I flew to OGB yesterday so Matt could help me change my tires. He found that the wheel could be pried off the axle, and the problem is caused by the wrong bearing match in the wheel to the axle. He also showed me that the bearings needed to be replaced anyway. The only thing was, that I neglected to order new tubes, something that I will probably never live down. New tires must have new tubes.
So, we determined that for now, we would just use the old ones and I would get new ones next week. You would not believe what we saw, when we finally got the wheel split apart. The tube was shredded from being pinched in the wheel. I can only figure that the material having been pinched in the split, acted as a seal, and the tire had been pretending to be tubeless all this time. We ventured out to find a new tube and ended up at Tractor supply, which was the only store that had an 11X4-5.00, but they only had one, which was probably a blessing. This stinking tube cost $20, and at Matco, they cost $9. I am ordering 4 of them. The reason is: I left OGB for the flight home, and just before liftoff, I heard and felt a rumbling coming from the gear. I wrote it off to bad pavement or piloting skills and made the short flight back to CUB. For the second time this day, I made a relatively good landing, which probably saved me and the plane, because there was a very pronounced rumbling coming from the gear, and as I got the tail down and the plane slowed down, I could definitely tell that I had a flat tire. So, twice in one day, I was very lucky as there was no damage to the gear and not even any damage to the new tire. I attribute that to the quality of these tires as they are very stiff and held up very well. Daniel R. Heath da...@windstream.net See N64KR at <http://krbuilder.org/> http://KRBuilder.org - Then click on the pics See you at the 2010 - KR Gathering in Richmond, Ky - I39
