Tire finished?

A safety tip of the day...
Any consumable item on an aircraft that you think maybe end of life, change it. Tires, filters, hoses, brake linings, spark plugs and the list goes on. Many times a basic replacement item that is in marginal condition causes an incident. Then you kick yourself for not changing it.

For example: you think the tire may fail because of cracking. You land at 60 mph and the tire comes of the rim and the $1000 wheel is destroyed. Now you have to buy a new tire, tube, wheel and the shop on the field charges another $300 for rescue and repair.
 
If the cracks expose the cord, it's shot. If the UV and water and pollutants get at the cord, they weaken and can fail.
 
EdFred said:
So you don't know when to replace tires on your car either?
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No. I buy new cars and change offen
Jock appart, car i use every day, plane once a week…
Not the same thing to me, thats why i m asking
 
Taoufig, the cracking you see is called checking. It happens when the rubber dries and loses resiliency. UV and time are the cause. The tires may be airworthy today (can’t say from the pics) but their time is short at best. Start saving for new. Once they start checking, there’s nothing you can do to heal them. If you can see cord in any of the cracks? They’re not airworthy.

When you buy tires make a schedule to rotate them occasionally to equalize the wear. Not left side to right, but turn the tire on each of the wheels on the mains.
 
Taoufiq said:
No. I buy new cars and change offen
Jock appart, car i use every day, plane once a week…
Not the same thing to me, thats why i m asking
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Tires are tires.
 
Who did the Prebuy? I want to make sure they stay away from my baby. If the tires are that bad, and the brakes do not look much better wonder what else makes this plane an accident waiting to happen?
 
Tire cracking is commonly known as ozone cracking. It's not common in auto tires now, but our aircraft tires are still old-school and still suffer from it. Ozone is present in significant trace amounts in urban and industrial areas, and airports are no exception.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ozone_cracking

GA aircraft tires are still using inner tubes, abandoned by the auto industry maybe 60 years ago. They're still bias-ply, abandoned 50 years ago on cars. They still use felt grease seals, abandoned 100 years ago for leather, and then nitriles. Light aircraft tire balancing, if they get any balance at all, is 99% of the time just a static balance, not dynamic balancing, which is the reason that nosewheel shimmy is so common.
 
Having a tire changed preemptively at the time & place of your choosing is so much easier/cheaper than at the time of Mr Murphy’s choosing. It’s not that you can eliminate all chances of problems away from home, but at least put more odds in your favor.
 
At first I started flying a 172 for my late friend since he lost his medical. First time I saw the plane I said to him that the tires needed to be replaced since they had ozone cracking on the sides and in the grooves. He said was "they don't have that many hours on them!" He was right, they had 9 hours on them in 11 years time! They looked way better than the OP tires though.
The deal at first was I supply the gas, oil/filters and labor with his AP mechanic supervision and he would would provide parts for it when needed.
I went ahead and ordered 3 new tires and tubes on my credit card figuring we would work it out down the road which we did since it was my butt in the left seat. I did buy the plane from him 6 months later and ran the new tires for 4 years and approx 2500 landings while I was learning to fly/land(still learning how to land!). They never aged out but I did wear them out. Still have the plane and am working on wearing out the second set of tires for it.
Tires are cheap, even now IMO compared to what could happen if I stayed on old tires. These are the tires I wore out, I didn't take pictures of the ozone cracked tires that were on it when I started flying it.
IMG_1892.JPG
 
That's a lot of landings!!
I still don't have that many, and I can apply to the airlines any time I want. (I don't want to, but I could)
 
I take a lot pictures for my AP mechanic and my logs. These are the tires when they were new.
064_3.jpg

Found a picture of the 11 year old tire, but not close up.
IMG_21031.jpg

I made pizza crust after I mounted the tires.
IMG_21021.jpg
 
EdFred said:
That's a lot of landings!!
I still don't have that many, and I can apply to the airlines any time I want. (I don't want to, but I could)
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I have about 1250 hrs and over 3000 landings now. What else do you do in a 172 beside practice landing? lol
At first I was flying just about everyday, 27 days in row at one point. Love it still, 95% of the time just my dog and I.
 
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Taoufiq said:
Are these tire finished?
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I would thin so. And, I would expect to be finding a lot of other things - particularly hoses / seals that are going to need to be replaced since the airplane has spent so much time sitting and not flying.
 
And of course I couldn't mount new tires on crap wheels.
IMG_20971.jpg

So they got a cheap paint job.
IMG_20991.jpg
 
I have a “ Demo Tire” which has the tread ground to the “ first cord”.

Putting your finger inside and out will show you it is VERY thin.


In my prior life I was a Crew Chief on a F-100C Super Sabre.

Main tires were normally good for about 7 (seven!) landings.

At times when returning from a mission we were careful to park

them with the “ Bulls -eye” on the bottom.

Then we could head for town and change in the AM!

CONUS only!
 
A piece of thread rod, a few nuts, and a couple of fender washers make a great puller to pull wheel halves together and with a short section of scrap lumber, it’s easy to make a tire removal press. Standard practice for guys with Bushwheels. Totally applicable for tubed tires.
 
Gary Ward said:
Wish I would have seen this 25 years ago when I was trying to get ATV tires off of corroded steel rims. Not fun.
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It will work a lot easier if the block on the tire is really short, about the width of the 2x4 lever. Sand the bottom edges of the block so sharp edges don't scuff the tire.

Various outfits make them. Bogert makes this one:

1689353124794.png

Note the width of the wedge. Three inches, maybe. I have used two homemade versions of this idea in shops. The best one had a curved wedge, attached in a little more vertical position, to fit the wheel's outer radius. Its lower corners were rounded so as to minimize stress on the tire. And its lower edge was also rounded so that it didn't scratch the wheel. You really don't want to do that. These wheels are roller-burnished on their bead seats so as to harden and strengthen them, and scratches reduce the strength and can lead to cracking.
 
Cleveland ( wheels ) and Lycoming ( cylinder flanges) have experienced

failures due due paint on mating surfaces providing a “ false torque”..

Taping off bolt /nut areas is not a bad idea.
 
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