My third or fourth? Been doing it it for several hundred hours now. Not for you certified guys worried about your insurance company looking for a reason to call BS on you, experimental only. I get about 75 to 125 hrs out of a $35.00 can. I don't try and store it once opened, I use it all up. First coat light, (the brush kept in the freezer between coats, then thrown away when done) then 2 or 3 more heavy coats till the can is empty. I haphazardly try and apply it evenly but I don't get obsessed about it, the balance seems to be close enough for the speeds I spin them up at.

When the tires lose that Herculiner look, start looking like regular tires, it's time for a recoat.

I don't bother with the sidewalls, I just hit the part that touch the ground the most. Once in use, dirty that is, any extra work keeping it perfectly lined up along the edges is just wasted effort, I've never had anyone tell me my tires look like crap anyway This is the thin first coat, after of course a soap and water brush clean. I'll post a picture in a few days with them both finished out. I got tired of wishing for snow, screw it, I'm getting ready for summer even though it's early Febuary

Unrelated: Tom, are you still happy with those Datums after a few years of using them?

Yes, the Datum's are holding up fine. I have learned to make life easy for the actuators, and try and find a good spot for the transition. In other words, I don't pull up on pavement to a snow berm and then make them pull the plane onto the skis and uphill at the same time. I used to do that and it worked, for a while. I stripped out one gear motor doing so, but that was while I had the wiring wrong to to the breaker buss, my bad, now wired correctly in a similar situation the breaker would pop before over stressing the motor. I also had an incident on my old steel ramp from the hangar to the "runway", I snagged a bolt head that stopped me dead and it bent a arm on the skis. This was many times more impact then ever could be done in normal use, and a straightforward repair. I also recycled that steel ramp and hauled in gravel, made it wider also, so another problem solved. Zero issues once on the skis and working them hard, they are heavy but the weight is because they are very robust.

FINI

Tom, what's your source for the bed liner? Any special brushes to use? My 31's are starting to show some chord

scottnt wrote:Tom, what's your source for the bed liner? Any special brushes to use? My 31's are starting to show some chord

National Aviation Parts Association. (NAPA)

CarQuest, NAPA, O'Reillys.... Lowes, Home Depot for the brushes. 35 to 40 bucks for everything! I did use Xylene (?) for the first coat over the virgin rubber, probably not required but I heard of someone else doing that first go round. The stuff sticks super good, especially to itself, so any subsequent coats I just use soap and water .

I wonder how the durability of the canned air dry stuff, compares to the catalyzed stuff shot from a gun at the bed liner joints.
I bet if you put your wheels on a jig with a crank and took it too them while they were shooting a box. they would shoot a coat on for 20 bucks cash.

Try it and let us know, makes sense to me. One thing I like about hand brushing it is I can put it thickest where I think it needs it most.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't the scary part about doing this is if a big belt comes loose and gets into the propeller? I've been thinking maybe having short segments that are sort of separate would keep any big pieces from getting flung ahead. Maybe have a 4 inch wide brush and do every other four inches of tire at two different times to keep the potential dislodged pieces small. What do you think?

Marty; Not a concern at all, the stuff is WAY sticky! The only thing I've seen is where I feather it out to the sidewalls, some little half dime sized flakes where it thins out to nothing. They are harmless. The main tire is a homogeneous mass of goop, the only way to get it off the tire is to wear I off. Keep in mind that is my experience and some other Cub pilots, meaning we land/taxi/takeoff slow. I just can't imagine it popping off intact without any warning, I'd be more concerned of the usual prop hazards of mud etc.

Thanks CG, when it warms up, I think I'll give it a try.

I copied courierguy , my 29 inch bushwheels had cord showing after 75 landings half were pavement half were dirt and grass . I used the napa process with the foam roller that came in the kit. Next time I will try the brush. I ended up buying 29 inch airhawks an 10 inch wheels for the 180. I am now running them on my 170.
I love the bushwheels but the 180 is to heavy for them. That is for the pavement operations I use them for.
In talking with a sales guy at Airframes Alaska he says within three months they will have a thick rubber bushwheel stc'ed that will hold up better.

Airframes Alaska he says within three months they will have a thick rubber bushwheel stc'ed that will hold up better.

Thanks

Blown56 wrote:I copied courierguy , my 29 inch bushwheels had cord showing after 75 landings half were pavement half were dirt and grass . I used the napa process with the foam roller that came in the kit. Next time I will try the brush. I ended up buying 29 inch airhawks an 10 inch wheels for the 180. I am now running them on my 170.
I love the bushwheels but the 180 is to heavy for them. That is for the pavement operations I use them for.
In talking with a sales guy at Airframes Alaska he says within three months they will have a thick rubber bushwheel stc'ed that will hold up better.

Wow, only 75 landings and you have cords showing? I just looked through my log book and added up over 850 landings on my 26" bushwheels without any cord showing. At least 100 of those were on pavement.

I wonder how much weight the thick rubber bushwheels will add over the regular ones.

Wow Rob if my bushwheels lasted like yours I would be one happy pilot. I replaced the worn tire then several months later while at the 2013 high Sierra fly in the other started showing cord. If you look at the picture closely . It appears where the over lap seams bulge is where the tire wore thru. Every wear spot was on a bulge seam ? No alignment problems! I sent pictures to wup , he didn't charge freight on the replacement tire.
After the Napa fix you can't tell where any spot had been. I do question weather it was all my fault or partly tire construction? As far as weight I don't know but would be willing to accept a little increase if I could avoid 3000.00 dollars a year for rubber. Like I said before they are the best single improvement for where I go but not cost effective on my 180 . Time will tell on my Bedliner fix ,but it seams to be working for me just like courier guy.

Darcy just put the bedliner treatment on the ABW 29's on Bearhawk #357. He took them up for a quick lap around the cabbage patch and said they seemed a little slippery on the pavement but thought they might need a couple of landings to scuff them in.

600 hours on most recent 29's on the 180, well over 100 pavement landings n not even close to chord. Be careful with sharp turns would be my suggestion. I operate out of sharp gravel most of the time, including fairly long taxis. Bush wheels are dang tough n have been very impressed. The 31" ABW on the super cub look brand new after 160 hours, zero noticeable wear. FWIW we replace tires on our jeeps n ATV's every year if not every 6 months out here, comparatively ABW are an excellent value...shameless plug [emoji12]

Hey Skaly, good to hear from you. It's been a while. Wondering why you went with 29s instead of 31s on the 180?

David

Hey David...The 31's have been wrapped up in the hangar for almost a year. Hangar at the ranch is too short for the 31's so until we build a taller one she's rockin the 29's. Originally went with 29's for the higher gross weight but the 31's do the job for my mission and then some, no worries. Plus the Kevlar on the 31's has great benefits as well. These are my second set of 29's on 180, first ones went 800+ hours and got warrantied no questions asked for a minor defect, had plenty of life left in em.