Thread: Aeroplane tyres

There used to be a couple of guys on Stradbroke Island who used what they called "bomber tyres" on Series III's on very fat rims. I forget the ply ratings but they were considerable. They could run on almost no air pressure whatsoever. I think a tyre service in Merrylands used to sell these and other odd stuff.

the tyres on one of our trailers at work is an old aircraft nose wheel..

you cant tell its got no airpressure in it till its got about 3t over the top of it, ply rating is something like 28 from memory.

Ive driven a yota on AC tyres great on sand and the beach but no use anywhere else.

What about sprint (speedway) car tyres? We have them on a boom with them on it, floats over anything!

As a kid, early 70's, I did some fishing trips up Teewah beach north of Noosa and a few to Fraser with my father and uncles, a couple of them had access to old tyres from the Canberra bombers. Would stop and change over from road tyres just before the beach.
Not a lot of difference on the hard sand but in the soft sand above the high tide and over the dunes the aircraft tyres would do it so much more easily. But I have a distinct memory of a couple cornering issues with these tyres, probably low pressure. Two of the cars where older series II and one was a land cruiser all SWB.

Used to run 900x13" sand tyres many years ago on 10"rims at 8 PSI you could wander around in 2WD where you would normaly bog in 4WD I think this rim needs a bit off a wire brush (armstrong steering required)

So they sound like the ducks nuts. I like the idea of using the old school tricks and techniques, people used to be a lot more inventive compared to the youf of today!

Now to see if they fit under the 86"...

Thanks for all the replies.

we used to fit them to the front of 2wd backhoes,best thing ever.

Dowlings tyres at Merrylands sold Fokker nose tyres on widened 16 inch Morris commercial rims to suit what ever stud pattern you wanted in the late 60's for about $75 a wheel and tyre .The tyres were regrooved and I think you needed a two piece rim to fit the tyres,they also ran a row of self tapper screws around the rim into the tyre bead as the tyres didn't grip the rims to well and would slip and tear out the valve,sort of a cheap beadlock.