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tire wear - landing style

A5555

Well Known Member
In mid Sept I took a look at my tires and noted the pilot side had more wear. I concluded that since we usually have a wind from the Southwest I was landing predominantly on the left wheel. I altered my landing style to land on the co-pilot side wheel for the past month to understand if I could move the wear to the that side. my thinking was the first wheel to touchdown did the work of aligning and aircraft with the runway and absorbed most of the wear. the procedure was with a left crosswind and normal left slip, just prior to touchdown to slip the airplane to the right and touchdown on the co-pilot side tire. this needed to be done just prior to touchdown and before the aircraft could accelerate to the right. I think I see increased wear on the co-pilot side tire. test complete. my conclusion is that you can control tire wear to each side by the landing technique. note: this procedure is not advisable in heavy crosswinds.

now I am getting new tires and brake pads on the mains after 400 hrs of use. when you install new brake pads, bleed a little brake fluid from the caliper to clear any debris and condensation from the line. a Bill Duffy tip. I have the original calipers, caliper seals and rotors for the past 8 yrs, 1000 hrs.

I reused the airstop tubes on the mains as they were in very good condition. I use new bolts and nuts for the wheel hub.

Sept - before testing

IMG_20210921_162601.jpg


IMG_20210921_162635.jpg


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Nov - using co-pilot side wheel landing technique. I note more wear to the co-pilot side tire.

IMG_20211103_162156.jpg


IMG_20211103_162215.jpg


IMG_20211103_162105.jpg
 
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You have mostly inside tire wear on the left and outside wear on the right. Are your landings constantly side-loading the tires to the right or do you have gear geometry issues?
 
You have mostly inside tire wear on the left and outside wear on the right. Are your landings constantly side-loading the tires to the right or do you have gear geometry issues?

there could be some gear geometry issue. this test was to understand if I could move the wear the opposite side.
 
Well, Me thinks you may want to review your tire replacement schedule. Them suckers look really worn out to even be on a wheel barrow let alone an airplane. Your choice, But, I like the air to stay in the tire.
Just a nudge not a complaint or judgement.
Good luck Art
 
From the pics, looks like you have a bit more camber in the Left wheel than the other, but generally pretty good wear for 400hrs usage. Maybe if most of your flying is solo, that might be a small factor too.

Good flying!
 
The gear legs from Vans (later style) have pre drilled holes in both the gear and the motor mount. This alignment controls the toe, caster, and camber. I had a set of gear that had a bad vibration, took them to toe manufacture, he said they vary a little, I then placed the axle on a block with weight on the axle, used a 8' piece of angle iron to measure the toe, it should be slightly (.5 to.75 degree toe in)however they both had a slight toe out. I purchased (should have gotten them for free) a new set of gear for $600 from Vans, and the right was about .25 degree toe in, the left was about .75 degree toe in. Much less shimmy and wear, but there was a pronounced shimmy right at 23 mph. I added a stiffener made from 10 layers of glass sandwiched between directional carbon fiber (looks like a ruler with clamps on the gear). Now the tires wear fairly evenly, and much less vibration. I also use a flatter profile tire, and keep the inflation at the high end of recommended, about 35 psi. Most RV's wear tires unevenly, with the requirement to dismount and reverse the tires for more service life. We live with it.
Regards,

DAR Gary
 
Wear Limits

At A&P school, they told us a tire was legal to use until the cord actually wears, but never provided any documentation. I 'spect that's only true unless the airplane manufacturer says otherwise. I replace ours when most of the tread disappears. As far as the uneven wear goes, it's pretty hard to fix on Vans fixed bend axles. If the axles bolted on we could add tapered shims to fix the toe and camber. With the sweep back of the main gear, twisting the gear in the engine mount will change both toe and camber at the same time.... kind of like those old Volkswagen kingpins that adjusted both toe and camber at the same time... you just get it as close as it can be and drive. Oh well, it's not really super critical on the airplanes. They never wear evenly on our RV-6 and the outboard edges seem to take most of the wear.
 
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