26" goodyear tundra tire

Glad you pulled the trigger Jay, the Goodyears are a real good all around option for the Bearhawk if pavement is involved.
Hit me if you want, I'll make some suggestions.

Bearhawk Builder said:

Glad you pulled the trigger Jay, the Goodyears are a real good all around option for the Bearhawk if pavement is involved.
Hit me if you want, I'll make some suggestions.

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Thanks Dave

I will be on both pavement and plenty of Utah dirt. At this point it all seems overwhelming.

I’ll send you an email

The 26 inch Goodyear tires were designed for and used on the Goodyear blimps. In that application, they ARE a tubeless tire…..the blimp wheels are designed for tubeless tires. Goodyear decided a number of years ago to market those tires to the fixed wing community. In THAT application, they are used, as Stewart said, with 8.50 x 6 tubes, since our wheels are not designed for tubeless tires.

I recommend use of natural rubber tubes.

MTV

Tell us more about natural rubber tubes? I just crammed the 8:50x6 tubes in there and never looked back. We have six months' experience with them, and other than affecting the trim slightly and making it harder to fuel and get in/out, I have no complaints. We run them at 20 psi, since they are only for "appearance."

Natural (non-butyl) rubber stays flexible to a lower temperature than the less expensive butyl rubber tubes. Mainly just affects pilots flying in colder climates although the natural rubber tubes from what I've seen are of a higher overall quality and are less prone to splitting seams.

Crash said:

Natural (non-butyl) rubber stays flexible to a lower temperature than the less expensive butyl rubber tubes. Mainly just affects pilots flying in colder climates although the natural rubber tubes from what I've seen are of a higher overall quality and are less prone to splitting seams.

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Yes, natural rubber tubes are higher quality. I know three folks who bought brand new synthetic tubes that split almost immediately. Probably a manufacturing thing as opposed to the material, but, be forewarned…..

MTV

Most of the problems with butyl tubes have been the Aero Classic Leakguard brand. They are terrible. They split at the seams with the slightest movement due to lower pressure. 5 or 6 lbs below rated pressure makes a huge difference. If you use Leakguard tubes apply twice as much tire talc (real talc, modern baby powder is now corn starch). Then keep the pressures up to rated value. Leakguard are very unreliable.As time goes on it is getting harder to find natural rubber tubes. Most manufacturers have changed over to the cheaper synthetic butyl although the price hasn't changed. For those who are in warmer lattitudes and like long-term pressure stability of butyl then go with Michelin Air Stop brand tubes. They do not suffer from the seam-busting problems associated with the cheaper Aero Classic tubes. They are very durable and reliable. They are worth the higher price over Leakguards if only to avoid having flats with the associated hassles and costs.

EDIT: Michelin doesn't offer Air Stops in the 8.50-6 size. So Goodyear 8.0-6 butyl or Aero Classic 8.50-6 natural rubber would be the ones to use for the 26" Goodyear tires.

I just checked Aircraft Spruce and the only 8.50 tube is a 8.50-10 in a Michelin. I see a 8.50-6 Goodyear.

Will either size fit?

Do I need a straight or bent valve stem? Cleveland wheels with 26” Goodyears.

Thanks.

For 26" Goodyears? Yes. Holy cow, airplane tires and tubes have gotten expensive!

https://www.aircraftspruce.com/catalog/lgpages/gy_tire63.php

h2oavi8r said:

I just checked Aircraft Spruce and the only 8.50 tube is a 8.50-10 in a Michelin. I see a 8.50-6 Goodyear.

Will either size fit?

Do I need a straight or bent valve stem? Cleveland wheels with 26” Goodyears.

Thanks.

Click to expand...

You would need an 850x6 tube with a straight valve stem. Thats what I used in mine when I used to have the 26's.

stewartb said:

For 26" Goodyears? Yes. Holy cow, airplane tires and tubes have gotten expensive!

https://www.aircraftspruce.com/catalog/lgpages/gy_tire63.php

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Exactly. The last number in the part size code needs to be a 6. That corresponds to the wheel size (6"). If there is a 10 on the end it will not fit the 26 Goodyears. The link above from Stewart is a good one and is the specified 8.50-6 size. I ordered two of them yesterday from ACS. I think Aero Classic makes a natural rubber version of the 8.50-6 if that is preferred for cold climate. The natural rubber is about $50 cheaper than the Goodyear butyl. I too saw that Michelin doesn't make an 8.50-6 tube in Air Stop. That's why I ordered Goodyear. I hope the Goodyear aren't re-branded Leakguard or I will be disappointed. But I would guess Goodyear makes all their own stuff and they are rated as highly as Michelins on ACS site. Leakguards don't have as good a ratings (which makes sense).

I have marked the tire and rim to watch for slippage and yesterday noticed about a 1/8” difference. I’m wondering about rotating the tires so any additional slippage will be in the other direction. This seems a lot easier than disassembly to move the tube a little. That’s also why I’m looking at spare tubes.

What’s the torque on the wheel nuts?

stewartb said:

For 26" Goodyears? Yes. Holy cow, airplane tires and tubes have gotten expensive!

Click to expand...

$200/tube does seem like a lot. I’m wondering whether it’s time for new tires too. How do I know when the Goodyears are getting close? I don’t want to get a flat in the backcountry. I think removing a wheel and tire then repairing a flat will be difficult out there.

Which brings up another question I have: Is it easier to fix a Bushwheel flat?

I really appreciate all the knowledgeable people on here willing to share. Thanks!

If you have a tire with a tube you have to pull out the tube and patch it. Small holes in bushwheels can simply be patched with a external patch. they make a nice patch kit that you can share with friends and cover 3 planes. Real large holes 8 in gash in the tire cannot really be repaired but the tire can be stuffed with moss, brush, ect and sewed with safety wire to get ya home. If you blow the tube on your 185 tailwheel I am told game bags cut and stuffed will last for 20 take off and landings. So If you do get a flat with a tubed tire you will need a way to remove the tire. Wing jack or lever on gear to get the tire off. Tools to separate the rim patch kit and a way to inflate the tire. I always carry a 1lb compressor ON EVERY FLIGHT!! Hoping you won't have a flat is always a poor plan. Tire slippage can be an issue with tubed tires so don't get too cavalier with low pressure. DENNY

h2oavi8r said:

$200/tube does seem like a lot. I’m wondering whether it’s time for new tires too. How do I know when the Goodyears are getting close? I don’t want to get a flat in the backcountry. I think removing a wheel and tire then repairing a flat will be difficult out there.

Which brings up another question I have: Is it easier to fix a Bushwheel flat?

I really appreciate all the knowledgeable people on here willing to share. Thanks!

Click to expand...

I need new 850s, too, and I was surprised at the price tag! I have two pairs that I use for skis. All 4 tires have plenty of tread but all have weather checks in the rubber with cord showing in the bottom of the cracks. That warrants replacement in my book. I have two new tubes in boxes but they're probably 12 years old. I need to see how they've aged in the boxes. Do tubes in original packaging have a shelf life?

h2oavi8r said:

I have marked the tire and rim to watch for slippage and yesterday noticed about a 1/8” difference. I’m wondering about rotating the tires so any additional slippage will be in the other direction. This seems a lot easier than disassembly to move the tube a little. That’s also why I’m looking at spare tubes.

What’s the torque on the wheel nuts?

Click to expand...

More to the point, what tire pressure are you running, and on what type (weight) airplane?

MTV

h2oavi8r said:

$200/tube does seem like a lot. I’m wondering whether it’s time for new tires too. How do I know when the Goodyears are getting close? I don’t want to get a flat in the backcountry. I think removing a wheel and tire then repairing a flat will be difficult out there.

Which brings up another question I have: Is it easier to fix a Bushwheel flat?

I really appreciate all the knowledgeable people on here willing to share. Thanks!

Click to expand...

The 26 inch Goodyears come with wear holes built in. Look at the "tread surface", and you should see small, oval shaped "holes". When those are worn off, it's time. Those tires are THICK, however. With a Cub, it'll take a good while to wear them down to those markers.

MTV

mvivion said:

More to the point, what tire pressure are you running, and on what type (weight) airplane?

MTV

Click to expand...

They’re on a 160 hp Super Cub with the 2000 lb STC. The STC says 7-12 psi and I use 12-13 psi.

I’ve seen the wear markers but wasn’t sure how far down to take them. There’s still some depth left and no cracks or skid marks so they should be good for a while. I’ve owned the plane for a year (I’m new to cubs too) and I think it’s been hangared most of the time. I haven’t found any log of tire replacement since the STC was added in 2006 which makes me wonder about aging.

Thanks, MTV, for the input.

Hmmm, 12 psi should be fine for that airplane, even with heavy braking. I assume you’re verifying that pressure “occasionally”? I refuse to use “hub caps” because they make checking pressures more of a PITA…..I am LAZY.

And remember that a tire at 12 psi in a warm hangar at 60 degrees will lose pressure when you go fly at 25 degrees. So, set pressures as appropriate before you push out to fly.

MTV

mvivion said:

Hmmm, 12 psi should be fine for that airplane, even with heavy braking. I assume you’re verifying that pressure “occasionally”? I refuse to use “hub caps” because they make checking pressures more of a PITA…..I am LAZY.

And remember that a tire at 12 psi in a warm hangar at 60 degrees will lose pressure when you go fly at 25 degrees. So, set pressures as appropriate before you push out to fly.

MTV

Click to expand...

After a month without flying, I found one tire at 7 lbs so I left the hub caps off and check them before every flight. Neither tire has lost pressure since then (about a month). I’m wondering if I got a bad reading although I did add air. My gauge is a 15 psi pencil type and I don’t think it’s consistent. I’m looking for a better gauge. I might have flown it once with the lower pressure - that’s the tire that has slipped a little more. I don’t normally brake very much and never hard. I don’t want to go up on the nose!

I think I’ll rotate them so if there’s more slippage, it won’t pull the tube stem off.

When I mount tires, I air the hell out of them to firmly seat the bead.
Then back off the pressure to where I want it.

Hubcaps: it takes me about 30 seconds each to remove mine to check tire pressure,
and another 30 seconds to reinstall.
IMHO they're not a handicap to checking tire pressure often.

I run the 850's on my C180 at around 20 psi,
I'll probably run my 26" GY's at around the same pressure when I finally get around to mounting them.
They're pretty heavy tires with a stiff sidewall,
and I don't think that running lower pressure than that will make them significantly softer.

I used to run 26 inch Goodyears on my pacer. The right one would loose a one psi every few days so I would start at 18 psi in both and as the Right one dropped I would just let equal amount out of the Left to match (this was before hanger days). Lowest I ever got was 8-10 psi but I was careful with the brakes at that pressure. You could tell the difference between 18 psi and 10 psi for sure. I was a new pilot and no one ever said my landings where soft. I have seen tires staked with screws through the rim. A witness mark is a good way to keep track of slippage. DENNY

Put some contact cement on the beads if slippage is a concern. I've never done it but I've heard of it done all my flying life.

stewartb said:

Put some contact cement on the beads if slippage is a concern. I've never done it but I've heard of it done all my flying life.

Click to expand...

Will contact cement make it harder to unmount the tire? I’ve never removed a tire and after 15 years on the rim, I’m wondering how hard it will be. A little slippage may indicate that the bead will come loose easily.

I asked about this because I want to prepare for a flat in the backcountry. Hope for the best, prepare for the worst! :evil:

I can't say about tire removal but if it was me? I'd put 3-4 small patches of contact cement spaced around the rim. When I ran 29s it was on a 180. I kept enough air in them to keep them from slipping. They aren't soft tires when there's no air in them so I never bought into running them at low inflation.

hotrod180 said:

When I mount tires, I air the hell out of them to firmly seat the bead.
Then back off the pressure to where I want it.

Hubcaps: it takes me about 30 seconds each to remove mine to check tire pressure,
and another 30 seconds to reinstall.
IMHO they're not a handicap to checking tire pressure often.

I run the 850's on my C180 at around 20 psi,
I'll probably run my 26" GY's at around the same pressure when I finally get around to mounting them.
They're pretty heavy tires with a stiff sidewall,
and I don't think that running lower pressure than that will make them significantly softer.

Click to expand...

My point is this: Do you check tire pressures regularly? If you’re running the pressures you posted, you can get away with not checking pressures often, especially if using leak guard tubes.

it’s when you’re running LOW pressures, and particularly in seriously changing temps that you need to check pressures more frequently. And that’s where a few extra minutes added to pre flight, especially if it’s not an EVERY flight thing, can easily get skipped.

Many years ago I visited Kenmore Air early in morning. A whole line of Beavers were securely tied to the dock, idling. Each was manned. I asked Bob Monroe, the founder and owner, what that was all about. He replied tha each plane had a mechanic assigned to it, and that mechanic did the basic pre flight and first engine start and warm up each day.

I asked why the pilots don’t do so. He explained how critical proper engine warm up is with radials. Then he said “When that mechanic gets done warming that engine up, he’s going to work. When a pilots warming up an engine, he has somewhere to go in that plane. I want my engines properly warmed EVERY day.”

If you don’t believe a pilot will skip a one minute occasional task, you’re more disciplined than most.

I haven’t run hubcaps on a plane for decades. Not sure I’d know how to install them. And haven’t destroyed a single wheel bearing….yet.

MTV

Thanks Mike. Shared your comment with my Stearman buddies. Most of us look for 30 degrees C before advancing the throttle, but not all of us.

For the benefit of our new pilot, I think we should flesh out what a couple folks have hinted at regarding the issue of a tire slipping and rotating on the wheel and yanking out the valve stem in surprising fashion when you land someday. Without any great detailed revelation of personal experience, just let me say you do not ever want that to happen. It costs a lot more than just the new tire you have to buy because your instantly flat tire ruins itself flopping around the wheel until you stop. Your "stopping" can involve some un-planned and un-enjoyable associated events. Since I fly consistently from grass strip to grass strip with some "bumpy" river bars and alpine hunting strips thrown in for fun, I truly needed the safety of the "donut" ABW's and the lower-tie-pressure "softer" landings they provided. (It was not a "cool" or "looks" factor to me. Could not care less about that stuff.) But I had kept on using my older 26" tires because they were cheap and plentiful - and all the while, my landing weight was sneaking up on me as my hunting partner sons were growing and our hunting gear stack was increasing. Nothing we could ever do - the contact cement trick previously mentioned - the trick of drilling 4 holes through the bead area of the rim and running a stainless machine screws into the tire bead - were sufficient to prevent the tire slipping on the rim when conditions required lower tire pressures. (It just sheared those machine screws right off!!) This is indeed just all anecdotal experience and may match no one's. But I want to say to our new pilot, that thinking through the manner in which you are going to fly and and how it might test/strain/challenge your wheel-to-tire seal in a tire with tubes if you choose to run lower pressure is a critical deal. It seems apparent that most folks are not really doing the stuff that needs the expensive ABW's and those lower pressures and are thus getting by with the cool looking bigger tires using tubes. That may be you. Or maybe not. Think it through. Have fun. Be safe.

When I worked at Kenmore the winter of 79/80, I got a job
on the ramp to help with costs to get my Comm/Instrument. They offered a 50% discount then if you were an employee. Bill Peters had me come in every morning at 5 am and put in ALL the charter planes that were
scheduled that morning, nothing was left on the docks at nite. So you grabed em with big fork lift; and put em in water, walked em out to end of dock, and "I started em all up" to warm them up, so as the charter pilots showed up, their plane was ready to hop right in and go! Kenmore had a contract then with the Navy, and the pilots had to have clearence to go into the Bangor submarine base. 8/10 planes was a normal morning. I never saw a "mechanic"there that early the whole time I worked there.......... Jerry Rader came in at 7 from memory.
"Just saying"
E
P.S. For any wondering there was a micro burst at Kenmore one nite; resulting in like 15 planes crosspiled up the docks, ( picture of it in the office) Bob Munroe said " they would never leave floatplanes tied to the docks again"....

Update

h2oavi8r said:

After a month without flying, I found one tire at 7 lbs so I left the hub caps off and check them before every flight. Neither tire has lost pressure since then (about a month). I’m wondering if I got a bad reading although I did add air. My gauge is a 15 psi pencil type and I don’t think it’s consistent. I’m looking for a better gauge. I might have flown it once with the lower pressure - that’s the tire that has slipped a little more. I don’t normally brake very much and never hard. I don’t want to go up on the nose!

I think I’ll rotate them so if there’s more slippage, it won’t pull the tube stem off.

Click to expand...

UPDATE:

After I looked in the Cleveland Wheel manual at removing the wheel and saw the wheel bearings had to be removed, I decided doing a tire rotation was not nearly as simple as on a car. So instead I jacked up one side and let the pressure out to see if I could turn the tire and tube together to straighten the valve stem. All it took was a couple of light taps with a rubber mallet near the rim and the tire came loose and was easy to turn. After correcting the worst side (the one that had been low) I saw my witness mark had moved about 1" along the rim with the valve stem now straight. That was a lot more than the witness mark showed so I assume there had been some movement before I put the mark on it. I repeated this on the other tire and applied new witness marks and 13lbs pressure. Since then I've landed about 15 times on pavement with no slippage. I bought a much better tire gauge and check the pressure before each flight with no loss in pressure. MTV is right - I'm much more likely to check it with the hub caps off! I think my problem is solved so thanks to all for the suggestions.

Some wheel bearing questions:

If you rotate the wheels is there an inner race on the axle that needs to move with the bearing?

I want to pack my bearings one of these days. I know how to pack a bearing - my Dad taught me as a kid. Any "how to" advice beyond the Cleveland manual for the R&R?

Is this approved for owner maintenance?

What supplies besides grease (Mobile Aviation Grease SHC 100) should I have on hand?

Is there anywhere to buy less than a 4lb can of grease?

Robert