Help! Need nose wheel part

Does anyone know of a nose wheel tire deflector? I will be landing on a lot of dirt airstrips and I need to find a deflector to keep rocks from hitting the rear prop. Do you know what these are called? Are there any STC's on this thing. Any info is appreciated. Thx

[rick bell]

i don't know where you can find it; however if you increase the nose strut inflation(2"to3") and apply prop guard (both) you will receive very prop damage. i land on sand dirt all the time (60%) and this works well.

What is prop guard? And where can I get it? Many thx!

[rick bell]

it is made by "prop guard aerospace" thier information sheet does not list an address or tele#; however i believe i saw it in trade -a-plane. the tip really take a beatting so i just cut back the tornen part and add six or seven inches of the new stripping as it cost around $75 or so. also was just given hellocotoer blade protection which is heavier and i will try that on the next application. you might try the internet for propguard's address

[WebMaster]

Don, I thought I read you were looking at a 336. If so, you can get wheel pants for those, and it will limit the amount of crap that can come off the wheels.

Larry, Thanks for the info, but I'm looking for a tire guard for the nose wheel. The pants you are talking about are not what I'm looking for. My tires are 850/6's to handle all the gravel airstrips that I go into. And the guard is to deflect the rocks that get flown back from the nose wheel.

[Bob Cook]

Don

If you have a 336 there is a possibility you might be able to adopt one.

I am not aware there is such a beast for a 337. Inflation of the front strut mentioned earlier helps.

There are proceedures for takeoff such as getting at least 20mph before kicking in the front engine. In extreme cases you can lift the AC nose off the ground increasing angle of attack prior to adding full power on the front engine.

Most of the damage is caused running up the A/C on the ground. Suggest you have a mat underneath, grass, or ashphalt otherwise don't do the runup. My understanding is the rear engine is high enough that it will not "suck" up foreign objects. The front prop is rather close to the ground which ends up with higher than normal abrasion. Good reason to keep the struts inflated to the higher end of the spec.

Propguard is a teflon tape about 6" wide that you can put on the leading edge of the prop to reduce abrasion. Stones and nuts and bolts will certainly cause FOD.

There have been past posts indicating the 337 has been used on rough terrain without incident. You can see all the pics from o-2's in Vietnam running from plowed strips or natural terrain which was SOP.

Again, I am NOT AWARE of any certified stone deflectors made for any skymaster.

Bob

[Paul Sharp]

I just had to replace my rear prop two months ago due to FOD. Believe me, it is something you want to avoid., I got lucky and was off the hook for about $6000 total - probably more likely to be $8 to $10 thou. most of the time.

No teflon covering would have prevented the 3/4" gouge that was in my prop blade, although I'm sure they're a good idea for average small stuff like sand or perhaps tiny pebbles or stuff.