Good Year Tires

[iceman]

WHen I bought my Maule it had 700's on it... I wore them out and went to 800's, only because everyone was out of 8.50's.. The 800's were and are more controllable on landing and takeoff and I surmise the 8.50's will do even better when I go up after the 800;s. WHy is that....

[maules.com]

Angle of attack.
The larger tyres raise the front of the plane and thus the angle of the wing in the relative air when taking off or landing. i.e. transition from ground to air or air to ground.
The plane is closer to it's stall speed angle.
The larger the tyre the more critical is the take off.

[iceman]

OH. But they seem to be a bit more forgiving in rollout too... I knew you'd have the answer...

[maules.com]

Roll-out etc is affected by how well the landing gear is rigged re toe-in/out as the geometry of castor and camber changes as the tail gets lower relative to the front of the fuselage.
Roughly speaking, on 8.50s the toe-in may be zero when in the wheel landing attitude with little or no angle of attack on the wings, but when in the tail down condition toe-in will measure approx 5/8" from front to back of the tyres measured at axle height of about 9.5".
This is primarily with the oleo gear.
Wide gear is different in geometry and is partially dependant on how the gear spacer blocks are fitted between the fuselage and strap.

[a64pilot]

In english, the bigger the tire, the shorter the take off roll and the less you have to slap the tail wheel on the ground in a short landing, up to a point of course.
If you watch big rocks and long props, you'll notice a lot of two point landings, but you have to realize that with the monster tires and extended gear that his wing may be at an angle of attack that is greater than you are in a three point attitude.
I believe that the low angle of incidence that a Maule has is one secret to it's high cruise speed. The Super Cub for example has a high angle of incidence which helps greatly in it's low speed flight regime, but also kills it's cruise speed.
Big tires and or extended gear increase our wings angle of attack in the three point attitude which allows flight at a slower airspeed, so you can lift off at a slower airspeed, again up to a point.
In short, once you try the bigger tires, you won't go back.

[SkyMaule]

In this photo, the pressure was at 15 psi. Too bouncy! At the advice of a test pilot that was at JC, I lowered them to 9. What a fantastic difference that made! He advised me there would be no trouble with the tire slipping on the rim with single puck brakes. So far so good! I am really loving these tires. I've landed on some really rough fields, they abosorb a lot of stuff!

[ComputerAndPhotoGuy]

Although not designed for it, how do the good year handle on paved runways?

[SkyMaule]

They "screech" a little. Otherwise they seem to handle fairly normal.

[iceman]

Mark, do they wear about the same as regular tires... I always heard they wear out faster on pavement than 800's or 8.50's. Butch

[SkyMaule]

Butch,
North Dakota Game and Fish has a pair of these on their Scout that has over 2200 hours on them. They are not worn out yet. They are operating off of the Bismarck airport. nice to hear from you.

mark

[a64pilot]

My understanding is they are very thick and will last a really long time, maybe several times longer than normal. I know the 29 airhawks will, I have a few hundred pavement landings on them, and you can still see the mold lines on the center of the tire. I think the blimp tires are similar. I have not run blimp tires though.

[Barnyard76]

Hi, happened upon a set of these tyres in Aus. Can anyone tell me where I can get disc spacers and longer bolts? Will the tubes I am using with my 8.50's suit or do I need to source them also? Cheers
Barn