Abstract: A tire has a belt structure, the belt structure includes an overlay ply reinforced by parallel cords oriented circumferentially, the overlay ply having a pattern of cuts within discrete segments. Each segment has a repeated pattern of cuts arranged in six rows R1–R6. Each cut is spaced at least 100 mm from a cut in an adjacent row and is laterally offset from an adjacent cut by at least 3 mm, this distance being smaller than the cut width to ensure that each overlay cord is cut. The overlay cord lengths within the respective rows is of any length in the range 200 to 500 mm. The cut pitch within the respective rows is of any percentage of the tire circumference in the range 8 to 30%. The circumferential offset between two adjacent segments is of any percentage of the tire circumference in the range of 0.5 to 2%.

Abstract: The present invention relates to an agricultural tire (10) having a casing (12) with a radial ply carcass (14) and an annular tread (40) having two sets (48,50) of lugs (44). The tire (10) has a greatly reduced lug vibration. The tread (10) is divided into a plurality of circumferentially repeating design cycles of at least two, preferably three distinct design cycle lengths. The circumferentially adjacent lugs (44) of the opposite set are offset by at least one design cycle. When the pitch ratio variance of the design cycles is at least 1.1 from small length (S) to large length (L), preferably 1.25 a reduction in lug induced vibration of 30% or more is possible. The lugs 44 preferably have a lug width (W), (W) being proportional to the length of the design cycle in which a majority of the lug lies. This effectively balances the mass of tread rubber around the periphery of the tire.