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RV6A nose tire shimmy

N29945

Active Member
I have recently found an RV6A to acquire, everything checks out so far except for the nose gear tire shimmies when landing on hard surface, grass is fine, the plane has not flown much in a couple years, 3hrs +/- per year, parked on concrete, nose gear torque is correct according to Vans, air pressure has be varied from 20PSI- 35PSI, the discussion has now turned to hard spots in the tires, it has an 11-400X5 6 ply tire on it now, it seems like one of the available tires comes from afar country and I don’t spend my money on their stuff, can any suggest the best American made tire and a source for said tire.
 
Was it balanced? I know mine tended to wobble more on pavement than on grass until I balanced it. I also run 40-45 PSI in it.
 
There are several things that can cause shimmy, and a couple different "shimmy" modes. A slightly loose fitting nose gear attachment bolt has been reported to cause problems.

You mentioned the torque was correct per Van's. Is this the break-away torque on the caster joint you are referring to? Was this checked with a fish scale or equivalent recently?

There is another vibration mode, where the nose wheel oscillates in the pitch axis. This has been associated with a bearing design.

I strongly suggest looking through this thread, there is a lot of very good stuff regarding nose wheels/gear in there.
 
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