Aeroplane tyres

**Slunnie** · 16th August 2013, 05:35 PM

Originally Posted by gromit

If you watch the Leyland Brothers West to East crossing (Wheels Across a Wilderness) the SWB Land Rover used 900x16 aircraft tyres.
Just had a quick look through the book of the trip (Where Dead Men Lie) and havn't found details of the rims used.

Colin

They're the only ones I've seen doing it. Impressive, but they blew a diff or an axle.

**gromit** · 16th August 2013, 05:45 PM

Originally Posted by Slunnie

They're the only ones I've seen doing it. Impressive, but they blew a diff or an axle.

From memory they blew many diffs but I can't remember whether they were all on the same vehicle.
The aircraft tyres were bald before they got to the East coast.

The LWB used Michelin Sahara tyres.

Just skimmed the book and found a comment about being on their 5th diff !

Colin

**Sitec** · 16th August 2013, 06:57 PM

Not sure of the story behind the 101, but these are Avon Flotation tyres, found on things like Supacat's etc.. I ran a set on a buggy in the UK for a while.. Worked well on sand...

**Sitec** · 16th August 2013, 07:03 PM

Or perhaps this is the look you are aiming for.....

**numpty** · 24th August 2013, 11:36 AM

Originally Posted by gromit

From memory they blew many diffs but I can't remember whether they were all on the same vehicle.
The aircraft tyres were bald before they got to the East coast.

The LWB used Michelin Sahara tyres.

Just skimmed the book and found a comment about being on their 5th diff !

Colin

Funny, I've not long ago finished reading this book again. All the diffs blown were on the 107.

**harry** · 21st September 2013, 06:52 PM

I think you can forget about aircraft tyres nowadays, the aircraft have moved on in tyres, nothing now would be usable on car wheels
They are so strong as now the tyres sit under 100 ton aircraft, so lots of plies and I doubt if there are any that fit a 15 or 16 inch rim

**PhilipA** · 21st September 2013, 08:23 PM

When I was in Saudi Arabia in 1982-85 , Aircraft tyres were an option on new Nissan Patrols.
I presume they were for oil exploration companies or suchlike, as I recall stories of how diabolical they were on road.

They also had a specific wheel to go with it, AFAIR 15 inch.
Regards Philip A

**Dougal** · 21st September 2013, 09:50 PM

Originally Posted by harry

I think you can forget about aircraft tyres nowadays, the aircraft have moved on in tyres, nothing now would be usable on car wheels
They are so strong as now the tyres sit under 100 ton aircraft, so lots of plies and I doubt if there are any that fit a 15 or 16 inch rim

Aircraft come in all sorts of sizes. Not all are 100 ton.

**JDNSW** · 22nd September 2013, 05:14 AM

When I was working in the Simpson in the mid 1960s we were initially equipped with aircraft tyres or similar (9.00 x 13). However, during the operation radial tyres became available, although very expensive, and we found that these were just as effective on the sand, and far better on hard surfaces. (one truck mounted drilling rig came off sand onto a wet claypan at excessive speed, lost it, and rolled 270 degrees for example).

This may explain why these very wide tyres seem to have disappeared from view.

John

**harry** · 22nd September 2013, 06:17 AM

Originally Posted by Dougal

Aircraft come in all sorts of sizes. Not all are 100 ton.

true, but they are heavy aircraft when the rim size gets to be 15 or 16 inch, or fast military jets.
these aircraft have very high landing speeds so the tyres have high pressures and many plies, this makes them almost impossible to fit to a standard type auto rim as the bead is so strong that it will not stretch over the wheel rim, that is why almost all aircraft have split wheels.
the side walls are very strong due to the many plies and most normal four wheel drives wouldn't find any advantage as the strength of the sidewall is such that the tyre will not bag out with reduced pressures.
also the tread pattern is designed for straight running on non driven wheels, so the tread is almost always straight ribs, with no tread pattern for traction.
yes there are some historic diamond pattern tyres out there, but even they have very little tread depth, as now they are manufactured by people for the historic and classic aircraft types, so second hand ones would be useless, new, very expensive.
there are people in aus selling tyres for the ag and mining industry, but these are generally tyres used on towed machinery or very heavy machinery that does not need a driving traction pattern due to their weight.
I do have a pair of 10 inch aircraft wheels and tyres if someone wants to put them on a trailer, but no use on a boat trailer, magnesium wheels disappear in salt water, we had an aircraft drop thru the crust at lake eyre some years ago, in two days the wheels were almost gone!

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