Tire wear and camber?

Dr. Dave · Post by **Dr. Dave** » Sat Jul 27, 2002 4:22 am

Hi all... I have just rotated both mains on thier respective wheels in order to even out the wear pattern.. I was getting much more wear on the outboard half of each tire and there is noticable (but not yet measured) outward tilt to each tire when the plane is sitting level on a hard surface... I see in the book that camber should be about neutral.. however that is for original configuration... "Charlie" is a 56 170-B with an 0-360 conversion and 180 gear.. I am assuming that the stiffer gear on a lighter than intended air frame means less spread of the gear at rest, and therefor the slight outward tilt of the wheels... Is this something I have to live with or is there enough adjustment in the gear legs to correct this???
thanks. An if I do correct it should I expect any handling changes?

Dave

zero.one.victor · Post by **zero.one.victor** » Sat Jul 27, 2002 5:08 am

Why change it? My ragwing has 180 legs and the same top-out camber,wears the outside of the tires just like you describe. I "rotate" the tires on the wheels like you describe too. I figure I get twice the mileage out of the tires by putting the wear on the outside twice u=instead of in the middle once.
How does your airplane handle on the ground? I think toe-in & -out (caster) is more of a concern. Mine seems to wear one tire more than the other but not by very much,seems to handle just fine.
There's a pretty good fly-in next week (8/3&4) at Orcas Island,Dave,you ought to try & make it. If ya do,look for me --brown on white ragwing N4401V.

Eric

Dr. Dave · Post by **Dr. Dave** » Sat Jul 27, 2002 3:03 pm

Thanks Eric.. I did not know about the fly in.. I will check the forum tonight but if you have any more details I would appreciate an e-mail..
On the tire wear.. I see your point... handling on the ground is hard for me to assess as I have only 40 hours on the plane and this is my first tail gragger... it's all exciting at this point!!
Some days it is good.. some days "not so good"!!
One thing about having to rotate the tires was , it forced me to inspect and regrease the bearings and clean up the brakes.. I had a lot of rust gunk in the main pins that the brake hub floats on and they were binding.. They cleaned up nice so i should get less brake drag..

Thanks again,

Dave

Roesbery · Post by **Roesbery** » Sat Jul 27, 2002 4:37 pm

There are some shims between the axel and the gear leg. They are different thicknesses so you might need to change some. But first take the axle off and look at the shims ( you will probably have two or more ) and try different combinations ( swap top to bottom or fore and aft or rotate ) to see if you can get the desired camber and toe in. They are thicker on one corner and are tapered, not all shims are alike so if you can't get the desired angles with what you have, you can get others. Your local A&P probably has some stashed somewhere. No need to wear the tires cockeyed.
Also if some one can give me step by step guidance on how to scan the power settings fuel burn chart into the pictures section, then everyone with the Lyc. 0 360 could print it out and have it laminated for their own use. Or send me a sase and I'll send you a copy which you could have xeroxed onto card stock and laminated. Charlie

N1478D · Post by **N1478D** » Sat Jul 27, 2002 7:15 pm

Hi Dave, my tires wear the same as you describe. I didn't rotate mine, they were on the plane when I bought it, then, I put over 400 hours on them, lots of touch and gos. My point is that they last so long and if everything else is working fine, I would leave it along.

zero.one.victor · Post by **zero.one.victor** » Sun Jul 28, 2002 4:37 am

Dave,the GA News has a Dwight Guss 360-376-9203 listed for info on the Eastsound (Orcas) Fly-in Aug 2-4. Dave Clark posted something on this site a couple days ago about this fly-in also. You can clear US Customs at Friday Harbor,then a shrt hop over to Orcas. Trouble is,ya need a 2002 US Customs sticker if ya don't already have one & they cost $25 (USD). Good for the rest of the year,though,in case ya got more trips planned. They usually have a Saturday night steak feed and I think a hangar dance or at least a party.
Then,since you'll already have your customs sticker,you can go down to Vancouver WA in about 3 weeks for the 2nd annual Final Fly-in at Evergreen Field. That's a good one!

Eric

Dr. Dave · Post by **Dr. Dave** » Sun Jul 28, 2002 5:58 am

Thanks Eric.. I may give him a call.. I work Saturdays but am then off for three days.. I have been looking for an oportune time to get into Orcas Island and do some explorin.. I flew down to Friday harbour a few weeks back and got my sticker so I'm all set!! The only snag is that my family may want to use the three days to head up country to my summer place near CZML (108 Mile ) in central B.C ... If my family want to go, thats were I'll be..

I should not be hard to spot.. the plane is "Ugly" yellow/tan and brown with a red stripe.. and a decal on each side of the cowling that says "Charlie"

I'll pas the word around the Victoria Flying club about the flyin's.. may drum up some business for you...

Thanks again,

Dave

zero.one.victor · Post by **zero.one.victor** » Thu Feb 27, 2003 5:58 pm

I monkeyed around yesterday in the hangar with a chalkline,plumbbob,square,etc and measured the toe-in (caster) of my MLG wheels. there is an article in the SRAM book about doing this,but I didn't think their method is necesarily very accurate,or even doable.
1) The article said to use a long straightedge across the leading edge of both tires,square off of that to measure caster at the wheels. What if your gearlegs are not symetrical--one is slightly aft of the other? What if your tires are not exactly round?
2) The article said to lay the square across the wheel--well,the tire (at least with an 800) sticks out past the wheel.
Anyway,I pulled the 170 back into the hangar,then pushed it forward about 4 feet. Then I chalklined a centerline from the center of the tailwheel tire (in a straight ahead position) thru a mark plumbed down from the center of the fuselage one bulkhead aft of the firewall. I set about 7" of wood blocking down next to each wheel,laid a 7-1/2" wide piece of metal atop that,against the wheel rims. I then squared down from the outer edge of that metal fore & aft, marked the floor,& drew a line thru those marks. Then rolled the airplane back out of the way,and measured from the lines corresponding to the wheels to the centerline. As near as I can figure,I have about 1/8" of toe-in on the LH wheel,and 1/16" of toe-out on the RH wheel. From what I can tell from the SRAM article,this is within limits ( total toe-in: 0" to .12"). I did all this with the airplane empty,other than being mostly full of gas,with it in the 3-point position.
Any thoughts?

Eric

Dave Clark · Post by **Dave Clark** » Thu Feb 27, 2003 7:55 pm

A neat alternative to grease plates is to put a couple of garbage bags under each wheel. It really lets it slide around so you can measure things and be correct.

wa4jr · Post by **wa4jr** » Fri Feb 28, 2003 2:15 am

Hey Eric, sounds like you are set up nicely for a left crosswind with your wheels toed over to the right! I wonder what your taxi path looks like fro m behind. Hope you don't taxi "sideways" like some of the really messed up B737s I see! Just kidding

Roesbery · Post by **Roesbery** » Fri Feb 28, 2003 3:37 am

Another thing you can do is run a stringline from the outside of the wheels to the horizontal to see if the wheels are tracking straight with the rest of the plane

Post by **GAHorn** » Fri Feb 28, 2003 4:35 am

Alignment should be performed at 2,000 lbs. weight.

flyer170 · Post by **flyer170** » Sun Mar 02, 2003 4:24 pm

Be careful when you change the shims, a little bit can make a big change.
Like to much toe in and then a cross wind landing

Been there done that.
Bob

The International Cessna 170 Association

Tire wear and camber?

Tire wear and camber?

Tire Wear

Tire wear