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380-150 x 5 tires on a -14A

romaja

Well Known Member
I would like to put larger tires on my -14A that is currently under construction. I know Ken at Sky Designs has a 600 x 6 kit for the tail wheel version but nothing yet for the A model concerning the nose wheel. My understanding is the nose fork would need modification to accommodate the 6 inch wheel and he has no immediate plans to do this.

That said, I would like to use the 380-150 tires as they fit the 5 inch wheel. I have read conflicting stories on the forum concerning fitting this tire under the -14A stock wheel pants. Some have mentioned that being the 380's are taller, when you raise the wheel pant the brakes will interfere with the wheel pants and a blister on the inside of the pant is required on the mains.

I would like to hear from builders that have used the 380-150 tires and if the pants had to modified and if so what was required.

Regards, Jim
 
Modifying the nose fork to fit the bigger tire would be the big challenge.
Wheel pants are easy to deal with in comparison.
 
Installed 380/150 tires in my Rv14. No big deal to fit the oversized tires into the stock wheel pants
Can’t tell if there is any performance penalty but I can easily exceed the top speed publisher by Vans
 
I have no direct experience on the -14, but I don't see any reason why it would be any different as far as fitting wheel pants. Yes, you install the wheel pant about 1/2" higher than recommended in the plans/instructions, and yes, you will have caliper interference that requires a blister on the wheel pant.

Those blisters are available from HPAircraft.com (an advertiser here). and are pretty easy to do.

here are a coupe of pictures of what mine look like

wheelpantbulge.jpg

wheelpantbulge2.jpg
 
All I did on my 14A was open the clearance on the wheel fairing to clear the larger tire. The larger tires did bear up the plane better on soft ground. One small inconvenience for us short guys was inspecting the tail because the larger mains and keeping the same nose wheel raises the tail probably four inches. Never noticed much loss of airspeed. By the way I had the supplied tires on first and the wheel pants were installed for the five inch tires. The 380’s fit the fairing without any modification on mine.
 
Installed 380/150 tires in my Rv14. No big deal to fit the oversized tires into the stock wheel pants
Can’t tell if there is any performance penalty but I can easily exceed the top speed publisher by Vans

Thanks. Just to confirm, you didnt need to use a blister to accommodate the caliper interference.

I have no direct experience on the -14, but I don't see any reason why it would be any different as far as fitting wheel pants. Yes, you install the wheel pant about 1/2" higher than recommended in the plans/instructions, and yes, you will have caliper interference that requires a blister on the wheel pant.

Those blisters are available from HPAircraft.com (an advertiser here). and are pretty easy to do.

here are a coupe of pictures of what mine look like

View attachment 30745

View attachment 30746

Thanks for the pictures and the link. I will contact them. I deleted the 5" stock tires from the finish kit in anticipation of installing larger tires. I would like to have more flotation on grass and have heard from a few that even on pavement they seem to feel and handle better.

All I did on my 14A was open the clearance on the wheel fairing to clear the larger tire. The larger tires did bear up the plane better on soft ground. One small inconvenience for us short guys was inspecting the tail because the larger mains and keeping the same nose wheel raises the tail probably four inches. Never noticed much loss of airspeed. By the way I had the supplied tires on first and the wheel pants were installed for the five inch tires. The 380’s fit the fairing without any modification on mine.

Thanks. I plan on putting the 380's on the mains and well as the nose wheel. Is there any reason why you didnt put a 380 on the nose as well?

Thanks to everyone that has responded to this thread.

Best,
Jim
 
All I did on my 14A was open the clearance on the wheel fairing to clear the larger tire. The larger tires did bear up the plane better on soft ground. ...By the way I had the supplied tires on first and the wheel pants were installed for the five inch tires. The 380’s fit the fairing without any modification on mine.

Do you know what the tire clearance is inside the wheel pant at the top? I bet it is pretty darn close. The tire diameter grows a little when it is spinning fast too.

The 380-150 x 5 tires do make a very noticeable difference in handling on soft ground, and even on pavement.
 
I don’t remember what the clearance was, I do remember taping a spacer on the tire and spinning the wheel to make sure there was enough clearance. I made changes to my strip so I returned to the original tires now so I cannot check for clearance now.
 
Not easy!

There isn’t enough clearance in the nose fork for the 380’s.

You might look at a RV10 fork (which would need modifying as well) but you would get an idea what’s required for greater fork depth. Unsure if the 500x5 width used in this fork would be wide enough for the 380 tire. Note the geometry a modified fork would have on ground W&B, vertical tire clearance to gear leg & how that would affect ground handling. The distance between the nose & mains will be reduced as a result meaning a more finicky jerky feel in maintaining a straight line taxi. Dependent on how you change the angle to the vertical pivot may affect castor & wheel shimmy during hi taxi too.

I did the upsize nose tire/fork mod on a 7A & 8A to fit 500x5 by basically re-engineering the original forks -(welding longer & wider forks) as well coming up with a custom wheel pant by over sizing the originals including unique brackets. So I say it with caution that this is not an easy mod. There are many factor that will come into play.
 
You might look at a RV10 fork (which would need modifying as well) but you would get an idea what’s required for greater fork depth. Unsure if the 500x5 width used in this fork would be wide enough for the 380 tire. Note the geometry a modified fork would have on ground W&B, vertical tire clearance to gear leg & how that would affect ground handling. The distance between the nose & mains will be reduced as a result meaning a more finicky jerky feel in maintaining a straight line taxi. Dependent on how you change the angle to the vertical pivot may affect castor & wheel shimmy during hi taxi too.

I did the upsize nose tire/fork mod on a 7A & 8A to fit 500x5 by basically re-engineering the original forks -(welding longer & wider forks) as well coming up with a custom wheel pant by over sizing the originals including unique brackets. So I say it with caution that this is not an easy mod. There are many factor that will come into play.

Well, thats a bummer. I was hoping to be able to upsize my tires a bit for off pavement operations but you have brought up some important considerations and caveats I had not thought about.

Regards
 
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