Posted: Tue Mar 27, 2007 1:24 am
The general consensus among tire folks is: If you fly a lot, frequently, with lots of cycles (takeoff and landings)...use the better grade of tires and/or retreads.
If you fly infrequently with few cycles use the cheap tires. The philosophy is that the high-utilization aircraft will benefit from the tread-wear characteristics of high-grade tires and that retreads will also be cost effective if you have a training or high-utilization rate.
A low utilization airplane will suffer from oxidation and dry-rot/sidewall cracking regardless of the quality of the tire and will suffer premature tire replacements, so you might as well make them inexpensive. (You ain't gonna wear them out so you shouldn't waste money on expensive tires.)
If you fly infrequently with few cycles use the cheap tires. The philosophy is that the high-utilization aircraft will benefit from the tread-wear characteristics of high-grade tires and that retreads will also be cost effective if you have a training or high-utilization rate.
A low utilization airplane will suffer from oxidation and dry-rot/sidewall cracking regardless of the quality of the tire and will suffer premature tire replacements, so you might as well make them inexpensive. (You ain't gonna wear them out so you shouldn't waste money on expensive tires.)