Pneumatic tire

Claim 1

A radial ply pneumatic tire having at each side thereof a rigid bead zone including a bead wire bundle and a rubber apex strip therein, a flexible sidewall zone spaced from the bead zone and a transition zone of gradually decreasing stiffness extending radially outwardly from the bead zone to the sidewall zone, said tire further comprising: a. an inner group of carcass plies having substantially radial cords, the ends of said plies being turned up outwardly about the bead wire bundle at each side of the tire, the ends of said plies at each side of the tire being staged to terminate at least at two spaced points located between one half and one quarter of the height of the casing above the base of the bead zone; b. an outer group of carcass plies having substantially radial cords, the ends of said plies at each side of the tire being turned inwardly below both the bead wire bundle and the plies of said inner group at each side of the tire; c. a plurality of reinforcing chafers of bias cut cord fabric in each bead zone positioned axially outwardly of said outer group of carcass plies, the cords of one of said chafers forming crossing angles with respect to the cords of another of said chafers, the radially outer end of one of said chafers being positioned no further outwardly than the mean radius of the ends of the plies in said inner group of carcass plies, the radially outer end of another of said chafers being spaced from the radially outer end of said one of said chafers and being positioned between the radially outer level of the bead wire bundle in said bead zone and the level of the radially outer end of said one of said chafers; and d. eventually one or more flippers in each bead zone, said flipper being positioned within the turned up portion of the inner group of said carcass plies, said flipper enveloping the bead wire bundle in each bead zone and at least a portion of said apex strip in said zone.