desser 271/2 inch tires on a model 4

I've decided to go and put bigger tires on my fox. currently it has the nanco 21. now the 271/2 is a much bigger tire and each tire is also 10lbs more. so now I have a problem I think and that is my tail wheel. currently I have the single steel spring with the homebuilders special. so the rear of the plane is low. put the bigger tires on and it will sit real low. not to mention, I should have a bit more weight in the back. I talked to John about my tail and he things the Alaskan tail wheel and grove spring would be a nice fit. my question. What do all you think about putting the Alaskan tail wheel and grove spring on along with the 271/2 desser tire. I think it will be a nice fit and increase the weight in the back and raise up the tail to boot.

I upgraded my ABW Tailwheel with the Grove spring and added 3.5". I'm pretty happy with it. I saw a guy with Desser 27" in this river a while back and he was pretty satisfied with the tires. Hope this helps.

Thanks Airfox. was that a kitfox with the 27's

They were on a Kitfox Steve. It's a white Kitfox 5 from Oregon. John the owner said he bought 10"wheels, Breaks and the Dessers for less than a set of Airstreaks. The only downsides are the tube/valve stems. I hear you can spin the tires and shear the stems. John solved this problem by going tubeless. I'm guessing he used some thing to seal the split rim? John was at the last Kitfox fly in but I don't know his name.

I'm using the 8inch rims. no tubes, so It should be ok.
one thing about the desser tire is it last a lot longer on asphalt. at felts we have a grass runway, but like this morning it was closed for a bit, they were working on the sprinkler system. so take off and landing was out. also I have to taxi on asphalt. so using the airstreaks is out. excited to get them on. but now I need to figure out how. the temps here are so hot, I don't want to go into the hangar. then I need to figure out how to get them on. I have solid rims so it's the old fashion break the bead and pry off the tire.

My mistake Steve they need 8" Wheels. I know what the weather is like because I'm sitting in a cabin on Lake Pend Oreille. I've been up here for 2 weeks but I'm headed home in the morning. I'll be working on a little fine tuning on my EFI that I just installed on my ULS. Good luck with mounting the tires. It's hot out there.

Scott

It's hot, alright. Those tires should be about as pliable as they can get right now!

You may want to look into a Tundra lite tailwheel made by Jim Pekola. I personally have not flown one, but everyone that I know that has one loves it. http://www.tundratailwheel.com/

Another thing to check out is the T3 suspension for a tailwheel. A pretty slick deal in my opinion, way superior to a leaf spring. Here's a link to a discussion on it http:// http://wingsforum.com/viewto...49d8a28aa3baed

this is my thought on things. I know I'm kinda going out on the limb here to switch my tires to some big mutha's. with that being said and with the tail wheel. you never know how things are going to work out. how it going to effect my way of flying. I don't know, there is no way to test before doing. I have to go out there, spend the money :eek: and see if I like it. a tough thing to do. so the only thing you can do is ask. see if anybody has done this or that. I did talk quit a bit with John M. on the tail wheel. yes he tried the tundra wheel. he said he didn't like it. strong gust will knock you sideways. you have to apply a bunch of rudder to make it work. kind of like my rv nose wheel. I got use to that and planed ahead for that. I put on better brakes, believe me I use those a lot when the wind is up for taxi. I have the matco brakes and really I want to stay with them, why? I want the 8inch rim for the tires. why? I don't want tubes. I thought a bunch about it. So what does a guy do? I don't have the opportunity to try out a plane that has this system. I didn't even entertain asking Trent to try his. I'm quit sure I would have said, no. That is a sweet airplane, but to get mine where his is, well I just don't feel comfortable going all out on this plane. I still want to keep it simple. I don't fly like a maniac when landing, I just come in nice and slow and stall it in most the time, no bangs or hits. nice and smooth. I like sometimes to wheel land and run down the runway on one wheel or the other. nothing crazy. now I like to run crazy in the air, but not on the ground. so buying a tail wheel assy that is new and I know nothing about is hard to want to do.

I really hope I'll like the tires, I think I will. the nanco's just didn't please me. I do like to land off field in areas that have rocks and dips and other things that could hurt a normal plane. that's why I'm going to the desser tire. just trying to get the right combination so I'm not here and a couple months trying to sell everything for .50cents on a dollar.