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Wheel Pants Install Spacer

J

jwilbur

Well Known Member
I'm working on my RV10 wheel pants. Page 48-5, figure 1, shows the distance from the center of the nut to the top of the spacer as 8-7/8. From the nut to the top of the tire should then be 7-5/8. I am measuring 6-7/8 from the nut to the top of the tire which is a 3/4" difference.

My tires are new 15x6.0-6 (same as the plans indicate on the previous page, step 4) inflated to 30 PSI. I am not yet up on the jacks, which I don't think should matter with this measurement.

Something must be wrong. Anybody run into anything similar?
 
jwilbur said:
I'm working on my RV10 wheel pants. Page 48-5, figure 1, shows the distance from the center of the nut to the top of the spacer as 8-7/8. From the nut to the top of the tire should then be 7-5/8. I am measuring 6-7/8 from the nut to the top of the tire which is a 3/4" difference.

My tires are new 15x6.0-6 (same as the plans indicate on the previous page, step 4) inflated to 30 PSI. I am not yet up on the jacks, which I don't think should matter with this measurement.

Something must be wrong. Anybody run into anything similar?
Click to expand...


I don't recall even using that measurement. I made sure my spacer was 1-1/4 and the aft center line to floor measurement came out to 9-5/16 and it worked out fine.
 
I used the 1 1/4 spacer also and used the 9 5/16 to the center of the rear as shown and everything worked out fine. I don't recall ever using the 8 7/8 measurement. Are you using the monster retreads? Have you measured the stock Vans tire that came with the kit?
 
Bill.Peyton said:
Are you using the monster retreads? Have you measured the stock Vans tire that came with the kit?
Click to expand...

I'm using Michelin Condor 15/600-6 6 CO. I don't have the tires that came with the kit. Not retreads.

I hesitate to just blindly use the 1-1/4 measurement because the step on the previous page says to adjust the measurement of the spacer based on this 8-7/8 measurement. And a 3/4" difference seems too large to ignore.
 
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Then I recommend inflating to 40psi and put the plane up on jacks so you have a 1/16" gap between the bottom of the tire and the floor. If you do this, particularly getting the weight off the gear, and I bet your 3/4" discrepancy disappears.
 
Auburntsts said:
Then I recommend inflating to 40psi and put the plane up on jacks so you have a 1/16" gap between the bottom of the tire and the floor. If you do this, particularly getting the weight off the gear, and I bet your 3/4" discrepancy disappears.
Click to expand...

Reasonable plan. I'll give this a try tonight. Hopefully you're right. My engine is hung (or is it hanged?) so I suppose the weight could be deforming the under-inflated tires some, though 3/4 of in inch seems rather excessive. But what do I know?? I'll give it a try.
 
Something is wrong

So I did what Todd suggested. This maybe reduced the 3/4" to somewhere between 1/2 and 5/8. Still seems much too large.

Question. When a tire is 15x6... Doesn't that mean the tire diameter should be ~15 inches. Radius should then be ~7.5 inches which is just about what the plans say I should have (more or less). The diameter of my 15x6.0-6 tire is definitely not 15 inches. I've inflated to 40 PSI and jacked up the airplane. The diameter is ~14-1/4". Is this normal and the plans are simply not right in that 8-7/8 measurement? Kind of like a 2x4 board is really 1.5x3.5. Maybe a 15" tire is really something smaller.

Anyway, I decided to just press on and use a 1-1/4" spacer. With the pant on the spacer and the rear end 9-5/16" above tire bottom, the tire sticks out 2" from the bottom lip of the wheel pant. Would someone mind making a measurement for me? Is this how much tire you have sticking out the bottom of your wheel pants?
 
BobTurner said:
14 1/4" diameter is correct, according to the Wicks web site.
Click to expand...

Just got word from Michelin. The tires should be 15.2" when fully inflated. Something is definitely wrong. I'm now wondering if they sent me the wrong tires.

Bob,

Where in Wicks did you see this measurement? I can't find it.
 
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jwilbur said:
There it is. Thanks. Seems that they have different nominal sizes. t.
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I believe that is correct. I seem to recall a discussion years ago, that certain Mooneys could only use a certain brand tire. Other brands, of the same nominal size, were in fact larger and would get stuck in the wheel well when retracted!
And several have reported here that they had to trim their wheel pants' opening after installing Monster retreads.
 
BobTurner said:
I believe that is correct. I seem to recall a discussion years ago, that certain Mooneys could only use a certain brand tire. Other brands, of the same nominal size, were in fact larger and would get stuck in the wheel well when retracted!
And several have reported here that they had to trim their wheel pants' opening after installing Monster retreads.
Click to expand...

Makes sense. Van's said to increase the spacer size so that's what I'm going to do.
 
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