air inside. Without the tube, the tyre is lighter on account of which, the ride-quality improves and so does stability and response while cornering.

 

I have to agree with Rajdip that tubeless tyres are really better for city driving and good highway roads - it is not really good for rougher roads.

The main problem with tubeless tyres is they are much less maintainable by our vast network of "tyrewallahs" in case of a puncture or damage - this is the biggest concern when in smaller cities and some roads are rougher.

Tubeless tyres have lower maintenance than tube tyres, for apparent reasons.  It’s altogether a different issue, though it cannot be discounted, that the required infrastructure is not available in smaller cities, as pointed out by you.  Regardless of that, it’s recommend that we should prefer tubeless tyres to tubed tyres for the following considerations…

Penetrations into the tubeless tyre are sealed off by the rubber itself, resultantly leakage of air does not take place and if it does, it is minimal – greatly reducing the hazards from punctures.

In case of a total loss of air inside the tubeless tyre, it is likely that the bead will collapse inside the rim-well rather than come-off it. It is free from other tube troubles like ballooning, open splice, spurious tubes, pinholes, tube mounting damage etc. The cost of a tube and its maintenance are avoided.

The biggest advantage is, however, the puncture problem that none of us have control over. There have been a number of gruesome high-speed fatalities on the Mumbai-Pune expressway caused by tyre blowouts.  At speeds in excess of 100kmph high temperatures are generated. These high temperatures expand (in some cases this tube is over-inflated too, which only aggravates the situation) the tube and a sudden sharp penetration at high speed causes the tube to burst very easily. The air expelled at high pressure forces its way out of the tyre from around the rim and the tube valve hole. In some cases the pressure exerted by this escaping air is strong enough to rip open the tyre. A burst tyre causes a sudden loss in traction which is sufficient to throw the vehicle off course violently.

The primary advantage of tubeless tyres is on account of its internal construction and materials used. A tubed tyre is vulnerable to friction and heat generated between the tube and the inner surface of the tube which reduces life of the tube. In a tubeless tyre the inner layer of the tyre is the tube itself. This layer is made of a material like halo-butyl/chlorobutyl which is basically resistant to heat and reduces permeation of air. The weight of the tube inside a tyre adds to the unsprung weight affecting handling characteristics and overall performance. The lack of a tube reduces unsprung weight and improves dynamic ability. It also reduces rolling resistance caused by friction between the tyre and tube. The lower rolling resistance, lesser weight and the tubeless tyre's capability to uniformly retain air, improve fuel efficiency (marginally).