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Oversize tires on grass ?

T

TLYNCH

Well Known Member
Is it true that the RV-11 has small tires? I'm a newbie on the list for an assembled RV12 LSA but worried that our grass field, 1WN2 will flip the plane nose over.

All the other pilots here have antique tail draggers, like J3 with 6" or oversize 8" tires.

I searched the forums and found a lot on grass but not tire size. Can we put bigger tires on?

Thank you,
Tim
 
Tire size

The stock tire size is a 5:00x5-6 and it works just fine on turf runways. I've been flying off of a turf airport (rough) for 160+ hours and haven't had any problems. Even during the recent landing gear mod I had no damage. So in MHO the stock size works fine. Making them larger brings on other issue such as fitting inside the wheel pants, etc.
 
Wheel size

Thankyou Steve...I feel much relieved. How long is your strip?

I'm going out to Vans in Oregon next Thurs.

Tim
 
FWIW I flew an RV-3A off of our residential 1700' grass strip for 10 years without any damage to the tight fitting wheel pants. I'm flying my RV-12, with wheel pants, from Oklahoma back home this week from a 2500' turf field. I don't anticipate any problems either there or here at home.
 
For Comparison

Don't have an RV-12, but my Cessna 180 has 600-6 tires and I've flown it off of grass too many times to count. Even a beach once. A number of non-airport fields, too, mostly turf and low weeds. The 180 weighs 2,550 lbs at gross and has a lot higher stall speed than the RV-12.

I'd expect that if you make a religion of keeping the stick back you'll be fine with the RV-12 on grass.

Dave
 
Strip length

My home airport (XS30) is 2550' from fence to fence. The FAA only knows of 2100' so that is the published length. No problems in or out at gross weight. Steve
 
I fly in and out of my property off centre pivot turf farming paddocks and continually damage my right side wheel spat (minor cracks). I was considering trimming the spats from the bottom to allow for a greater clearance. Has anyone hade experience with this? I prefer to have the wheel fairings on my RV12, both for speed and good looks. Any feedback would be greatly appreciated.
 
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Welcome to VAF!

Anth-------ony?

Welcome to the good ship VAF.

You are not the first one to have the clearance on the pant/tire too tight------it took me a couple tries to get it right. I ended up with 5/8" to 3/4". More at the sides, less in line with the tread.
 
rv3flier said:
FWIW I flew an RV-3A off of our residential 1700' grass strip for 10 years without any damage to the tight fitting wheel pants. I'm flying my RV-12, with wheel pants, from Oklahoma back home this week from a 2500' turf field. I don't anticipate any problems either there or here at home.
Click to expand...

Hey Mike,
Thanks for the welcome and info. So what you are saying is to trim the sides to 3/4 (or did you mean to trim the rear in line with the tread)? I also taxi out to the paddocks on my gravel/crushed rock farm roads and occasionally pick up the odd small rock that gets caught up between the tyre and wheel spat. I'm sick of repairing the things, so for the moment, I have ripped them off.
 
I have a RV 10------lots more weight, and even with a larger tire based on aircraft weight, maybe there could be a greater tire bulge ???

3/4" is what worked on my pants, flying off pavement. You need to see what is going to be the correct clearance for your plane, and runway surface.

I have a wider gap on the sides of the tire, where the sidewall bulges upon landing. For the buildup of mud/stones, you probably need to open up the rear are behind the tire.

Trial and error...................
 
Great. Thanks Mike. Will start my trial and error operation immediately. What you say all makes sense. I guess I'm just being overly cautious and didn't want to take too much off and destroy my spats.
 
Anthony, I trimmed my wheel pants to have 3/4" clearance all around the tyre, based on what others had previously said about flying off grass. However, I was surprised how little ground clearance there is on the outboard side of the main gear pant due to the camber on the wheels. I do have some concerns about whether it will be enough on grass, but time will tell. Has anyone had to raise the main gear pants to avoid damage?
 
Thanks Rob. I actually haven't measured the right side main gear pant clearance and compared it to the left. I'm assuming that it's less as I've never had a problem with the left and often damage to the right. I think it's a bit of pot luck for me in relation to surface condition as I'm constantly changing my take off and landing runs on my centre pivot paddocks. I guess it's a fine line between taking too much off and possibly creating more drag due to the increased clearance between the wheel and the wheel spat. Would be really interested to hear if anyone had had the same issue and has sorted it by simply shaving off 10 or 15mm from the bottom of the spats.
 
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