Michelin AirStop isn't

[dessertire]

Originally Posted by Dgamble

Yep, they're pretty good. Mine took very little air until I recently went to the hangar and found the right side to be nearly flat. I don't think it's a quality or design issue with the tube - it's far more likely that I picked up a puncture somewhere. I've had the Desser retread tires and tubes for a couple of years now with no complaints - if I end up needing a new tube, it'll be from Desser.

Thanks for the support sir! If you guys need anymore tubes or tires, please visit our site at http://www.vansaircrafttires.com We Desser, are now a supporting vendor on this great forum! Don't forget to subscribe to our newsletter, that will have exclusive discounts and promotions to our subscribers.

-carlo

[tom boback]

3 psi. drops in a 2 week period, repeatedly. Called Desser... Avi returned my call and said that per Michelin: " Tubes, including leak-stops can lose up to 5% of their pressure per day.... and that's NORMAL." Obviously, many have had good luck with these tubes, but that's unacceptable to me. If the quality on these is that unpredictable, I would certainly have to question spending the money on these in the future.

[rocketbob]

I've had pretty good luck with putting Slime in tires, both on aircraft and off. My Rocket with airstop tubes (not yet flying) hasn't had air put in the tires in a couple of years and they're still fully inflated.

[Kahuna]

Originally Posted by Dgamble

Stopping the air, that is. I've developed a slow leak in one of my mains. What's the typical corrective action for something like this? Remove the rube and patch it, or just replace the tube?

It would seem this thread has drifted off.
To answer your question, as Paul said check valve first. Since these tubes are expensive, they are very much worth patching if you end up with a pin hole in a tube. I have never had a patch repair leak on any tube if patched on an aircraft tire in the 4-6 size. And Ive patched many And had those tubes last in the multi thousand flying hours range without failure through of course many tire changes along the way.

SO if your nervous about patching, dont be.
If you dont want to mess with patching, then it will end up being a new tube.
Make sure you dont go through all this without root causing the leak and verifying the offending item is no longer a source for failure. I have seen many an RV'er throw a new tube in just to have the new one leak cause the little burr/pin that caused the problem was not removed from the tire.
If your tube is not leaking at the valve.... Save the tube orientation by marking it on removal so when you find the leak you can go back to the tire and find the culprit.

[Neal@F14]

I had excellent experience with the Aero Classic LeakGuard tubes I put on my old Cherokee. I didn't have to add any air to them for a few years....no kidding. The old plain rubber tubes required adding air every few months. I did have 6-ply 6.00x6 tires on it, so the thicker tire probaby helped prevent picking up pinholes from thorns while landing on turf runways, but I'm a true believer in the LeakGuards and will put them on my RV-6 the first time I need to remove the mains for service.

No Slime in aircraft tire for me... too much chance for screwing up the balance. Slime works fantastic in the riding mower tires however ;-)

[RVG8tor]

Originally Posted by Neal@F14

I had excellent experience with the Aero Classic LeakGuard tubes I put on my old Cherokee. I didn't have to add any air to them for a few years....no kidding. The old plain rubber tubes required adding air every few months. I did have 6-ply 6.00x6 tires on it, so the thicker tire probably helped prevent picking up pinholes from thorns while landing on turf runways, but I'm a true believer in the LeakGuards and will put them on my RV-6 the first time I need to remove the mains for service.

No Slime in aircraft tire for me... too much chance for screwing up the balance. Slime works fantastic in the riding mower tires however ;-)

Curious but wouldn't the slime actually help the balance? On initial spin up I can see an out of balance situation since the slime has settled but a few revolutions and it should balance out a tire that might be out of balance without it. Kind of light dynamic weighting, the slime distributes as required.

I have no experience or expertise here, just thinking this through my little brain. Curios if we have any experience with this.

As to the tire pressure issue. I have had my tires on for a year and after an initial refill after the first 4 weeks no air loss (stock tubes). My plane has been in a near constant temperature humidity in my garage so I am sure that would explain my lack of air loss.