best wheels
 

I went flying the other night and the grass on the field was long enough that I could not take off. What size wheel would be best?

RE: best wheels
 

Our field gets pretty long at times too. I have experimented with different sizes and found that the best is 3" tires for the mains. The steering wheel on some of the trike planes is 1/4" smaller than the mains. In that case use 3" for the mains and 2 3/4" for the front wheel. I have tried up to 3 1/2" tires but the larger size can cause you other problems. BTW, buy Light weight tires instead of low bounce. 3 of these are lighter than 1 low bounce so you will save quite a bit of weight. If the plane is a sport model or a war bird then I like to use the fancier looking diamond treaded tires. Hope this helps. Fast! :D

RE: best wheels
 

On tall grass, it actually helps to make the nosewheel larger. I'm using a 2.75 on the nose, and 2.5's on the mains on my beater-trainer. On pavement, this would be a no-no, but on grass, having the plane sit slightly nose-up gets it lighter on the wheels faster, and up and out that much sooner. In the past, I've used as much as a 3.5 on the nose of a .40 size trainer, and 3 or 3.25 on the mains to get off really tall grass.

I totally agree about getting the light wheels, like the foam ones. Heavy wheels are a pain. Also, go to a lower pitch prop. I'm using an APC 10x5 on my trainer, and it helps pull though the grass to get moving.

RE: best wheels
 

How bout just mowing the grass? :eek:

RE: best wheels
 

Back when I was in school, a group of us fly at the school's tech park. We didn't have much time, but we did have access to a mower, at the other end of the park. We could drive the mower all the way though the park, mow, drive it back, then go back to campus, or we could fly off the tall grass. So, while we did mow once in a while, it wasn't a priority. The field was also totally unimporved, no grading, no rolling, nothing, so ruts and potholes were all over the place. Larger wheels were needed. :D

These days, I fly off a much nicer grass field, so I don't need the bush handling I once did, but sometimes the mowing company misses a mow due to rain, and the grass gets a bit high. It's nice to not be grounded in that case. :D

RE: best wheels
 

It had just been mowed 4 days before. This time of year in wisconsin you have to mow your lawn twice a week to keep it short. I mowed my lawn last sunday and on tuesday it already looked like crap.[:@]

RE: best wheels
 

Its the same here where I live in Sunny Southern California too. My landlady pays the gardners, and they only come in every two weeks, so you can imagine how my lawn looks after two weeks of not being mowed. Heck it looks bad after 4 days of not being mowed.

Grrrrrrr, think im going to have to hire a gardner to come in 1x every two weeks to suppliment the landladys gardners.

RE: best wheels
 

Montague might have something there with the larger wheels on the front. Never thought of that but it makes sense. The wheels tend to sink into the grass any way so having a bit larger wheel on the front certainly shouldn't hurt anything. I only have 1 plane left that has trike gear on it and it works fine so I am not going to worry about it. ;)

RE: best wheels
 

I'm a big believer in BIG wheels.
3" or more if you can for grass.
I will run the biggest tire I can. Helps with take off and landing and helps me with orientation in the sky.
I have these 4" tall (but narrow) wheels I picked up somewhere that I like and I also have some 3" foam wheels that I also like other than the grease and grime won't ever come completely off.
My 2 trike planes have something like 2" wheels on them that I see a HUGE difference in grass handling. (I'm switching these to bigger wheels this summer)