On the note of tires, "all weather" tires anyone??

James331

James331

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James331
Hey guys,

So with that post about the retreads it got me to thinking about the mains on my plane, they aren't showing much wear, but they got some years on them, and with how long tires tend to last me and with the often I land on snow covered runways, I was thinking about these, anyone have any PIREPs on em??


"Premium Grade USA Made Tires. All Weather Tread Design and Extra Deep Tread."

https://www.desser.com/Aircraft-Tir...LASSIC-VINTAGE-AIRCRAFT-TIRE-DESSER-AA4E4.asp


aeroclassicvintagestraight_med.jpg
 
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Those deep grooves look like they'd be great at picking up rocks and flinging them backwards or forwards.
 
alaskan9974 said:
Those deep grooves look like they'd be great at picking up rocks and flinging them backwards or forwards.
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I was thinking more for snow than gravel.

With the amphib it's normally hard surfaces when it's landing on land, maybe a nice smooth grass strip, but it doesn't see gravel
 
Tread in tires is what tosses rocks into props on gravel strips. Amphibs don’t qualify. If you fly gravel? Smooth tires are the answer. If you happen to land on a slick, narrow, crowned runway? Thrust and rudder are the key players.
 
What I'm saying is on my amphibs I don't mess with gravel, just hard runways which often have snow, hence the question about those cross treads
 
Most float guys I know take the floats off during winter. How much water flying do you do when snow and ice on the runways concerns you?
 
Stewartb said:
Most float guys I know take the floats off during winter. How much water flying do you do when snow and ice on the runways concerns you?
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They aren't floats, and I don't have any space in the hangar to store them if I took them off, plus for my average winter flying the sacrifice in speed isn't that big of a deal.
 
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I know that quite a few folks with straight floats take them off for the winter and put wheels/skis on but everyone I know who has amphib floats leave them on the entire year.
 
That makes a pretty sorry wheel plane when you live where lakes and rivers freeze over for the winter.
 
Stewartb said:
That makes a pretty sorry wheel plane when you live where lakes and rivers freeze over for the winter.
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Not really, I still cruise 120kts, proper /G IFR, ofcourse in -0C low deck cloud winter that's less useful. But pulling her off amphibs doesn't give me a enough of a return on investment, lots of the winter is not very flyable due to low level ice or extreme cold, so pulling the amphibs and more over storing them, for my limited flight volume in winter just doesn't make sense, maybe if I was in AK or Idaho or something.

But she makes a good wheel plane, I'm only saving about 9 minutes on most of my flying by going back to land gear, backcountry wheel ops with our snow cover and terrain isn't a good idea.

So she's on amphibs most of the time, unless I have a good reason to swap over.
 
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