Highflight
Well-Known Member
My experience with low grade trolly, cart or toy wagon wheels with plastic bearings is that the bearings wore out quickly and were prone to melting in extended taxi testing.
We have recently upgraded all of our ultralight's aging 4&5"dia Azuza plastic wheels to 6"dia Douglas (DWT) Alumilite one piece wheels. I installed 2-ply tires instead of the OEM 4-ply, the all up weight of the new larger tires and aluminum wheels is comperable to the original setup. The Azusa wheels served well for the last three decades but were showing their age, the plastic bearing races were very loose, the wheels had obvious signs of U/V ageing and embrittlement.


We have recently upgraded all of our ultralight's aging 4&5"dia Azuza plastic wheels to 6"dia Douglas (DWT) Alumilite one piece wheels. I installed 2-ply tires instead of the OEM 4-ply, the all up weight of the new larger tires and aluminum wheels is comperable to the original setup. The Azusa wheels served well for the last three decades but were showing their age, the plastic bearing races were very loose, the wheels had obvious signs of U/V ageing and embrittlement.


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