Hafast wrote:Why not just have Desser recap your 8.50s and put them back on. I had a set done this summer for my 180 and they look great. I think they were about $70 or $80 each.

Just received my recapped GY 8.50's today. $65 each, no tax or shipping. If you're patient, Desser is a great deal.

How long did they take?
I would imagine that something like recapping tires is best done in batches-- in other words, wait til you get a pile o' tires, don't do 2 every third day. Cost prohibitive otherwise-- set-up time, etc.
BTW, I'm on my third (?) set of 800 x 6 McCreary Airtrac's and I've never seen any noticable size difference. After the first set wore down, I looked thru my logs and counted how many flight hours & landings I got out of them. I don't recall the numbers now but they seemed to hold up very well. Of course, all of my landings are greasers.....

Eric

I went ahead and ordered a set of AirTracs (should be here in a couple of days). Couldn't wait for Desser / Goodyear to get their act together, and there are a pair of (worn out) AirTracs on my 180 right now, so another pair should work fine. I did "inherit" another good 8.50 core (no chord showing) so the plan is to take that one plus the other good 8.50 core I have and send them down to Desser for re-caps (at least the airplane won't be down sitting on blocks while I'm waiting for the re-caps!).

After I get the new tires mounted & aired up, I'll measure them to see if there really are any dimensional differences on the Airtracs (I suppose I could also measure the worn-out pair that are on the airplane now) and I'll report back here on what (if anything) I find.

As to going to 29s (someone said to just go get the AKBWs), that's way too much tire for what I do with this airplane, and I don't want to give away any of the cruise speed I currently enjoy (she does 160+mph at 7000 feet @ 22 squared with 850s on there right now).

zero.one.victor wrote:How long did they take?
I would imagine that something like recapping tires is best done in batches-- in other words, wait til you get a pile o' tires, don't do 2 every third day. Cost prohibitive otherwise-- set-up time, etc.
BTW, I'm on my third (?) set of 800 x 6 McCreary Airtrac's and I've never seen any noticable size difference. After the first set wore down, I looked thru my logs and counted how many flight hours & landings I got out of them. I don't recall the numbers now but they seemed to hold up very well. Of course, all of my landings are greasers.....

Eric

Desser said 2-3 weeks. It took 34 days.

Normally, I change tires every 250 hours. This time I had 311 hours on the GY 8.50's. Flew the recaps today and had no out-of-balance issues.

How much of a weight increase do the recaps add. When I ran the recaps, they lasted longer but were slightly heavier. They were great. I believe the airlines run mostly recaps.


flyer

Airtrac 800 x 6 tires on C-170:
first set, "rotated" tires on wheels @ 325 hours, replaced @ 641
second set: rotated @ 289 hours, replaced @ 614

Granted, a 180 is a heavier airplane and lands at a bit higher speed- -but 250 hours (or even 314) seems like a short service life. I get more service out of mine than some folks, as my airplane is set up with a fair amount of camber. I likke it--I wear down the outside of the tire, then rotate the tire on the wheel and wear down the other side.
I guess if I was wearing down only the middle of the tire I'd only be getting about 300 hours out of a set too-- so maybe that 250-300 hours isn't so bad after all. BTW, I mainly do short flights, mainly off pavement, so probably an average 2-3 landings per hour.

Eric

mtv wrote:In my experience, the McReary's are all over the place in size. We found a set on a 185 that I thought was handling weird where one tire was an INCH different in diameter. ...........MTV

I was curious as to just what squirrelly symptons were attributable to the tires being different diameters. Other than sitting with one wing low (which lots of airplanes seem to do anyways), as long as the wheels were properly aligned and both mains were equal distance from the tailwheel, seems like an inch of difference in diameter wouldn't be all that big a deal. One wheel would be turning a bit faster than the other is all....

Eric

Desert185.....wow, you change tires every 250 hours! That makes me feel better about my 2050 tach hours (at least 2300 hobb hours) on my 31 inch Bushwheels.

Today I just switched out my worn 31's for some 29's (29 - 11x10's). You'd think I would drop down only 2 inches. Wrong, I dropped down 7 inches diameter. To measure, I put 16 lbs in both sets. I could not belive the difference in tire brands.

Off the airplane and with that much pressure, the 31's were 33 inches. The 29's were 26 inches.

I also gained 10 pounds each, for 20 total.

oh well........

Jr.CubBuilder wrote:Eric how far down did you run them, till the threads showed, or just down to the rain grooves.

Ran them down til the tread disappeared, and the wear on the both sides of the tire made them look "out of shape" in cross-section-- worn down on the sides but kinda high in the middle. No cord thread or fabric showing- still servicable if you;re not particular. In fact, I just loaned one old set to a buddy to run for a while til he gets around to buying some new ones.

Eric