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  Tubeless Tyres - Going The International Way
Tubeless Tyres are great as they offer many benefits over tube type tyres with hardly any drawbacks, which is why they are standard world over in most cars today.
The technology is new to India but was invented way back in the 1920's and was very popular by the 1950's.
  So what really are tubeless tyres?
As the name suggests tubeless tyres are tyres wherein, there is no tube.
In conventional tube type tyres air is held inside a tube and the tube is fitted between the tyre and the rim. However in the case of tubeless tyres, the air is held between the tyre and the rim and the rim has a valve fitted to it.
Are there any advantages over tube type tyres?
Yes there are many advantages namely:
1. Safety, 2. Reliability, 3. Better ride and handling, 4. Improved mileage
 1. Safety
In tubeless tyres blowouts and high speed air loss are extremely rare, thus vehicle control is not lost, leading to better safety.
Tube Tyre
As shown in the picture, in tube type tyres, the air is enclosed inside a tube, and the tube has the valve fitted to it.
If an object pierces the tyre, it can cause the tube to burst just like a balloon or it makes a hole in the tube through which air comes out. As this happens, the tube gets smaller and the valve thus moves out of the rim hole. Thus the escaping air rushes out of the rim through the valve hole, leading to a very rapid air loss.
Both a blow out and a rapid air loss are very dangerous as this lead to loss of vehicle control.
 Tubeless Tyre
In a tubeless tyre, the tube is absent and the air is held between the rim and the tyre and the valve is fixed to the rim.
Now when an object pierces the tyre, there is no tube to burst and the valve does not move out of the rim hole as it is fixed there.
Thus air cannot escape through the hole, the only passage for the air is past the object, but the construction of the tyre mostly enables the rubber to hold the object tight & air loss if any is extremely slow.
2. Reliability
In case of running with slight under inflation, a tube tyre will damage the tube due to the shuffling of the tube inside. However in case of a tubeless tyre no damage will occur.
3. Better Ride and Handling
Tubeless tyres are constructed with a strengthened edge for good sealing with the rim and due to an absence of a tube they are also a little lighter. Thus these factors help in enhancing the cornering ability while achieving a better high-speed performance & ride.
4. Improved Mileage
Tubeless tyres are lighter in weight and also tend to have a lower rolling resistance than tube type tyres, thus the mileage of the vehicle improves.
Thus as can be seen, tubeless tyres offer many advantages over tube tyres, with the biggest advantage being the much higher safety levels offered, thus they are used on a majority of cars worldwide. However in India due to their late arrival some doubts still persists.
These being:
Are they efficient?
Are they suited for our rough roads?
Can they be repaired and if so easily?
Why are they not used on most Indian car?
Are they efficient?
Definitely and this is best answered by all the previous advantage explanations where it is clear that tubeless tyres are efficient and the advantages are many.
Also a lot of the motoring journalist and experts have all lauded the Esteem for offering tubeless tyres.
Business Standard Motoring July 2004 - "But the most important physical change is what lies below the car it gets tubeless radials."
Autocar India August 2004 - "The suspension has been left untouched but the ride quality is now better due to the tubeless tyres this car is shod with."
"The 175/70-R13 tyres have improved handling marginally as well."
Are they suited for our rough roads?
Yes they most certainly are. Infact tubeless tyres often are the preferred choice off road because of their ability to hold air inspite of an object entering. Also there is no tube so incase of slight under inflation damage does not occur.
Most off road vehicles abroad use tubeless tyres and even in India SUV's like the Suzuki Grand Vitara, Chevrolet Forester. Ford Endeavour and Honda CRV use tubeless tyres.
Can they be repaired and if so easily and where?
Yes they can be repaired and very easily. Today they can be repaired at almost any type shop around the country or even at home! With a do it yourself repair kit.
The repairs are also possible at every Maruti Dealer and MASS outlet around the country.
Fixing is a very simple matter. There are two ways in which one can fix a tubeless tyre.
One way is by removing the tyre and inserting a tubeless tyre plug/patch on the inside. These plugs/patches are mostly from the company Unipatch (OMNI) and are available at most tyre shops nationwide costing about the same as tube patches.
The other method is even easier than repairing a tube tyre as it does not necessitate removal of the tyre from the rim. Infact an owner can fix it himself!!!
A very affordable kit is available which contains simple tools, and rubber plug strips. It needs one to follow a simple process, the main aim being of simply plugging the whole from the outside of the tyre with the rubber plug strips, and then cutting off the extra bit.
Why are they not used on most Indian cars?
A while ago they were not used on most Indian cars, due to a matter of availability of technology.
However due to their advantages most manufactures are in the process of switching to tubeless tyres. Maruti was one of the forerunners and before the Esteem was offering tubeless tyres in the Grand Vitara and the Zen Carbon and Steel editions.
Today car like the Honda Accord, Honda CR-V, Opel Vectra, Chevrolet Forester, The full Mercedes range, Ford Endeavour, Chevrolet Optra, Honda City, and even the higher variants of the Ford Ikon and Toyota Qualis all use tubeless tyres.
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