Left tire worn

[romair]

Today during my pre-flight I noticed that my left tire is markedly more worn on the outside thread than the inside. With that in mind, I paid more attention on how the right wheel is compared to the left one, and it seems to me that the left wheel has a higher inward angle than the right one. Do you guys agree? What would cause this?

[Andy95W]

Mine is the exact opposite, right gear leg appears to be slightly more "in" than the left.

I've worked on a good number of Mooneys and have seen the same thing, to one extent or another, on many.

Only explanation I've ever heard was along the lines of, "well, Mooneys are all built by hand, so sometimes they're like that."

Never seen it to be a cause for concern so long as the gear functions properly and was rigged correctly (but this is critical).

You can take your tire off the rim and reinstall it with the worn edge to the inboard to get full life out of it. Totally legal.

[Guest]

This condition is common in many Mooney landing gear. I've never tried to figure out the cause, but it has to be some form of manufacturing error. Unlike many Piper landing gears Mooney has no way to adjust the gear leg camber angle. The only thing you can do as pointed out is to flip the tire around to balance out the wear.

Clarence

[bonal]

Just like rotating the tires on your car at least these tires aren't directional..

[ArtVandelay]

This condition is common in many Mooney landing gear. I've never tried to figure out the cause, but it has to be some form of manufacturing error. Unlike many Piper landing gears Mooney has no way to adjust the gear leg camber angle. The only thing you can do as pointed out is to flip the tire around to balance out the wear.

Clarence

It couldn't be the left side being the pilots side is a bit heavier or we tend to touch down just a little canted to the left?

[Guest]

If you place a large framing square on the floor and against the tire you can see the the tire and wheel do not sit square to the floor.

In my experience this is quite common in Mooney aircraft, and is not limited to one gear leg alone.

Clarence

[Andy95W]

It couldn't be the left side being the pilots side is a bit heavier or we tend to touch down just a little canted to the left?

Are you calling me fat?

Or that I land crooked?

[ArtVandelay]

Are you calling me fat?

Or that I land crooked?

Which ever makes you happier

[ArtVandelay]

If you place a large framing square on the floor and against the tire you can see the the tire and wheel do not sit square to the floor.

In my experience this is quite common in Mooney aircraft, and is not limited to one gear leg alone.

Clarence

I notice it has a bit of a bulldog stance, I haven't check if both a equally canted inwards

[chrisk]

I noticed this on my Mooney.  As others have suggested, you could rotate/flip  the tires to even the wear.  However if you are paying someone to do this (hour of labor or so), you might ignore it (and still get 5+ years from the tire), or consider getting them rotated at annual.

 

Personally, I don't worry about it.  When the tire is worn enough, I'll replace it with an AirHawk.  --Which seems to be wearing really well on my left main right now.

[Parker_Woodruff]

The left tire on aircraft with clockwise-turning propellers (as viewed from the pilot seat) will wear faster than the right side due to torque and Newton's laws.

I imagine this is magnified on the left side of the left tire. But I suppose there could be minor angular variations from airframe to airframe.

[Guest]

Usually the left side of the nose tire wears due to application of right rudder on take off.

Clarence

[Andy95W]

Does that work for Australian Mooneys too?