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LSA/UL "Tundra" Tire request for advice

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Victor Bravo

Well-Known Member
Supporting Member
Joined
Jul 30, 2014
Messages
13,443
Location
KWHP, Los Angeles CA, USA
I have a Kolb Firestar that I'm trying to get set up for off-airport fun, "extreme STOL" as they call it now. NOT "real" bush flying, which involves carrying people and/or cargo. Just "dirt bike in the desert" stuff for fun. I want to do all that fun stuff the guys with Super Cubs do in those wild youtube videos, but I don't have $250K to do it. Didn't even have 10% of that money to play with :)

I just put a much taller landing gear on it to get the nose up for better AoA. It will have VG's, and it has a 60HP HKS engine with a ground adjustable propeller. Will be operated as a single seat aircraft, no need to use the laughable "rear seat" that would barely fit my Dachshund.

The airplane came with Azusa Tri-Star aluminum wheels 6 inch by 4 inches wide. I just got a set of Tracy O'Brien hydraulic brakes for it.

I had planned to put the new Desser Tire light aircraft "tundra" tire on it, which is an 8.00 x 6 tire with an oversize outside diameter of 21 inches. One or two of the guys on the Kolb list mentioned that they had problems with this tire and wheel combination, the tire spinning on the rim, shearing off the valve stem, etc.

The subject of "rim screws" or "tire screws" came up. Apparently you drill holes in the wheel, and put in sheet metal screws so that the sharp point goes into the thick part of the tire "bead", which resists the shear loads when the tire tries to rotate on the wheel.

Now drilling a hole through an aircraft wheel rim... creating stress risers and crack initiators... then continuing to drill right into your !*#&*% tire... sounds crazy to me. But JEGS sells a kit for this, and other automotive and off-road people appear to be doing this all the time.

My instinct as a mechanic tells me that if you did want to run a screw through your aluminum wheel you'd at least want to use a tapped hole and a machine screw instead of just gorilla-twisting a sharp sheet metal screw through it.

Does anyone on HBA have experience and wisdom with this? Can I do this with confidence, or do I create a high probability of cracking my wheels? How does this affect changing your tires, or servicing the wheels, bearings, etc?
 
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