What's new
Van's Air Force

Don't miss anything! Register now for full access to the definitive RV support community.

RV-10 tire wear / rotation, brake wear

ScottSchmidt

Well Known Member
As with all RV's my tires were starting to get pretty worn on the outside edge. I went to the hanger a couple of nights ago and rotated my tires and since I had the wheels off I decided to also switch out my brake pads and repack the bearings.

I currently have 230 hours on my RV-10. Not sure how many landings but I would guess it would be somewhere in the 200 range.

After looking at the brakes and tire wear, I would recommend all RV-10 owners to rotate tires and change out their brakes around 180 - 220 hours depending on how many landings they do. I typically do not do alot of touch and goes and when I do land, I let the plane slow as much as possible and use most of the runway just to save the brakes a little.

Here are a couple of pictures of the tires. You can see how they really wear on the outside. The air wasn't showing yet! I pulled the wheels apart, flipped the tire around, repacked the bearings and reassembled. It was pretty quick to do. I should be able to get another 150 - 200 hours out of these tires. My annual is coming up in October and I will check the wear on the tires then.

186750033-L.jpg


186750045-L.jpg



My brakes appeared to be about 50% worn. To do the brakes you need to have the special brake rivet tool. The two pads of the right are the old ones off the right side compared to a new one. New pads are $33 from Van's. Whatta deal :D

186749897-L.jpg
 
Last edited:
Great write, up. I changed my brakes and flipped my tires at 170 hours. My tires were about like yours were, but my brake pads were shot. I'm a habitual brake rider during taxi (trying to quit). So, it's definitely worth an inspection before you hit 150 hours to determine how you're doing...and I'd bet that most builders will want to flip the tires by 200. I'm currently at 260 on the opposite side of the tires and all is still well. Hoping that my brake pads last longer too, as I've been trying to kick the habit. Do they make a patch for that?

Tim
 
Scott, did you have any problems with the bearing pre-load spacers, or the wheel pant standoff???

Thanks
 
I've been keeping accurate track of my tire & brake wear trends, tracking cost per landing, cost per hour, etc. Here's a breakdown...

http://www.rvproject.com/tires_and_brakes.html

Note that the August 23, 2007 entry is not a tire replacement. I still have plenty of life left on the tires, was just checking what the breakdown would be IF I replaced my tires today.

2nd NOTE: I am incredibly impressed with Wilkerson Retreads. Stu McCurdy recommended them to me a year or two ago, so I tried 'em. At 360.6 hours and 425 landings on the tires, they are still going strong! Cost per landing & cost per hour on Wilkerson retreads has been considerably better than what I got from McCreary AirHawk tires.

HOWEVER...the retreads are considerably heavier and slightly larger. I'm switching BACK to McCreary AirHawks at the next tire change. I don't mind replacing them more often. I enjoy the maintenance. I want light weight.
 
Last edited:
Mike S said:
Scott, did you have any problems with the bearing pre-load spacers, or the wheel pant standoff???

Thanks

I haven't had any issues with the bearings. I would like to know more about what issues you are having with them.

As for the wheel pant standoff, I currenly have some nicely machined parts that replace the part that Van's supplies. Here is a picture from Tim's site that shows the supports for the wheel pants. They really stiffen it up. Is this what you meant by the standoff? I didn't have any issues with the one's that Van's had but they were loose and I was concerned I would break the bolt and cause more issues with my wheel pants.
 
dan said:
I've been keeping accurate track of my tire & brake wear trends, tracking cost per landing, cost per hour, etc. Here's a breakdown...

http://www.rvproject.com/tires_and_brakes.html

Note that the August 23, 2007 entry is not a tire replacement. I still have plenty of life left on the tires, was just checking what the breakdown would be IF I replaced my tires today.

2nd NOTE: I am incredibly impressed with Wilkerson Retreads. Stu McCurdy recommended them to me a year or two ago, so I tried 'em. At 360.6 hours and 425 landings on the tires, they are still going strong! Cost per landing & cost per hour on Wilkerson retreads has been considerably better than what I got from McCreary AirHawk tires.

HOWEVER...the retreads are considerably heavier and slightly larger. I'm switching BACK to McCreary AirHawks at the next tire change. I don't mind replacing them more often. I enjoy the maintenance. I want light weight.

Thanks for the info. I'll order this brand next. Where do you order from for the best deal?

Great job tracking this information, very impressive. It would be interesting to go do 200 landings on a grass strip and compare the cost per landing. I guess one pothole in the grass could cost $80,000 which would really throw the calculation off.

I think 50% of my wear came from Camp Guernsey (7V6) in Wyoming. Their runway is like 5 grit sandpaper. By the way, you may want to stop there on your trip to or from Oshkosh. There are two self serve pumps (both 100LL) and the one to the west was selling it for $3.00 on my way back from Oshkosh even though it said $3.75 on the pump.
 
ScottSchmidt said:
Thanks for the info. I'll order this brand next. Where do you order from for the best deal?
Wilkerson is the facility that retreads cores, but it's technically not a "brand." For example, my retreads from Wilkerson were Goodyear Flight Special II. Here's a link:

http://wilkersonaircrafttires.com

When I've talked to them in the past they gave a credit if you send in your cores. It was like $5/tire. I figured it would cost me more than that to ship them my cores, so I just bought the retreads outright.
 
Dan,

Have you done any research or comparison between Wilkerson retreads and those from Desser? I have used Desser retreads for many years on my Grumman, and now on the Val, and like the service I get - just curious if the Wilkerson's are considered better or worse - if they give even better service, they'd be interesting!

I haven't noticed any significant size difference between the Dessers and new - I suppose they may be heavier, but I've never weighed them.

Paul
 
Nope. I ordered a new set of AirHawk tires from Desser once or twice, but I haven't tried their retreads.
 
BTW, I didn't mean to imply that there is a weight or size difference between retreads and new tires. I was just saying I prefer the AirHawk because of its light weight and slightly smaller size. It's an inferior tire on all counts...my own data shows that...but I still prefer it. :rolleyes:
 
Back
Top