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nose wheel tire


wbeyer

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Hi Wayne,

 

Sorry, but there are only the 1-2 choices for the 4.00-4 tire. It isn't a popular size. My first tire lasted almost 350 hrs. Even if you change the front tire every 200 hours that wouldn't be to terrible.

No, it's not that it's expensive but it's a cheapo tire that isnt round. Took a lot of weight to balance, the 6 plies I put on the mains are sooooo nice.

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Hi Wayne,

 

I know they are cheap, but no alternative. I'm like you and prefer a little more rubber and cord between me and the pavement. A better ply tire has less sidewall flex and hopefully a little better chance against a puncture or even a total failure. You know the cheaper tire is on a lot of CT's around the world and they seem to hold up so long as you don't try to stretch the service life too far.

 

I have the tundra wheels and use the Desser 4.00-6 6 ply on my front. It is touted as their LSA tire. I know many that use it. You would have to change the front fork setup on your plane and that cost is about $2500.

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  • 1 month later...
  • 3 weeks later...

I've changed a number of main gear tires/tubes on the 2006 CTsw, but not the nose wheel tire/tube. What's involved in changing the front tube and/or tire? Do you tie the tail down? On the mains, the wheel pants come off. On the nose wheel, do you slide the wheel pant up?

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Howdy Wlfpckers,

 

The front is easier than the mains. Tie the tail down to raise the front off the ground. I pull the tail down to about 12" off the floor. Then remove the screws on the wheel pant. I take a little bunji here to hold the wheel pant up out of the way of the axel nut. Then remove the axel nut. The nut itself is a 19mm and to hold the other side so it doesn't turn is a 17mm. Take a drift punch and place it in the hole where the axel nut was and just tap the axel out. The tire and wheel on the front wheel are very easy to change out and nothing like the mains. No clamps or wrestling to get the wheel halves together. You will notice how the Italian wheel is so tapered in the middle and smooth on the bead edges. This is the reason that the tire can turn on the rim if you let the pressure get too low. If it were me i would use the 6 ply from Desser and they have it for the 4.00-4 or the 4.00-6 front wheel. Then when you go to put the wheel on put the wheel up in place and put the aluminum spacers in place first then slide the axle in place. I usually put a film of grease on the axle to help it go through and to protect it from corrosion. You may have to tap the axle through with a plastic mallet at times because they are snug. The axle has shoulders on it so some times it catches as it goes through the spacers and fork. Just wiggle the tire as you tap it through and it goes right in. Secure the main axle nut back in place and put the wheel pant back and your set.

One last thing. The piece of rubber hose that FD put in as a spacer in the mains and front tire are absolutely worthless and just crush down and allow the pant to wiggle back and forth which will eventual cause the threads on the screw to eat out the hole on the wheel pant or cause it to break out around the hole completely. Toss this piece of hose. Go to Ace Aviation (Ace Hardware) and over by the screws they have plastic and brass sleeves or spacers. They are about 1"-1.25" long with a hole through the middle. I take those and cut them down to the length I need on the front wheel pant. Then I put a large fender washer up against the wheel pant on the inside then put the new spacer in between that and the axle. This allows you to tighten the pant up tight. This keeps it from see sawing back and forth and vibrating making the hole where the screw goes through bigger. With the wheel pant sandwiched in between the outside washer and inside washer it is firm. This works very well for the mains and helps stop some of the vibration and wind buffeting.

Bottom line throw that piece of smashed no good rubber hose away.

 

 

 

p.s.

Lifting the wheel pant up now will allow you to see if you can change a front tire in the field if it were flat. If you can't lift it up far enough to access the axle nut then you would have to disassemble the entire front end in the field just to change a flat tire. Good luck with that! If the groove at the top of the pant was not cut deep enough then you will not be able to lift the pant high enough to access the axle nut. To cure this you will need to take a Dremel tool with a sanding disc and lower the notch just a tad. I had to do both on my plane to get the pant high enough to access the axle nut. Plus all my stems are easy for pressure checks. The other help on this issue and to allow better access to the tire stem for a pressure check is to trim the bottom edge up of the wheel pant. Sometimes it takes both of these. I have noticed on different CT's that wheel pant lower edges are not all equal. Trimming doesn't hurt the pant. Mine has been this way for 3.5 years.

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  • 4 months later...

Hi Kurt,

 

Not only has Desser changed it's website, but they have greatly reduced the tires published on line. Some of the old tires we use like the 400.-4 6ply disappeared. So have a couple of others. I will call them in the morning and ask. To answer your question you do want the 6 ply. There are twp versions of the nose tire. 4.00-4, 4.00-6. The 4.00-6 will not fit the smaller wheel and you can not just change wheels without changing the entire nose fork. They are all standard now days with the 4.00-6, but not back in 2006.

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I recently replaced the Slovenian nose-wheel tyre that was on my CT when it was delivered. After 350 hours it had very little wear but I wanted something a bit more robust so replaced it with an Aero Classic 400-6 6ply. (I also replaced the wheel bearings)

I flew the airplane for the first time yesterday since the tyre change and noticed quite a rumble from the nose-wheel as it was slowing down after take-off. It would appear to be very out of balance and was wondering if anyone else had experienced this? I never had this problem with the original tyre and am not sure where to get it balanced however expect there must be places at my local airport that do this type of work.

 

As mentioned on another thread, I fitted Desser Monster re-treads (600-6 6ply) to the mains and found them a bit rigid on landing. They currently have 29 psi in them, however will take Roger Lee's advice and drop it to about 24 or 25 and see how that goes.

 

Regards,

 

Dave

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Hi Dave. The 400-6 tire needs balancing after installation. There are balancers for motorcycle wheels which we can get here in the U.S. and I would imagine these are available down under where you're at too. Roger Lee has a nice one that is "high end" and appears to be quite sensitive. I have an inexpensive one I mail ordered from a company called Harbor Freight and had to loosen up the bearings on this to get it to work well. Actually, I found that the new bearings I put into the front wheel allowed the front wheel to find it's "high" point of imbalance quite well. Now that the assembly is back in your plane, try loosening the torque from the axle nuts to remove the pre-load on the bearing and see if you can get a sufficient balance done without removing the wheel. Get the front off the ground and, with torque backed off, give the wheel a slight rotation. If you see the wheel consistently finding the high point of weight by stopping with the same location down at the ground, put some weight 180 opposite this. You may be able to get close enough with the balance. Most 600-6 6 ply take about 1.25 to 1.75 oz. to ballance out. I use the stick-on 1/4 oz. lead weights and try to split the weight so it goes on opposite sides (backside and frontside) of the rim. If this "poor man's" method doesn't work, you will need to find someone who has a balancer or get one for yourself and then you'll be the one everyone brings their wheels to! This balancer will work for all wheels and Roger Lee notes that he even static balances propellors with his.

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Hi Guys,

 

After changing many tires and tire types I now balance everything. They are all out of balance..... It absolutely makes a difference to balance our tires. Balancing our tires is quick and easy. I mirror everything Dick said. It seems to take 1.25 - 1.34 oz. weight to balance the large or small tires. Many times you can feel the difference on take off as the wheels clear the ground. I posted on another thread how to do this and the balancer I use to do wheels as well as static balance props. For the wheels I use my balancer set on top of 2 x 1 gal. Lacquer Thinner cans. It is plenty tall enough, sets well on my bench and makes working with the setup easy. The reason I use the balancer that I do is that it is very sensitive so I can get a good balance point. It's the bearings on this balancer that are high end. I, like Dick, just use the 1/4 oz. stick on weights. I use a piece of tape with the weights stuck on at first to see where and and how much weight to use. Then when I know, which only takes about 2-3 minutes, I mark where the weights go with a felt tip pen. Then clean that area with the Lacquer Thinner 3 times. Then stick the weights on. They have never come off.

 

A 2 ply tire will be less out of balance than an 8 ply. It just has more material, but a 6 or 8 ply tire is far far better to land on a flat than a 2 ply.

 

 

Here is the balancer info again:

Here is the website to get a wheel / prop balancer. Roughly $115.

 

I would call him instead of ordering on line. You need to ask for a model DU42 with the 14" shaft.

714-842-9210

Marc Parnes (owner) will most likely answer the phone

 

 

http://www.marcparne...el_Balancer.htm

p.s.

I read on another forum about putting liquid tire sealant (of any type) in the tires. This will absolutely throw your tires way out of balance and there is no way to compensate. Unless I had to do it in an emergency just to get home I would highly recommend you do not do this. I have seen this get so bad that the entire aircraft shakes as the wheels clear the ground and the only way to stop it is stop the wheels from turning with the brakes.

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Thanks Dick & Roger for your informative responses. That was exactly the information I needed and will certainly look at purchasing a balancer. $115 seems very reasonable although I expect they will be vastly more expensive "downunder" (everything usually is!) but I can always get it online from the USA.

In the meantime I will speak to my local motorcycle dealer and see if they can do a wheel balance for me; and if not, someone on my local airport is sure to have the equipment.

 

Thanks again.

 

Dave

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