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Wheel pants and tires

BGordon

Well Known Member
Good afternoon,
I am working on installing my wheel pants and they don’t fit over the tire. There appears to be mold lines on the pants, and I am wondering is that close to final size or do I need to sand them down until they just fit over the wheels?

Thanks
Brandon
 
Mold lines are an estimate. Trim toward the lines slowly until you get the clearance you want. Keep in mind, those tires flex a lot when landing and that’s variable based on tire pressure. On mine I went for a clearance the width of my fat index finger all the way around - maybe 3/8”. This will result a clearance that follows the contour of the tire - narrower near the axle, wider at the front and back. Evidence of rubbing on the pant will indicate inadequate clearance, or an under inflated tire.
 
Learn from the experience of others, Brandon. A loud noise on landing, followed by finding pieces of wheel pant strewn on the runway for a thousand feet behind you is indicative of inadequate clearance between tire and pant.

YMMV, but the airspeed returns for a tight-fitting pant with minimal gap are likely very small and not worth the risk of catching an edge with a tire on touchdown. This is a good place to compromise on drag reduction.
 
One method

Fit your pants with the thumb wide gap or whatever rule you like, then deflate your tires and give it a look to see what you'll have when you get a flat.
 
Also...

If you ever intend to try retreads, fit the pants for the retreads now. The retreads are larger than standard. Fitting them first will allow you to use retreads OR standard tires. Fitting the pants for standard tires will precluded the use of retreads without pant modification.

From past experience, I co owned a flight school; we switched to retreads and found that we got more than twice the landings before a tire change was required...currently using Desser retreads on my -10...
 
Didn’t someone here mold in some silicone skirts to close up the gap between the wheel pant and tire?
 
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