Wheeled vehicles are responsible for a substantial portion of dissipated energy while the share of tire-ground interface is among the most role playing elements in this regard. The vibrations and kinetics of a traversing wheel over an obstacle is a paradigm that can serve as a functional example for energy dissipation of wheeled vehicles. This paper communicates the analysis of the dissipated energy for a traveling wheel at collision time with obstacles while a controlled laboratory condition of the soil bin facility equipped with a single wheel-tester rig was utilized to carry out the experiments. The tests were conducted as affected by wheel load, obstacle height, obstacle geometry, slippage and speed. It was inferred that the increment of collision speed, obstacle height and tire slippage lead to the increase of the dissipated energy; however, the complexity lies in the contradictory effect of wheel load. This can be attributed to the nonlinear wheel dynamics and the vibration attenuation process. It has to be emphasized that the outcome of this study would serve as a functional catalyst for the extensive researches concerned with the machine design industry and the heavy vehicle trafficking management. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.