The owner of SeaPlanes North in Anchorage is suppose to be working on a stc for the 10" grove wheels and brakes on Cessna 100 series airplanes. They told me at the Alaska air show this spring that they hope to have that stc in place by this winter. At the same airshow the Desser people told me they hope to have a new 29" tundra tire with stc approval also sometime this winter. At the airshow they had some pretty good special pricing for the Grove and Desser combos but no stc.

Hey Guys,
Just got off the phone with Jeff at Seaplanes North and the STC for the 29" and 8.50 X 10" tires, and the Grove kit is coming really soon. With the 31" tires hopefully soon after that. Just giving a heads up.

Reckon a complete kit will not be cheap, but good for them for giving us more options:

http://www.groveaircraft.com/8inch.html

http://www.groveaircraft.com/10inch.html

I have the 10 groove setup in my shop. It's really really nice stuff. Completely billet.

They are going on my experimental eventually when it flys, but in the mean time I would love to run them on my 170. I figure once we have an STC for the 31" setup, I'll try again for field approval since my 170 has 180 gear and is effectively a 180 under the belly anyway. I suspect the will say no for some ridiculous reason, but worth a try.

schu

I called Seaplanes today and found out that the paperwork is submitted to the FAA to get the 31's added on to the STC with the wheel adapters. Hoping to have an approval in months now and not years.

What do you mean by adapters? The wheels are all new because they have an o-ring and valve stem to make them tubeless. I basically have this kit in my garage, and it's a replacement for the cleveland or cessna brakes and wheels.

akschu wrote:What do you mean by adapters? The wheels are all new because they have an o-ring and valve stem to make them tubeless. I basically have this kit in my garage, and it's a replacement for the cleveland or cessna brakes and wheels.

I'm sorry I didn't state that more clearly, it's a specialty of mine.

I was referring to the original Gar-Aero STC with the glue on 10" adapters. Currently they are authorized with the 8.50-10s or the 29-1100x10 Airhawks only. Seaplanes has been pursuing adding the new 31's to the STC for quite some time.

Just removed a set of tubed Desser 31” tires with the gar aero setup the complete tire with brake disk was 48.4 pounds per tire. FWIW

I cant wait to get the Seaplanes North STC on the 185. Need the bigger tires but also based on rough concrete.

I have almost 100 hrs using tubed gar aero rimmed Desser 31’s on a Super cub. They are bulletproof and show barely any wear as they were operated off a fair amount of pavement where the plane was based. But on rough tundra and big rocks(6”+) they were not very giving even at 8 psi compared to ABW tires. They would be great on a heavier plane as those that have em on 170/180/185 love them. I am still up in the air though about selling them. Nice to have a spare set of big tires around. Haven’t even looked how much they are worth as they came with the plane when we acquired it. That being said if I do sell them it’s going to be the whole tire rim combo and local ANC area only.

I install mine with a field approval. We used Willie Stene's report and approval to help with our process. I think it may be posted under the knowledge here on BCP.

I have over 160 hours on them. I have been on and off of all kids of surfaces. You can still see the mold seems down the center. I run 10 to 12 psi. We have gotten a ton of rain this year. My strip has been very muddy. I still enjoy flying. This photo is on real loose sand. You would sink just walking on it. I am very happy and would do it again. Thanks Willie!!





John

Looks like a new STC is close to being a reality.

http://www.seaplanesnorth.com/tundra-tires/

Wow!
Another 6 months, The wheels and tires of progress really do roll slow!

akgreg wrote:So let me get this straight,

Airframes 10x10 wheel is drilled for tubes so OTHER BRANDS of tires can be mounted on them and I pose the question to them about doing the same thing to their 10x6.50 wheels. I get a poor response and I'm the tool for asking that question? "What did you expect"? "Ford vs Chevy"? Seriously?? What the hell did you miss about them being savvy enough to drill the 10x10's so they could sell more?

The Airframes AK 10x6.5 wheel kicks ass. The new Desser tire looks to fit my needs exactly. I just want to marry the two. That is it. Plain and simple.

And the whole STC, field approval, TSO, certified, experimental, blah blah blah has nothing to do with it.

Actually, you're missing a couple of "details". First of all, they designed and certificated the wheel for THEIR tires, specifically the 35 BW. At the time, there was no Desser 10 inch tire. Whereas, they specifically developed the 1010 wheel FOR available tube type tires. AND, they Certificated those tires on their 1010 wheels.

To now certificate the 6.5 wheel for Desser's tires now would require Airframes to STC BOTH the wheel and the tire. And, of course, they'd also have to add a hole for the valve stem, etc. That may not seem like much to you, but you probably haven't applied for any STCs lately. Neither have I, so I may be wrong.

But, the one thing about Airframes is that their "landing solustions" come fully approved, with very few exceptions.

Desser builds tires, but as others have said, where are the approvals for their products?

Good news is, Grove is working on various solutions as well. But, none of this stuff is cheap to produce OR to get approved. And, consider the size of the market.....how many of these "whatevers" is ANY company going to sell? Will they ever recoup their investment?

MTV

Do you ever tire of being Mr. Know It All?

akgreg wrote:Do you ever tire of being Mr. Know It All?

Well, Dude, if you want a set of Airframes wheels and Desser tires, why don't YOU get them approved, instead of bitching about Airframes?

Or, maybe you should go into the business and build a wheel for Desser tires, and get it approved.....

Just saying....

MTV