Rapid tire wear

[JackinMichigan]

I have 51 hours in my RV-10 with maybe 80 landings, and last weekend I removed the wheel pants in preparation for the condition inspection. I noticed the outside edges of both main wheels were heavily worn, to the point where the most outside tread was just barely visible. The rest of the tire seemed OK, and the nose wheel still looks brand new.

I have had a couple of less-than-impressive landings, but overall I don't feel as though I've been beating up my landing gear too badly. The plane tracks well on the ground, so unless my landings aren't as smooth as I thought I can't understand why these tires are so worn. I'm using the tires sold by Van's.

[koupster]

What air pressure was in the tires when you removed the wheel pants?

Cheers, David
RV-6A - KBTF

[JackinMichigan]

Originally Posted by koupster

What air pressure was in the tires when you removed the wheel pants?

They had crept down to 25-30. I try to keep them at 40.

[rdrcrmatt]

It's often said a new RV owner will burn a set of tires and brakes their first year.

[BobTurner]

Because the wheels hang down in flight, you always touch down on the outer edge of the tire. Demount the tires, swap left and right, double their life.

[koupster]

This from the MICHELIN® aircraft tire manual https://www.faasafety.gov/files/gsla...nteractive.pdf :

8.4. Underinflation Wear (shoulder wear)
8.4.1. Description: The shoulders of the tire appear to be abnormally worn when compared to the wear in the center of the tread.
8.4.2. Cause: A tire operated with consistently with low pressure will develop excessive shoulder wear. Frequent high speed turning will also cause excessive shoulder wear. Refer to Figure 507.
NOTE: Any measurement below 95% of nominal inflation pressure requires maintenance action. Refer to Figure 503. Underinflation increases the deflection of the tire which may result in overheating, abnormal tire wear, shortened tire life, and possible tire failure.

Tread wear image here https://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl...act=mrc&uact=8

I'm unable to assess the inflation state of my RV-6A tires when viewing from the front. However, when viewed from the side, the fore and aft footprint can be seen to grow as inflation pressure decreases. I note how long the footprint is when properly inflated, and look for that on preflight. A pressure check would be more accurate, but is a bit more work with wheelpants installed.

Flipping the tires to compensate for asymmetrical wear on the outside edge of each main tire due to wheel camber at touchdown is an accepted practice.

Cheers, David
RV-6A - A&P

[Electrogunner]

I have the desser retreads on mine. I've accumulated almost 90 hr's and about 130 landings since 1st flight in February and the tires and matco brakes are holding up very well. Hardly any tire wear and about 1/2 brake pads left. The free castering nose wheel was a steep learning curve which accounts for the brake wear I believe.

[TimO]

They will always wear on the outside edges on the RV-10, due to reasons stated above. One minor correction though. When you swap tires, if you want the valve stems to be on the outside face, you'll have to dismount the tire from the rim and flip it on the rim. Swapping left and right tires will otherwise just be the same thing but from different sides of the plane. Figure that each set of tires you rotate just before the tread is gone on the outer edge, and then replace them when the other side gets the same way. (Assuming you haven't worn the centers by then)

[BobTurner]

Originally Posted by BobTurner

e. Demount the tires, swap left and right, double their life.

Poor English, I guess. Yes, I meant take them off the rims. If you also swap left and right, you won?t change the direction of rotation. I?m not sure if that is important or not.

[aturner]

For whatever it is worth, I have more than 400 hours on my stock original tires and brakes. Tires will need replaced before too long (I did flip them once), but brakes have a lot of life left.