There are limits on the load a heavy vehicle can impose on the road as too heavy a load transmitted through the tires can damage the road surface and heavy loads may be limited to specific roads designed for heavy vehicles. If a truck were designed to use tires for stability but the load support capability were supplemented with the same system used on air supported vehicles so that a supplementary engine operated an air compressor to direct a blast of air downward to lighten the load on the tires, it would be possible for the truck to carry heavier loads than a vehicle of that size were normally permitted without suffering the instability that a normal air supported vehicle would have.
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Um...The load remains the same regardless of how it's supported, doesn't it?
Yes, the load remains the same, but if it is distributed over a wide area, the pressure per square inch is much reduced.
Couldn't the same thing be achived by adding tires?That would prevent all the dust & flying debris that would be generated by high pressure air being directed to the road surface.
Probably. But it would not make the vehicle a variable load carrier.
So...The trucks that go past my office window all day are not variable load carriers because all that supports them are tires? At any rate, I have to guess that it would be cheaper in the long run to replace a set of tires than it would be to replace windows each time an air cushion truck goes by.
This is largely a political problem, not a technical one. Federal and state DOT rules determine the configuration of heavy trucks. Increasing the number of tires would certainly spread the load, as would riding on an air cushion. Having made my living driving heavy trucks for several years, I would favor the tire approach.
Not gonna happen.
Truck taxes more than pay for the wear and tear on roads, politicians choose to spend the tax revenues elsewhere.
And as it drives past me walking along, I get blown through the adjacent shop window!
It solves the localised load problem, by spreading the load under the tyres across the whole area under the vehicle. But the TOTAL load is also important for bridges, culverts and pipes under the road. It would not help there.