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Typo Page 46-3

Phil

Phil

Well Known Member
Just a heads up for those of you who are getting into the landing gear section.

On page 46-3, Van's suggest positioning the valve stem closest to the the red-dot on the tire. I did this and assumed Vans was correct.

Then I bought a tire/wheel balancer and thought I'd give them a peek to see how close they were. To my surprise they were way way out of balance. I attempted to balance the wheel and stacked all the weight I could onto the wheel before running out of space and the wheel still wasn't close. (That's 3.5oz for those counting.)

Common sense said something wasn't right so I dug out the old A&P manuals. Sure enough the red dot is the lightest part of the tire and the drilled valve stem is the lightest part of the wheel. You should install the valve stem 'opposite' the red dot so the two can counterbalance each other. Vans plans have you aligning them and creating the maximum out-of-balance scenario.

So I flipped mine around 180 degrees to see what would happen and validate the data point. I went from 3.5oz and still severely out of balance to .75oz and perfect.

So if you've got the plans in front of you, you should modify the plans to reflect positioning the valve stem opposite the red dot. If you've got an A&P book in front of you take a quick walk through it and you'll see the discrepancy too.

Phil
 
Weird. They got it right on my tires because you can mount it anywhere on the wheel and the red dot is always the lightest.

Here's a photo of the page from the ASA set of A&P manuals.

IMAG0337.jpg


The only reference I can find that mentions having the red dot and valve stem aligned is in an Advisory Circular and is specific to tubeless tires.

What I do know is that 2 of my 3 were 180 degrees off when I followed Vans plans. I don't know about the 3rd yet since I haven't balanced him. But I expect to find the same.

Phil
 
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Follow Van's instructions...

Your A&P book is correct about the dot being the light side of the tire. Then it says to install the "light" part of the tire across from the "heavy" part of the wheel. That does not make sense.

Some tubes have a balance mark marking the heavy side of the tube. Ours do not. Normally you would align the the balance mark on the tube with the red dot. In our case you align the valve stem with the red dot.

Larger wheels halves are sometimes marked with an "L". The two halves would be assembled with the "L's" opposite each other. Ours do not have these "L" marks.

The most important thing you mention is "balancing". Our wheels/tires/tubes are "economy models" and may not be balanced from the factory very well. Like you did, rotating when you have an excessive amount of weight needed is the thing to do.
 
Hey Wayne,

Yeah I can see it that way when I read it the way you described too.

I think the reason we're getting some weird results is that the amount of material removed from the wheel is heavier than the weight of the valve stem. So you end up with the light spot on the wheel being the valve stem.

I'm not sure if that's different with other wheels. If I get some time tonight (when I'm doing my 3rd wheel) I'll balance the wheel and tube combo to confirm.

Phil
 
I just got off the phone with Dresser Tire Co. and they said that when installing a tire on cleveland wheels the red dot should be lined up with the valve stem.
:eek: I must confess, In the past I have never lined any dot up with anything before. I have never had any vibrations or ill issues because of it. Maybe ignorance is bliss.
 
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