Which bushwheels would you put on a stock 90 horse champ?
Air streaks or regular? 26's or 29's.
loss of speed...haha, no concern.

Oops. Couple drinks.
Bushwheels! Or bushwheela if that's an option.

I had the 26" AkBushwheel Airstreaks on my Champ and they were a perfect match for my needs. The AIrstreaks are lighter and I feel there is no sense in getting the heavier weight standard Bushwheels when the Airstreaks are legal.
There are guys in Alaska with 31's but unless you are going into some real nasty places the 26" will do all you want. But then there is the issue of 'mine is bigger than yours'...so maybe you won't be happy until you have the biggest available. I am talking tires here.

No experience with a champ but I've thought about this a lot and decided 29" airstreaks would be the right tire for my 85hp Luscombe for the type of flying I want to do. Gravel bars, ridges, the common off airport stuff. 26" would be fine I think but I want to protect my airframe a little more so one size above adequate.

always go big, get some 35's.

Put some bush in ur kush

I had 26's on my champ, they worked fine for what I did. The only downfall is mine was heavy before the tires so it didn't perform that great. I've been flying a 90hp j3 on 29's. They are perfect for that, and going down to the gravel bars. If I was to buy airstreaks I would get 29's

55

Just put 29's on my Champ with a o-235 , they are great!

Here ya go 55 .

I think I just figured out how to post a pic

arghh... someone's fishin...

You already know the biggest & softest...

Since 'streaks are legal for you, they're the softest. And since 29 is as big as they go, they'd be the one

Yes, I know... I only opted for 26's for the Tcart, but at 65 hp, I had to figure weight in the equation

Rob,
If you have 26" Airstreaks on your Tcart, what did you do about the brakes? Surely you don't still have the shinns on there, do you?

Now that's a Champ !!! Beauty.

Leaving a little extra weight, drag, and money out of the equation, the 29'" Airstreaks (why would you even consider the heavier Bushwheels??) are a LOT cushier then the 26" 'streaks. I put about 400 hrs on my 26's, and when I got a bad case of big tire envy and moved on up to the 29's, I was somewhat amazed at the difference. More shock absorbing air in the tire, more sidewall to flex, bigger dia. obviously, all come together to make it a lot more capable tire. Hell, it's only money

Thanks guys! Awesome champ bighorn! You got her down here in Texas?

I think i knew the answer rob. Just wanted confirmation and reassurance.

MontanaT-craft wrote:Rob,
If you have 26" Airstreaks on your Tcart, what did you do about the brakes? Surely you don't still have the shinns on there, do you?

Hi MT T-craft,
I don't believe Shinns would comply with the STC, and they surely don't compliment our style of flying. There are about a dozen ways to skin that cat, but what we elected to do was run pull type hydraulic master cylinders mounted under the floorboards cabled to the original pedals. You can purchase these, the tapered axel sleeves, and the wheels, all from Robbie Grove. It isn't STC'd, but given the upgrade over a cable / drum set up the 337 should be a slam dunk. If your IA / Fed isn't willing to walk with you on this, there is a gent in TX who is a DER and can provide you with appropriate engineering for this exact mod.

Take care, Rob

Just out of curiosity what did you champ guys loose on speed and performance?

Rob wrote:
I don't believe Shinns would comply with the STC, and they surely don't compliment our style of flying. There are about a dozen ways to skin that cat, but what we elected to do was run pull type hydraulic master cylinders mounted under the floorboards cabled to the original pedals. You can purchase these, the tapered axel sleeves, and the wheels, all from Robbie Grove. It isn't STC'd, but given the upgrade over a cable / drum set up the 337 should be a slam dunk. If your IA / Fed isn't willing to walk with you on this, there is a gent in TX who is a DER and can provide you with appropriate engineering for this exact mod.

Take care, Rob

I'm going to have to pm you about this when I get to a computer. I tried to get a field approval for grove brakes with pull master cylinders on my Luscombe but was told no way, even though the inspector agreed they would be much safer than my current set up.

What do you guys say about the big soft tires actually increasing ground roll on light a/c like the champ and j3? And more drag also means less lift - which people also say actually increases your t/o distance above 50ft?

Again, landing short is 1 thing - taking off is another. I understand bigger is easier on the gear - that makes sense. But you really need a lot more excess power than we have, right?

just askin - I'm likely going to get 29's for my j3 anyway - cause I have gobs of excess power when I'm solo and super light.

Whee, 10-4

Anarchist, My personal experience has been that in keeping with the more common sizes and types, the increased AoA has made the T/O trade a wash, and sometimes even shortened it up... Now put 35's on a J3 and the trade off may be less than favorable...

Climb out OTOH, has quite often been less than favorably impacted, but again, I don't know anyone trying to 'shoot the notch' leaving JC in a J3 so a lap or two departing a canyon bottom may be in store for you...

Take care, Rob

whee wrote:

Rob wrote:
I don't believe Shinns would comply with the STC, and they surely don't compliment our style of flying. There are about a dozen ways to skin that cat, but what we elected to do was run pull type hydraulic master cylinders mounted under the floorboards cabled to the original pedals. You can purchase these, the tapered axel sleeves, and the wheels, all from Robbie Grove. It isn't STC'd, but given the upgrade over a cable / drum set up the 337 should be a slam dunk. If your IA / Fed isn't willing to walk with you on this, there is a gent in TX who is a DER and can provide you with appropriate engineering for this exact mod.

Take care, Rob

I'm going to have to pm you about this when I get to a computer. I tried to get a field approval for grove brakes with pull master cylinders on my Luscombe but was told no way, even though the inspector agreed they would be much safer than my current set up.

I had the same issue with my Champ before I sold it. It still had the stock drum brakes and to be honest, they were just short of worthless with the AIrstreaks. They were perfectly adequate with the stock sized tire but when I installed the AIrstreak they weren't much better than dragging one's feet. There is an STC'd hydraulic conversion kit available but it is rediculously expensive. It would have cost the better part of $5,000 to get it and have it installed. My AP thought we could 'make' our own, approve it with a field approval and pass it off as a safety inhancement. NOPE, a no-go as the FSDO said since there was an STC kit available I would have to go that route and to forget about getting a field approval.
Just another reason that convinced me to sell it and buy an experimental.
If you wee able to get different brakes approved, I congratulate you!!!