Apparatus for measuring race car tire stagger

Abstract

A tire work device (10) specially designed to facilitate tire inspection and/or diameter measurement thereof in order to permit proper inflation of race car tires to achieve a desired degree of tire stagger, or the provision of tires of different effective diameters on opposite sides of the car, so that the car will perform better on a banked racetrack. The device (10) includes an upright standard (36) supporting a pair of opposed, relatively shiftable tire mounts (38, 40) and a stop (18) serving to set the limit of possible movement between the mounts (38, 40). An inflator (16) is also associated with the device (10), and permits selective inflation of a tire (14) mounted on the device (10) to different inflation the levels. In use, a tire (14) is mounted between the mounts (38, 40), with the stop (18) having been preset on the standard (36); the tire (14) is then inflated to a desired level for inspection or diameter measurement purposes. The device (10) also has one or more pressure relief valve's (64, 66) in order to prevent dangerous overpressure conditions in the tire (14), as well as a dump valve (68) permitting the tire (14) to be rapidly deflated after the work thereon is completed. In practice, a tire (14) can be mounted on the device (10) and worked upon, in as little as about one minute.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.