Tire wear and tire suggestions

[s24789]

We flew our 7A on December 17th and have 30 hrs on the plane. I was concerned about uneven tire wear on the outside of each main tire with the left main being worse. I am sure it is a combination of higher landing speed due to newness, aspalt surface landings, and not the best tires supplied with the kits. Two questions; one I want to confirm that other folks experience Uneven wear and what do most folks use as replacement tires ? Help is appreciated.
Thanks
Phelps

[mikerkba]

Kevin: I assume you mean uneven across the tread of each tire. Such wear is expected and typical. The spinup of the tire at contact on landing literally smokes the tire and creates rapid wear. Because the landing gear us unweighted at that moment, it is drawn in towards the center of the plane. Thus the outer tread area is the area that takes that wear. Subsequent wear during taxi is more uniform and, due to the constant contact across a broader area of rubber, much slower to take tread off the tire. Whether or not this is happening too fast on your plane is unclear to me. 30 hours does not seem like enough hours for visible tire wear, but I don't know how many landings you have done or how much wear you have. Tire pressure might be a factor.

Many owners rotate the tires left to right, perhaps at the condition inspection, to put the remaining better tread to the outside. That can maximize the number of landings. Or just replace them. Having had a flat nose tire on landing once when 1000 miles from home, I am pretty shy on extending tire wear. I consider my tires to be three single points of failure, any one of which can significantly mess up my travel plans. (My flat was due to creases in the tube, not tire wear. But still, I was grounded pending a fix.) So, I have replaced, not rotated. Nonetheless, rotating tires seems to be a reasonable, sound practice.

Note, the tube for the nose tire is not a commonly stocked item, so I carry a spare tube in my plane. Learned that the hard way.

As to the brand/type of tire, there are many threads on VAF about that and an even larger number of opinions. I don't have an informed opinion. FWIW, I'm thinking of trying the Desser retreads next time to see if they last longer as some have reported. I think I have AeroClassic tires now, not sure.

[roadrunner20]

Yes, outside of the tires wear first. Pilot side wears faster.
I suspect pilot side wears faster as I get more landings due to pilot only flights.

I rotate my tires to get extended wear as soon as I begin to see a thinning of the outside tread.

[Walt]

I switched to Goodyear flight custom III's, much better tire than the "OEM" tire. Maybe I'm just lazy, but when the outside is worn to limits (normal) I change the tire (and tube), way to much effort involved to turn the tires around just to get a few more landings.

[hydroguy2]

101hrs, 132 landings on my Wilkerson retreads 380x150-5 and no uneven wear. I'm betting they go 300hrs or more.

[aerhed]

In general, for a spring gear airplane like an RV or a "Land-O-Matic" you want a tire with round-bottom tread. Examples are a GY Flight Special or McCreary Air-Hawk as opposed to a flat bottom tire like an Air-Trac or GY Flight Custom. The Flight Custom III's are sorta hybridized with rounder edges and pretty thick rubber on the edges. The outer edges of a flat bottom tire can scallop more easily and may wear more quickly. What might be a minor scuff on a round treader could be a reject fo a flat bottom one. Flat bottom tires are for strut gear planes

[Walt]

Originally Posted by aerhed

In general, for a spring gear airplane like an RV or a "Land-O-Matic" you want a tire with round-bottom tread. Examples are a GY Flight Special or McCreary Air-Hawk as opposed to a flat bottom tire like an Air-Trac or GY Flight Custom. The Flight Custom III's are sorta hybridized with rounder edges and pretty thick rubber on the edges. The outer edges of a flat bottom tire can scallop more easily and may wear more quickly. What might be a minor scuff on a round treader could be a reject fo a flat bottom one. Flat bottom tires are for strut gear planes

Good info, I may just try a set of GY FS next time around (they are a little less expensive too).

[Sam Buchanan]

Originally Posted by mikerkba

Many owners rotate the tires left to right, perhaps at the condition inspection, to put the remaining better tread to the outside. That can maximize the number of landings.

Just for clarification for new RVers, the tires don't get rotated from one side of the plane to the other. They are remounted (flipped over on the wheel) to put the wear at the inside of the tread. After remounting tires a few times you get proficient and this can be done in about an hour.

[Kyle Boatright]

Originally Posted by DanLandry

Yes, outside of the tires wear first. Pilot side wears faster.
I suspect pilot side wears faster as I get more landings due to pilot only flights.

I rotate my tires to get extended wear as soon as I begin to see a thinning of the outside tread.

The pilot side wears faster due to torque on takeoff. More right aileron on the takeoff roll will alleviate the problem.

[woodmanrog]

and count landings. Since my wife started her training in earnest, our tires wore down really quick. She was doing up to 10 landings a day on the asphalt. Outer wear is perfectly normal as stated by all the other guys. I have tried all kinds of tires and found Michelins last the longest. I recently switched to Desser Monster Retreads (succumbed to the advertising). I'm hoping for longer wear due to stronger sidewalls (10 ply) and deeper tread. They also are about 1/2 the price of what I have been paying for new tires. I also fill my tires to max pressure (45lbs) so that they ride closer to the center and I don't have to refill as often as I used to. I do agree from what I have observed that the left tire will quicker than the right.