Wheel pants and valve stems

jruhnke

My '73 180 came with a pair of beat-up main gear pants (stock) and no nose pant. I've been (very slowly) doing some fiberglass and Bondo repair to the pants, so I've been flying without them on the plane for the short time I've owned it.

The tires need a shot of air about every 7-10 days or so (they drop below 20psi in about 10-14 days). With the pants off, it's (fairly) easy to get down there and get a pump on the valve stem. However, looking at some other planes around the field, it's not clear to me that I'll be able to access the valve stems once the pants are installed.

Is it feasible to air up the tires with the stock wheel pants installed, or do you typically have to remove them? And should I expect a tire inflation to last longer than a couple weeks?

Thanks,
Jim

thumbsup

First the tubes will leak down over time, this normal. However, if the plane is used on a regular basis it shouldn't require repeated servicing as often as every 7 days or so. My first airplane was a 1972 180G and with the wheel pants installed I serviced the tires by rolling the valve stem to the bottom, where with a little finesse, you can service the tire. I didn't modify my wheel pants but knew of others that notched out the bottom of the wheel pant to allow easier servicing of the tire. Good luck. Mike

jruhnke

Your '72 should be identical to my plane wrt the wheels, so if you could do it, I should be able to. Thanks for the info.

JimC

You might consider replacing your schraeder valves.

flyguydon

The special Michelin tubes really do hold air longer.

PropFan

I ordered the Air Arm from Aircraft Spruce several months ago, but it was on back order so long that I ended up cancelling the order. Maybe it's in stock now. I'm now waiting on this Valve Stem AdapterValve Stem Adapter to arrive. I'll let you know if it helps.

I, too, find that I have to top off my 180C's tires every 7 to 10 days. Maybe I'll try new tubes also.

Dave Matlock

7-10 days between fill-up seems way too often to me as well. If it were just one tube I would also guess a schraeder valve but all 3 sounds like cheap tubes. They all leak to some extent but Michelin or Goodyear's leak the least. I didn't like the large cut-outs I had seen on other planes (I tried the "Air Arm", it didn't work well and broke in short order) so I put a "locking" type air chuck and a 90 degree brass fitting on a combination gauge-bleeder-filler gun. That required only very small cut-outs be put in the pants, about 3/4 X 1.5 inches. I also painted small arrows around the rim edge that pointed the shortest direction to the stem and got progressively shorter as it neared the bottom. (Took some of the guesswork out of how far and which way to roll the plane in order to attach the gauge/chuck)

JimC

I put small 'air' doors in my fairings, held in place with a pushbutton hartwell latch. I mark the tire with a chalk line so I can tell when the valve stem is aligned

JimC

I put small 'air' doors in my fairings, held in place with a pushbutton hartwell latch. I mark the tire with a chalk line so I can tell when the valve stem is aligned

JimC

I use an android phone, so can't upload a photo to a forum. E-mail me at
jrccea at gmail.com
and I'll send you a couple of photos. Basically, my doors are somewhat ovoid in shape, and when I push the button on the hartwell latch they drop off into my hand.

PropFan

I received the 90-Degree Valve Stem Adapter from CALmoto yesterday and tried it out. It definitely made the process of checking tire pressure and filling the tires easier. Not easy, just easier. Still, I recommend it as an inexpensive alternative to modifying the pants.

Jeff S

When I had the stock wheel pants on the Warrior, I found it was very easy to fill the tires simply by rolling the plane until the valve was horizontal and more or less parallel to the bottom of the wheel pant. The you could slide the inflation nozzle right up onto the valve. It's true I had to get an air tank with the slimmest inflation valve possible but that seemed to be about all of them.

PropFan

Here's the Rube Goldberg setup I've come up with: a combination of the 90 Degree Adapter and a flexible extension that I purchased at O'Reilly Auto Parts. I'm very pleased with it. The cursing level has dropped dramatically.