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Taxi Vibration Solved

istrumit

Well Known Member
I have posted a few times about this....vibration during taxi in a low speed range.

No amount of air pressure adjustments, etc, has made any difference.

So, today, it was time to tackle this problem once and for all, along with different problem I which I had a brake lock on landing.

I changed the brake liners today (not too hard to do) and, as a last step, I jacked up the pilot side main gear to rotate it and make sure the bearings sounded good.

Low and behold...that tire was out of round like crazy...very badly out of round.

So, two new tires are on the way (I am sure the other one is a mess too) and I expect this will solve the vibration problem.

I suppose this is what happens when you purchase and airplane that sat in one place for nearly two years...I expected to have to put about $5000 into it to get it right...so far I am about $3000 into that number. I am happy with that !
 
Don't count your chickens just yet!

Hopefully you are right. But I wouldn't get my hopes too high. I've seen this same scenario many times, over and correcting to "round" tires often doesn't fix the problem.
 
scuffs

I am no where near done with my scrap aluminium comet. but I would ask around for a pair of scuffs that are round and try them at the rolling speeds that you issue exists at. it would take more time but may eliminate the wasted time and money of stickers, and who knows you might find a issue that may be the root of it all when swapping the tires there by eliminating the need for new(stickers) tires. I'm not telling anybody what to do... its what I would do if I had or have this issue. cheers
 
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This tire is "so" badly out of round...probably an inch off of circle.

Also, the brake pads where a complete wreck.

I think I am going to be a lot happier once I get these tires changed.
 
This tire is "so" badly out of round...probably an inch off of circle.

Also, the brake pads where a complete wreck.

I think I am going to be a lot happier once I get these tires changed.

The new owner of my RV-10 complained about nose gear shimmy. I pulled the main gear tires (less than two years old) and found they were more square than round. The new owner's first 30 hours put more wear and tear on the plane than did the previous 400.

New tires, new brakes and balancing and all is well.

Carl
 
Not sure if the -10 gear design is similar to the -7 and -9, but I've fitted the wooden vibration dampers and only had one landing in 115 hours where I had a little nose wheel shimmy, and that was because the breakout force was too low.

They really work! Tires aren't shaved, and wheel/tire assemblies aren't balanced, but no shimmy whatsoever.
 
I had the same issue and after I changed to a nice new round tire it still has a low speed shake. It's not bad but is noticeable and a bummer because everyone wants a perfect aircraft. I did balance the tire...
 
When I was first flying and testing my RV7A I spent a huge amount of time chasing gear leg vibration and shimmy that would come and go and everything I tried was variable. Even though the original tires were barely worn, even with about 124 hrs on them, I swapped them out for goodyear flight custom III tires. When I got the new tires I was struck by 2 things: how much heavier they were than the originals from Vans and how much stiffer. I changed them out and have never had a shimmy or vibration problem since! 375 hrs now.
 
I changed out the other main gear tire last night. It was just as badly out of round as the first one.

My vibration issue is finally solved.
 
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