Noah

Noah

Well Known Member
Anybody else had a problem with their Grove nosewheel? I received my 59-2M-RV, and removed the unused (Vans-supplied) tire and tube from the Matco wheel. When I put the tube into the new wheel, the tube stem did not stick out straight, making it difficult to get the inflator onto the stem:

The stem also pushes way in when attempting to add air, so I'm not sure I could even add air without reaching between the wheel halves (bearings not installed) to steady the stem while I push the inflator valve onto the stem. This basically makes this setup unusable. So I tried to install a couple of washers and a nut, which keeps the stem from disappearing like a frightened turtle's head:D. Unfortunately, the valve stem cap can't be installed with the nut in place.

When the tire is inflated, the stem kicks over to the other side, again making it difficult to install the inflator valve to add some more air without scraping and damaging the paint:

Interestingly, the Grove wheel has the hole for the tube stem in the center of the wheel halves (left photo), while the Matco wheel has the hole off center (right photo):

According to Grove's website, you can "use your existing tire & tube", but I am starting to wonder... Grove says they have never heard of this problem in over 200 nosewheels sold.

Anybody else had this issue? Is the solution to scrap the Vans supplied tube? Does a replacement tube clear up these issues?
 
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Is it true that the nosewheel tube that Vans sells is really made for lawn tractors?
 
Interested ...

I'll be watching this thread carefully, since I 'm within weeks of ordering my Groves nosewheel.
 
No problems here

I put mine on 15 months ago before my first flight. Didn't take long to put it and I don't recall having any issues with moving the tire/tube from my Van's nosewheel to this one. No problems in 225 hours.

Andy
 
right wheel wrong tube

I have the Grove wheel on my -10 and it's nice. I think that you might have gotten a odd tube or replacement tube that's close but not exactly correct.
Get the right one now and have peace of mind. Grove should know what tube to use.

Don Orrick
N410JA
 
Rupester said:
I'll be watching this thread carefully, since I 'm within weeks of ordering my Groves nosewheel.
Click to expand...
89.5 hours on mine and no problems. It just does what it is supposed to do; easy to push around on the ground, doesn't re-launch the nose wheel on touchdown and no problems with the tube I got in my -7A kit. This is one of the items I would do again.
 
Valve is on wrong position!

Hello!

Have a look onto the valve position. On the nose wheel tube (from Vans), the valve stem comes slightly offcenter out of the tube. This is not the case by the main wheel tubes, there the valve stem is absolut in the centerline.

Tube1.jpg

Tube2.jpg


If you look at the wheel halves, the valve-stem cutout is centered by the groove wheel, but not by the original Vans (Matco?) wheel.

I dont know a source where I can get tubes with the valve stem in the center?

Dominik
 
Did you find the tube?

swisseagle said:
Hello!

Have a look onto the valve position. On the nose wheel tube (from Vans), the valve stem comes slightly offcenter out of the tube. This is not the case by the main wheel tubes, there the valve stem is absolut in the centerline.

Tube1.jpg

Tube2.jpg


If you look at the wheel halves, the valve-stem cutout is centered by the groove wheel, but not by the original Vans (Matco?) wheel.

I don't know a source where I can get tubes with the valve stem in the center?

Dominik
Click to expand...

Dominic,

I was just looking at my Grove nose wheel and Van's supplied tube and I see what you mean. It seems to me that a tube with the stem centered is required to prevent a side load on the valve stem.

Did you find a tube, or are you just using the Van's tube. Thanks
 
I ordered my replacement tube last night from Desser, $10.95, P/N TU 11/4.00-5. Here is a photo forwarded to me from Desser showing the stem centered in the tube:



Steve Chlavin at Desser was extremely helpful in answering several questions I had about this issue. If you have any questions, ask for Steve at Desser.
 
Noah

Thanks, I will get one ordered, I know others are using the Van's tube but I don't like the off center stem. With all the issues with the nose wheel, I sure do not want to worry about landing with a flat nose wheel. Thanks for posting the info.

Cheers
 
Nemo

RVG8tor said:
I don't like the off center stem. With all the issues with the nose wheel, I sure do not want to worry about landing with a flat nose wheel.Cheers
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I'm with you, the Vans tube with an offset stem is not compatible with the Grove nosewheel. I recommended to Grove that they change their website which says their wheel is compatible with the stock Vans tube, but they didn't want to for some reason.

A $10.95 replacement seems like cheap insurance to me!
 
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Stem position?

Hello Noha

As I remember, you (or someone else) posted the information, that the new tube from Desser still has the valve stem at the wrong position. But now, your information is deleted or not anymore present!?

Whats the actual situation?

Does the DESSER tube: P/N TU 11/4.00-5 has the stem centered, so that it fits onto the Grove wheel?

Regards,

Dominik
 
Hello Dominik. This has been a very frustrating situation. I was assured by Desser that they had tubes with the stem centered - in fact they even sent me a photo which you can see above. So I ordered one. Unfortunately, when I received it, the stem was not centered. So I called Desser to see what went wrong. They had sent me a Cheng Shin tube, and figured that the Kendall tube was the one with the correct stem. So they sent me a Kendall tube gratis. But when I received that, it ALSO had the offset stem. I called Desser again, and they said that these tubes USED TO have centered stems, but that they no longer seem to (not much QA on these wheelbarrow tubes, I guess). In any event, they concluded that they can no longer supply a tube to fit the vans 11X4 tire with a centered stem so that it would fit correctly on a Grove nosewheel.

So then I called Grove, who first said that they had a bunch of tubes that they got from Desser with centered stems. So I asked them to inflate one of them and call me back because I wanted to buy a half dozen of them. Imagine their surprise when they inflated one of their Desser tubes and discovered - WHOOPS - the stem was not centered. So I asked them, how can I use your nosewheel with a centered hole for the stem when I can't buy a tube with a centered stem, given that we know if at least one failure where the stem was ripped completely from the tube? Gail at Grove agreed and offered to take the nosewheel back and refund my money.

I had this conversation a week or so ago. To be honest, I am just so disgusted with the whole situation that I haven't done anything. I really like the grove nosewheel but there doesn't seem to be any way to be able to use it if I can't get a tube that fits properly in their wheel.

Both Desser and Grove tried to make a case that there are many hundreds of examples out there flying. But when I asked them WHEN the stem change occurred from centered to offset and how many of the offset style have shipped, they could not answer this question because nobody noticed when the change occurred, and I was the first person who brought it to their attention. So it seems likely to me that the vast majority of those "hundreds flying" probably have the older, correct, centered stem which is no longer available.

Bottom line, a tube whose stem must be yanked 1" away from its natural, molded position in order to exit the stem hole in the wheel just isn't going in my airplane, period. Not with a known failure out there and the issues that can occur with the nosegear.

So the options seem to be:

1. Return the Grove nosewheel and go back to the Matco wheel, which has an offset stemhole that matches the tube, and build an axle spacer. Others have done this although I haven't read up on it.

2. Mount a larger tire (5.00X5) on the Grove nosewheel and use a widely available tube with the correct, centered TR-67 style stem which also fits the Grove nosewheel. I also haven't read up on whether this is doable with the existing Vans nose fairing, or what the pros and cons are. I have a feeling this isn't really an option (anybody care to comment)?

3. Buy a different nosewheel from either Grove or Matco, again haven't looked into what options are available or the pros and cons. I think somebody mentioned one earlier in this thread but again, it would have to have an offset stemhole like the Matco to be useful.

Like I said, I am kind of disgusted by this whole mess and the amount of time I have wasted on the non-workable Grove nosewheel option. Been meaning to post this for awhile so thanks for asking.
 
There is indeed a problem. I to have the Grove wheel and I had a stem pull out and the tire went flat on landing. NOt really a situation I would like to go through again. I to have called Grove about the stem not being centered and Like you have tried another tube from Desser to find that it to was not centered. I'm currently flying with a tube that is like before, not centered on the stem to wheel. I feel a little time bomb waiting to go off again. Not sure what to do myself.
 
WOW

is all I can say. I got the Desser tube and found its stem off center but I put in on anyways since I know many use the Desser tube. I had no idea the the stem actually was centered in previous sold tubes. Hopefully someone will make the centered tube or Grove will sell a wheel with an offset stem hole and take out center hole wheel in trade.

I kind of like the idea of a larger nose wheel, curious if anyone had tired this, not sure if the fork has room for a larger tire. I am not flying, I just mounted my tires, I am a long way from flying.

Cheers
Mike
 
RVG8tor said:
I kind of like the idea of a larger nose wheel, curious if anyone had tired this, not sure if the fork has room for a larger tire. I am not flying, I just mounted my tires, I am a long way from flying.
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I've wondered the same thing. I did notice at a fly-in that the RV-12 uses the same size wheel/tire all around...I believe (someone correct me if I'm wrong) they are all 5:00X5-6, same as our mains.

I was just wondering last night if anyone has thought of using the RV-12 fork on a -7A/-9A. I would guess that maybe it's not as beefy? I'm not sure.

Seeing as how Van's is now developing wheel pants for the -12 it looks like fairing up the a larger 5:00X5-6 tire on our NLG would be trivial.

Any thoughts?
 
Matco wheel

I have mine off now and it doesn't rotate on the tight bearings like it should after 100+ hrs. This problem would go away if Matco would just fix their wheel. I tried to talk to them at Sun-N Fun or Osk and they got real upset that I would complain.
 
I had a thought last night, what about drilling a new hole in the wheel. I haven't looked at it to see if it is even possible. Than fill in the old one with silicon or jb weld.
 
My thoughts ...

Hello all!

What have I relaunchd here ... :eek:

Thanks for all your response.

@ Noha and Jamie: I dont like to fit a 5:00X5-6 onto the nosewheel, becaus of its larger diameter, it move the contactpoint closer to the mains. This will make the hole noseover-situation more worse. This is the wrong direction. (it allready happent to one builder that have done this, he thought that the larger wheel is the solution ... until he went also over the nose)

@ slyfox: I allready calculated the new position of a new hole on the side rim and on the diameter/offcenter position, so that a Vans tube will fit propperly. One wheel halve are rotated by 120?, so it will give 2 halve-moon openings and a new opening on one side. It is not possible to bring it to the absolut correct position, but it will reduce the stress on the stem by 2/3. I just want to be sure that all is done before I start drilling and milling (for sure, when I'm finished, then someone will produce a tube that fits and I have a wheel with two holes more) I'm not in a hurry, but my buddy will do his first flight very soon, so he pushes me. I will report here what I have done with all the mesurements. Give me 2-3 weeks time.

Maybe Desser can let produce such a tube, even if it cost twice or tripple the normal price, it is very cheap compared to a nose over.

Reagrds,

Dominik
 
I'm not worried about a nose over, I don't let the nose down until the last little bit. When I had mine do it , the nose came down and did a weard shake and I hit the brakes right away. Than I slowely rolled it off the runway with engine power. Than I tried putting air in the tire and found the stem was blown out. so I just continued back to hangar with a real sloooow speed and made about 4 turns and than one at the hangar for a straight back for the hangar. One good thing about doing a run back to hangar like that, I didn't need to brake the bead on the tire, it was taken care of. The wheel had no damage and the tire was still ok. I just would hate to have this happen at another airport other than my own. I would think vans would be on this nose wheel thing like a hot potato, let alone Grove now since this is their wheel.
 
Grove nose wheel

I bought the grove nose wheel but I think it's a 5 inch wheel. The vans tire says its a four inch. Question: does the nose wheel fairing only fit with the 4 inch tire? I've seen some say they transferred their nose tire and tube onto the grove wheel?....
 
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