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Excessive Tire wear

I've read a little in the archives and seemed to find "some" info on other models but nothing on the 10. Maybe it's the same?

So doing my condition inspection the outside of my right tire was extremely worn. The left wasn't anywhere near as bad. The left I simply twisted it around so the other side will wear, but I had to replace the right tire.

Is there any way to adjust the toe at this point? I did not build this plane, but have spend quite a bit of time fixing things. :)

Thanks,
Richard
 
It may not be a toe-in issue. Have you measured it? You may be using right brake to keep the airplane straight during the takeoff roll.
 
Rolled brake O ring?

You may be dragging a brake and not know it. My right brake piston O ring rolled just enough to still work, but not to fully retract. Now i can see that on take off and landings the tire tended to just skid along unless it had full weight or the brake was applied. The tire lost all the outboard tread and the brake pad was almost gone as well. This happened inside the first 100 hours.

New O ring, new pads and new tires and all is well.

Carl
 
My right tire is also worn on the outside much more than the left one. Brake pads on the right are a bit more worn too. Down for condition inspection, so I'll be looking into it shortly. Doesn't appear that the brakes are dragging on that side, maybe I just have a heavier right foot. :)
 
The outsides of the tires will usually be the heavy wear point. When they get thru all of the grooves and leave you with slick tires, the insides will still look nearly new. So you just try to judge the wear and flip them before they get worn too far. It's the same on my RV-14 as it is on my RV-10, and I think it's due to the way the gear hangs and sags when you take the weight off the plane in flight. As you touch down the gear will have the tires tilted outwards as they hit, until they squat enough once you are planted. I'm sure most of the wear takes place at the instant of touchdown, not once you are rolling out with the full weight on the gear. It's just a fact of life on the RV's that you'll wear the outsides first. If one side wears faster than the other, it could be alignment, could be the way you were braking, could be dragging brakes, could be the above mentioned sticky pistons. It's up to you to verify if they are dragging or not, which is easy if you jack the wheel off the ground and spin it. You can probably also hear it as you push the plane into the hangar.

BTW, I have been liking how the Desser High Performance Retreads wear. They seem to be a beefy tire. Not as beefy as monster retreads would be, but any added thickness just gives more landings.
 
Tim

Would you suggest building with the Desser Monster Retreads in mind as "original equipment?"

I'm assuming there is enough difference in tire diameter that the wheel pants should be fitted to the larger tire from the outset, if they are intended for use at any point in the plane's career.

There's no better time than the present for me to make allowances for this, if so.

Thanks.
 
Agree with Tim

The original tires have a much higher wear rate than the Dresser. I would have to look through my log books but I would bet I rotated the tires and threw than away after 400-500 hours. I now have around 1200 hours and are still on the same side.

I have had the mains shimmy like almost all of them do around 25mph. I spent way too much time adjusting the toe-in and made it perfect. I think Van's designs for around 1 deg. I bought a slightly larger bolt to accomplish this. Making the toe-in perfect did not appear to change the shimmy or wear.

Also, if you switch out the tires I also put in the airstop tubes that Michelin sells.
I did purchase the Flightcustom III tires one time thinking they were the best but they were very square and made the plane more squirrely.

I think these are the ones I have.
https://www.desser.com/Aircraft-Tires-and-Tubes/15-600-6-6-PLY-HIGH-PERFORMANCE-RETREAD-AIRCRAFT-TIRE-AWBS.asp
 
The original tires have a much higher wear rate than the Dresser. I would have to look through my log books but I would bet I rotated the tires and threw than away after 400-500 hours. I now have around 1200 hours and are still on the same side.

I have had the mains shimmy like almost all of them do around 25mph. I spent way too much time adjusting the toe-in and made it perfect. I think Van's designs for around 1 deg. I bought a slightly larger bolt to accomplish this. Making the toe-in perfect did not appear to change the shimmy or wear.

Also, if you switch out the tires I also put in the airstop tubes that Michelin sells.
I did purchase the Flightcustom III tires one time thinking they were the best but they were very square and made the plane more squirrely.

I think these are the ones I have.
https://www.desser.com/Aircraft-Tires-and-Tubes/15-600-6-6-PLY-HIGH-PERFORMANCE-RETREAD-AIRCRAFT-TIRE-AWBS.asp


Interesting. I never had a shimmy problem until I put Flight Custom IIIs on a couple weeks ago. I'm also having problems with the Dresser no leak tubes leaking about 2lbs a day. I'm not looking forward to replacing the tubes this weekend.
 
tire wear/useage/cost in the 10

My 7 had a "toe-in" issue on one side more than the other, just required a tire removal, then "flip", at conditional inspections, which at least for me (who does a bearing clean & pack at each conditional) was a minor add-in for time. My 10 is not showing any significant wear at ~100 h on both sides, but this is still pretty early I realize. So far thinking at the conditional it will not require any tire flipping at ~250 hr. At least in our desert climate, air pressure, and all that is doing just fine with Vans stock tires/tubes, and yeah, what I would call a very minor shimmy at 25 mph on the ground (I just ignore) and after lift off too (damped with a tap of the brakes). In the big $$$ picture, the cost of brake pads, tires, and tubes is just in the noise level to me compared to fuel (60$/hr), hanger, and engine (5-10$/hr).
 
Just had to throw this in because when company names get mis-spelled it makes it hard to find threads. The company name is Desser tire, with just one R.
 
i tried the desser retreads and had them wear abnormally and also had a shimmy on landing around 35-40 kts and the clearance between the wheel fairings was very little. i went with flight customs and so far minimal landing shimmy. time will tell on how they wear but i won't go back to the retreads.
alan
n668g
 
And...

I decided to build using the Desser retreads. Using them on training aircraft for many years, they outlast the name brands by nearly two to one and they are a fraction of the cost. Yes, they are a bit larger but as I am fitting my wheel pants for the larger tire, I can always use a smaller one. Conversely, trimming the pants for the smaller tires creates an issue if you want to go to retreads later...
 
I used...

I bought the RV-10 Kit from Desser. The kit includes the High Performance retreads for the mains and the elite retread for the nose...
 
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