Posted by Roger on October 08, 1999 at 14:04:00:
In Reply to: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: reversing the rims posted by Mr. Parsegian on October 07, 1999 at 12:09:41:
A simple question is, How high is up? or What is the effect of women on a jury?
This is the problem with your "simple" question.
The reason I brought the "legal" angle into it is that I am currently involved with a lawsuit where claims have been made that a very small change in wheel offest contributed to the cause of an accident. The lawyers involved with this claim are not, in my opinion, interested in the facts, truth or justice, just in winning the case and obtaining the largest possible award from the people with the deepest pockets. In this specific case they, and their hired "expert" don't even understand the difference between positive and negative offset so why should I believe they comprehend other more complex automotice terms.
I also take exception to the premise that "without these laws we would not have advanced as far as we have" as this assums that no one will do good work unless there is a thret of a lawsuit. By implication I consider my question of your interest answered.
Now to again answer the question that I think you are asking and have been asking since you started this stuff with the original White Sidewall question.
Changing the suspension, wheels or tires of a car maay change the response of a car from what it was originally. This does not mean the car will crash or be difficult to handle. Just because you can measure a difference does not necessarily mean the change is meaningful. Engineers understand this but I believe that many lawyers try to convince juries otherwise.
All parts on a car will eventually fail. This statement is 100% true but is it factual or have a bearing on the case involved?
A change is not necessarily good or bad as all cars are a compromise and are designed to fit a certain "image" for the balance of ride & handling & looks. If an individual wants better wear and is willing to give up some fuel economy does that mean the change is "bad" ? Without knowing how much of a change it is impossible to know how much or even the potential type of change that there might be so why do you believe we should be able to answer your question.
Without specific information concerning the loads, inflation, speed, alignment etc it is technically impossible to answer your question of "how would the tire be effected by altering the wheels" I can think of certain sinarios where a tire would be negatively affected as well as other situations where the effect would be negligable or even positive but for what parameter of tire performance are we discussing.
The problem with non engineers ( lawyers? ) asking questions of engineers is that the person asking the question is operating from a certain set of assumptions, some of which are false and most of which are different than the assumptions the engineer is being asked to make becaues the lawyer refuses to provide all the info the engineer requests.
If you are interested you can contact me by e-mail and I will be happy to provide the same kind of information I have provided to others in the legal profession when they provide me with the facts and specifics. We have tried to guess since you refuse to provide the info we need we can do no more.