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What tires will most likely fail on tricyle gear plane? Nose gear or main gear

Ignore rolling over a nail that punctures the tire. Is it hard touch down, or side loading that causes tires to fail, or simply age? How often does it occur?

United States

In my experience its been one of the mains that goes first. I’m not sure if this is the result of torque from the prop in an SEP or crosswinds predominantly in one direction.

EGBB

Mains I would say, predominantly caused by locking up the brakes.

Private field, Mallorca, Spain

Will be the mains as they take most of the loads and suffers fast changes of temp. Look in the “Articles” section and look for the article about tires, some interesting facts.

Letting the pressure drop on the mains and braking hard will very often shear a valve stem…. Its worth checking tire pressures regularly.

Buying, Selling, Flying
EISG, Ireland

In 42 years of flying, I’ve had exactly two tire failures, both tailwheel tires, though one installed as a nosewheel on amphibious floats. And, both of those within the last four years, prior to that never.

That amphb float “nosewheel” failure was a brand new tire, but they carry a big load for such a small tire, and I had subjected it to 39 full stop landings in the prior 3 hours. The tailwheel tire was not my plane, and it was worn out, it owed nothing to anyone. A replacement was not possible at that location, so with the risk of the rim, I flew it home flat – and the rim was not damaged at all!

Tires are incredibly reliable if well cared for, keep them properly inflated, and minimize the use of heavy braking.

Home runway, in central Ontario, Canada, Canada

So far I had one tire blow on landing. This was on the nose wheel. Probably caused by hitting a less than perfectly flush centreline light. The airport conducted a runway inspection after our landing and claimed that nothing was at fault, but what else would you expect.

And then I had a mechanical failure of the nosewheel assembly on a Piper Seminole. (All the false “gear unsafe” and “only two greens” warnings I don’t count…). So for me, the statistics is 100% nose gear…

EDDS - Stuttgart

This thread belongs in the Maintenance & Avionics section, IMHO.

That said: without a doubt the mains suffer far more failures than nose wheels on tricycles.

FAA A&P/IA
LFPN
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