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Big Tires...

I am close to install the whell pants on my 7. I intent to land on gravel/grass strips later and understand that a larger tire (like the 380) should help in that regard. On the other side i hate to throw stuff away and the installed stock tires do look perfect. So my questions to the guys who switched to larger tires: Is it really a noticable improvement during TO/landing on grass/dirt strips?
Kay

Yes I would say it is a very noticeable improvement. Especially noticeable on dirt, but also on grass.
 
Even in the case of normal sized 500-5 tires that don't have an excessive out-of-round condition, I believe the overlap is the root cause for wheel shake. Every time the tire rolls over the heavier overlap section the stiffness of the tire changes and I believe it's enough to cause oscillation.
 
Does tire brand make any difference in shimmy?

I have had gear shimmy occasionally on my RV-6 with the stock tires. Some of you have reported problems with shimmy changing to the larger tires - is there any difference in shimmy between the tire brands in the 380x150-5 size? Or is just luck of the draw as to whether or not you get a good set?
 
TTT: I read on this thread where folks were askiing about bigger nosewheels. Since I'm considering a sportsman I've been spending time on the glasair owner site. I found this thread about modifying the stock glastar nose gear to fit a 5x5 front tire. The glastar and the RV line use setups for the nose gear - I think even the same size bar. Anyway thought I'd post a link here to the changes made. Curious if anyone uses this size nose tire with the 380 mains on an A model....


Also this is one method to raise the nose height from a Sportsman....

 
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