Tires and tubes for M20B

[stevesm20b]

I'm replacing the tires and tubes on my mooney m20b. The tubes on the main tires come out strait and hit the center cap on the wheels. When you put air in the tires you have to pull the stem out away from the center cap. Is this normal or do they make tubes that come out at a 45?

[DaV8or]

I don't know the answer to this question, but I just had to post that that is one nice looking B!! Like the colors.

[MooneyMitch]

As Dave says, your Mooney looks just gorgeous!  Thanks for that photo.

Tubes:  Goodyear tubes have an indentification of "B" [bent], "S" [straight] for the valve stem at the end of their part #'s.  It does seem better to have the "B" on the mains to keep the stem away from the hub.

[MooneyMitch]

In searching some other tire/tube suppliers through Aircraft Spruce, looks like they offer "90" degree valve stems too. 

[thinwing]

the other question I have is are the wheelcovers original (or just standard clevelands)that should have had a hole to allow the valvestem to poke thru???

[stevesm20b]

I was wondering what most of you are running on your mooneys for tubes. The strait valve stem, or the ones bent at a 90. The ones bent at 90 degress are like the tube for the front tire and has a metal stem. I'm not sure how far the stem would stick out past the end of the rim. I  bought it in April and I'm impressed with the economy and speed. It has a low time engine and new three blade prop. It has most of the speed mods. 201 windshield, cowl closure, wing root, aileron seals, dorsal fin, tail root, rudder/elevator covers, flap gap seals, brake cyclinder rotation. When I flew it from Tulsa OK to NY I had the prop speed at  2400, full throttle and 75 to 100ROP. My true airspeed was between 150 and 153 Knots at 9500 with a fuel burn of 9.3gph. I had a pretty good tailwind my GPS was showing 168 knot ground speed. Anyway, another question I have is about the gross wt. The B model only has a gross weight of 2450. Which is the same as the wooden wing A model. The C model has a gross wt of 2575. I was wondering why the difference in gross wt between the B and C models? I mean it's the same airframe and engine. Does anyone know of an STC to up the gross wt limit of the B model to the same as the C model?

[jrwilson]

I have to pull my valve stems out a little bit to add air on my C.  Probably not a good thing, had a tire go flat slowly on landing.  The tube had a split at the stem, maybe from pulling out to air it up?

[stevesm20b]

I had the same problem with the stem developing a crack and going flat. I installed the goodyear tubes with the 90 degree bend.  Worked great! The valve stem sticks out about 3/4" past the wheel. Did a gear retraction and found there is plenty of room. Makes it real easy to put air in the tires now. And if you have wheel covers, you can drill a hole for the stem to stick through and check tire presure without taking the covers off.

[sleepingsquirrel]

Hi, I mistakenly purchased a 6 ply tire for my M20 B Mooney nose wheel. Can I use it without any problems?

[danb35]

There are those who will tell you that it is not technically legal, since the TCDS and service manual call for a 4 ply rating tire (not "4 or greater", just 4).  I'm not 100% sure either way, myself, but it seems there's a good argument to be made there.  I don't expect you'd have any problems with it in any case...

[stevesm20b]

My M20B had a 6ply tire on it when I bought it and thats what I replaced it with. Never had any problem running a 6ply tire on the front. I have a 3 blade prob so I figured with the added weight on the front it would be better to run the 6ply verses a 4ply.