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Tire Wear...

Piper J3

Well Known Member
I removed wheel fairings to install new brake pads yesterday and was pleasantly surprised to see very little wear on tires which now have 200 flight hours. I fly off of grass strip but lots of TO/LND on hard surface with 83 YO friend at controls. Tires have seen a lot of abuse. For comparison, original tires furnished by Vans lasted 100 hours.

Tires are 500-5 6 PLY AWBS RETREAD ELITE PREMIUM 2 GROOVE (ELITE). I have Bluetooth Tire Pressure Monitors on the main wheels. I use O-ring grease to seal TPM on valve stem. Works great - tires only loose 2-3 psig in six months.
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Thanks for posting this!
Did you have to open up the wheel pants for those tires?

Which TPMS are you using? Have you checked clearance on the front?
 
Jim, what tubes are you using? I have to add 2-3 psi to my mains every month with those provided by Van's. Tires still look like new with ~120 hours of exclusively hard surface landings.
 
I have the same tires, and fly exclusively off of pavement. At 1 year, 262 hours, I flipped them on the wheels to even out the wear. I expect to get 600+ hours from them. Unless they look low I check pressure at 3 month intervals, typically see 2-3 psi loss.

I replaced the tubes at the same time with Michelin Air Stop tubes from Spruce.
 
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Yes, open wheel fairings for 1/2” clearance all the way around. TPM is BARTUN - $42 Amazon, but other manufacturers are same. TPM only used on main tires. Insufficient clearance for nose wheel. Tubes are 500-5 AERO CLASSIC **BUTYL** INNER TUBE TR-67 (GL-5067). Tires and tubes bought from Desser.
 
At almost 1200 hours I’m on my third set of mains. Mine wear evenly and don’t require rotation between R & L. Nose wheel tire has very little wear and is original. I operate off pavement.
 
50 hours and worn badly

My 12 just turned 50 hours today, I did not build it and cannot believe how worn the tires are on the outside, main gear legs are also not painted so I will be removing them for paint, at that time I will check the toe adjustment, any other ideas, they seem to be installed correctly to airframe.
Thanks , Stan
 
Something I’ve noticed on mine is that due to the camber of the wheels, the outside will wear more if the tires are inflated to the maximum 28 psi level. Interesting that the KAI tells us to inflate the mains to 28 psi, the Maintenance Manual gives a range of 25-28 psi, and the POH 25 psi. If I use 25 psi, it better distributes the load towards the middle of the tire. Anyway, not sure to what level you’re inflating yours, just a thought to consider. And the less weight the plane is loaded, the more the tire will ride on the outside edges.
 

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Bob, while you were typing I was in hangar checking pressure, it was at 26.5, I was thinking they might be over inflated, that was with temp in hangar about 60, which means at 75 it will be higher, I will recheck tomorrow when it is warmer and set to 25 max. I usually fly solo and the gear really seems to be off camber when empty.
Thanks, Stan
 

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I don’t have my manuals in front of me, but I thought the tire pressure had a max of 28psi. I’d rather have mine a few psi too high than too low. Emphasis on “few”.
 
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