Tire inflation pressure

anon wrote:
(VideoFlyer) wrote:


Well....you're right, -anon. I obviously have no experience with 5:00-5 tires
on a 2250 lb gross weight canard aircraft or I wouldn't be "spewing" such
ignorance. But you might notice that I didn't say in my post that 15-20 lbs was
the correct, or even recommended, pressure. I am sorry to have contaminated
this group with an opinion, an observation and personal experience. Mea culpa,
mea culpa.

My experience with 5:00-5 tires is on much lighter aircraft. And while I
didn't mean to be "spewing ignorance" my experience nonetheless is that
pressures of 45-55 lbs makes the tires on my Rans pretty hard. If you would
like to tell me that my experience is not valid somehow, feel free.


While your experience is of course valid, in this case it wasn't
relevant to the poster's question. The poster's 5.00-5 tires must
support about 1000 # each at gross weight. That fact dictates the
minimum tire pressures. And let's not pretend to be the wounded
innocent. Your post was written in direct rebuttal to my post and
called my pressure recommendations into question. Yours wasn't the
innocent ancillary informational post that you now pretend. In
retrospect, however, I should have used more tact. For the record,
here is your post:


45 lbs??? 55 lbs for the nose gear??? That seems awfully high. Those tires
will be hard as a rock. I guess I'd prefer a little softer tire to land on. I
rarely put in more than about 15 to 20 lbs. 5 lbs will "get the sidewall off
the ground."


- anon


How about this that I learned from the Dodge Dakota newsgroup a while
back? Forget about tire pressure for now. Load up the plane to what
you expect to be the normal operating weight. Pump up the tire untill
you get full tread and no sidewall contact. Take the tire pressure and
use that from then on.

How do you know when you've got full tread contact? Pour some water
just in front of the tire and pull the plane through it, letting the
wheel turn completely over a couple of times. It'll leave an 'imprint'
on the second time around that will be a mirror image of the tread
pattern. If you can read sidewall numbers, you need more air. If it is
just a thin strip, you need to remove some.

--
http://www.ernest.isa-geek.org/
"Ignorance is mankinds normal state,
alleviated by information and experience."
Veeduber