What Wheels to use for 35% plane?

[Chuck21]

Hi all. I have a 35% plane. It currently has White Rose wheels on it. I know white rose wheels are good wheels however..... the white rose wheels seem very hard and not very good at absorbing shock caused by a not so perfect landing, (hey it happens to us all). I am just wondering what wheels would be good for a plane this size that would help absorb an impact from a rough landing, and help keep the impact from transferring through the landing gear to the air frame. Just looking for something a little more forgiving. Thanks in advance.

 

[Jetpainter]

Sullivan Skylite wheels with the aluminum hub caps work great and seem to hold up well.

 

[Bipeguy03]

+1 on the Skylite wheels. They are a little pricey at about $20 a wheel but they are worth every penny.

The best thing is they are resistant to getting flat spots. The ones on my 37% Ultimate sat in my trailer tied down all winter, and after just a couple of minutes of taxiing around the small amount of flat spots they had were gone.

I personally won't buy anything else.

 

[dhal22]

Skylites for me as well.

 

[Chuck21]

Thank you. I actually have been looking at the skylite wheels. That will be the direction I go.

 

[Bipeguy03]

Thank you. I actually have been looking at the skylite wheels. That will be the direction I go.

You won't regret it!

 

[Vern.Smith]

Our tires are a higher durometer ( hardness) than Sullivan or Du-bro tires, and this is intended. Also, a metal hub will have an effective shock absorption rate close to zero. While the tire is expected to absorb a small percentage of the shock loads from the landing gear, ninety percent of the landing load absorption should be handled by the gear itself. If you are having problems with fuselage damage from landing loads you should look at excessive stiffness in the gear legs or structural deficiencies in the gear mounting structure inside your plane. From my experience, all the current ARF planes have to be landed with a lot of finesse because none of them have sufficient load distribution inside the fuselage. In other words they are rather fragile but very light as a result. All in all, most like the performance that comes from the light weight

 

[dhal22]

It's heavier and not as pretty but aluminum landing gear is best for shock absorption. Nothing against the well made and pretty White Rose wheels but not into bling and prefer the softer Skylight wheels.

 

[Vern.Smith]

It's heavier and not as pretty but aluminum landing gear is best for shock absorption.

Agreed, but you will never distribute the load absorption in an inch of tire that you can distribute through twelve inches or so of carbon fiber or T6 aluminum. Tires are designed to provide adhesion with the surface they roll in. Springs, whatever their makeup, are the suspension system and by their definition, the shock absorption provider in the system. I use the term "shock absorbers" because the familiar term shock absorber is somewhat of a misnomer. Any spring (or tire for that matter) has a natural frequency around which it will osculate rather violently. What is normally referred to as a shock absorber actually is a dampener and intended to interrupt these natural osculation frequencies before they can cause damage.

We are getting into the weeds now, use whatever works for you. This is not NASCAR and our planes are intended to fly well and taxi as an after thought.

 

[Chuck21]

Thanks for all the input guys. I have White Rose wheels and they are good wheels as far as how well they roll. The plane taxis around great even at my rough field, and they do well on most landings as most landings are smooth and soft. With that said they don't absorb shock very well on those occasional bouncy landings that happen from time to time. This is my first 100cc plane and the other day I tore the gear out of it. Now I have busted up a few planes in the years I have been flying and it didn't bother me to bad, part of the hobby right. However seeing a 100cc plane laying on its belly in the middle of the runway made my stomach turn (literally). I have it fixed but have not flown it yet in fear of this happening again. My experience has shown me that once a gear gets ripped out it seems likely that it will do it again and again until you rebuild the whole assembly, and I am not a good builder. Unfortunately I started flying in the ARF days and not the KIT building days, so I have not developed good building/repair skills. When something happens which is rare (knock on wood) I usually hope for a clean break so that I can just glue right back together. Anyways I wanted softer wheels to help prevent this from happening again.