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By Korenwolf
#1566298
Afternoon all;

Just in time for your Winter maintenance...we have a new Air Trac 5.00-5 6PR tyre available. Supplied to us by Watts Aviation in 1999, the aircraft that we used to use this size on has been sold, so it's surplus. Make us an offer! Available for collection from Duxford, or we can even send it for free if we get enough Shekels for it.

Happy flying! :thumright:
By cockney steve
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1566445
@Jim Jones said
car tyres are usually seen to have a 10 year life, even if unworn, due to degradation in air.
Are aircraft tyres different?

I have also noticed that. It's a very recent phenomenon. Many cars were laid up on blocks, during the war, when peace broke out and after petrol became freely available, many cars were recommissioned, Bald tyres and those with "canvas" showing, were quite common, as were trackrod-ends retained with baler-twine or fencing-wire....eventually, new cars came off ration and coincidentally, the "10-year test" was introduced. IIrc, you only needed a visible tread-pattern, across 3/4 of the width and around the entire circumference, with no cut or cracks deep enough to show the carcass, on all tyres in use (a bald spare was not a testable item!....Of course, in those days, cross-plies were the norm. If you were young and "enthusiastic" 2,000 miles would remove the tread from a brand-new remould. 5,000 was good for the old codgers. Radials were mainly seen on those quirky foreign offerings ,such as the VW "beetle"...It had a fearsome reputation, to be able to out-corner anything, as long as you didn't overcook it, whereon it would exit the corner/bend facing any way but the direction of travel. that, the Citroen "tin snail" and the Renault Dauphin were about the only ones on Radials, (Michelin X ) which were good for an amazing 30,000 miles....most cars were scrap before achieving this sort of galactic mileage!
I suspect the current 10 -year life is partially due to current high -performance tread-compounds putting greater stress on the carcase, allied with inferior sidewall compounds which crack more readily when exposed to UV (sunlight) resulting in more replacements.
Commercial aircraft tyres are retreaded several times, before being deemed unfit for further service, as are 'bus and lorry tyres. The latter two are also designed to have the treads recut before retreading.. True, rubber does degrade in contact with air (oxygen) and light (UV)....A tyre 17 years old, stored in the dark, tightly- wrapped in brown paper (remember them? ) just might still have a reasonable service-life....anything else , a token value or a static display-piece., IMO. :(
By Cessna57
#1566490
I took a car out of storage recently that had 12 year old tyres on it. Always kept pumped up, no flat spots and plenty of tread.

Hard as nails they were ! Turned into a different car when I changed them. I presume they must harden up with age.
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By Paul_Sengupta
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1566518
Did you try letting a little bit of air out of them first? :D

I like to keep my tyre pressures on the high side as I do quite a bit of motorway driving. It doesn't do much for the ride!
By Cessna57
#1566721
Paul_Sengupta wrote:Did you try letting a little bit of air out of them first? :D

I like to keep my tyre pressures on the high side as I do quite a bit of motorway driving. It doesn't do much for the ride!


Oh aye, they were at the correct pressures and all. When I went looking for another set of 4, it turned out they'd stopped making them, which was annoying. Old cars and modern tyres don't always mix.
By cockney steve
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1566849
Bought an A55 van (pre-Farina Cambridge derivative) some years ago, still on crossplies. The local 40mph bend instantly became a 30 mph ,wallowing, tyre-squealing challenge. Alas, less than 1,000 miles later, it had to go on radials....shoved EP90 in the front lever-arm shockers and it went round on rails. tin-worm ate it faster than i was willing to weld it.